Similarly, there are plenty of ways the fruit can be used, across all palates and flavour profiles.
You know that the fruit in question is a visually appealing one if a colour is named after it (or if it is named after a colour?). There’s orange, of course, and then there’s plum. A rich, fine-as-wine shade that adds a hue of elegance to everything.
But aesthetics aside, the fruit promises plenty of health benefits. On this aspect, Chef Sagar S. Bajaj comments, “Plum is rich in antioxidants and it helps maintain a healthy heart by reducing cholesterol level. The skin of plum contains a pigment known as ‘anthocyanin’ that helps fight breast cancer, cavity, and oral cancer, among other things. It also improves bone density and enhances your skin.”
So, this way, be it the 2,000 shades, er, varieties of plum found all over the world, or the fruit’s strong linkages with European and American cultures, there’s nothing glum about plum. More so, Christmas is incomplete without plum cake. Plum sauce is a Chinese food staple, while sloe gin relies on drupes (a relative of the plum) for its flavouring.
Similarly, there are plenty of ways the fruit can be used, across all palates and flavour profiles. On the kind of zing that plum adds to the dish, Sagar says, “it has a distinct sweet and tart flavour and is mostly used to make jams or is fermented to make wine. Also, it is dried to make prunes. Hence, plum is really a rewarding ingredient to use while cooking.”
SAITAMA
Ingredients
Method
— Recipe by Raj Negi, mixologist at Dragonfly Experience
Plum Dumpling
Ingredients
Method
PLUM PANNA COTTA
Ingredients
For panna cotta 6 por.
For plum puree 5 por.
For muddled plum 1por.
Method (For plum puree)
Heat the butter in the pan and add the cut up plum, followed by water and then sugar.
Slowly cook it to a mushy stage, take it off the heat, and add the vanilla pod.
Cool the mix down and then blitz it in a food processor.
Pass through a fine sieve and store.
FOR PANNA COTTA
FOR MUDDLED PLUM
ASSEMBLING THE DESSERT
PRESENTATION
SHELF LIFE
— Recipe by Chef Sagar S. Bajaj, corporate chef, First Fiddle F&B Pvt. Ltd