The Cottage Smallholder


stumbling self sufficiency in a small space

Blackberry and plum sauce recipe

backberry and plum sauceI decided to cook us a treat of pot roast pork. All was well when I checked the joint after an hour and a half. It was simmering gently. I secured the foil under the lid again and popped the pot into the oven for the final ninety minutes. When the timer pinged I was horrified to find that the gorgeous juices had reduced to nothing.

“Never mind. I’ll make an apricot sauce,” I thought as I poked about in the larder for a tin. All I could find was a tin of pineapple chunks donated by a generous client who had got fed up with them taking up space in her larder.

Then I had a brainwave. I could see some plums on the tree outside the kitchen window and had spotted some ripe blackberries in the drive that morning. I would make a blackberry and plum sauce for the pork. The sauce was easy to make and tasted intensely fruity – a good tangy foil to the fattiness of the pork. It would also go well with lamb.

Blackberry and plum sauce recipe (for 4)

Ingredients:

  • 4 medium plums (barely ripe). Small cherry plums (I call these wild plums) would be fine too – I’d use about eight of these.
  • 75 g of blackberries
  • Water to cover the blackberries
  • 3 tbsp of white granulated sugar (you could use less if the plums were ripe and juicy)
  • 1 large tsp of pale soy sauce

Method:

  1. Wash and quarter the plums (don’t worry about the stones as these will be released as the plum flesh cooks)
  2. Wash the blackberries and place in a small saucepan along with the plums.
  3. Add enough cold water to cover the blackberries and bring to the boil.
  4. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Simmer briskly until the plums are cooked (about 10-15 minutes) and the liquid is reduced.
  5. Add the soy sauce and cook for a further two minutes.
  6. Sieve the sauce to remove the blackberry pips and serve in a warm jug.

  Leave a reply

2 Comments

  1. Fiona Nevile

    Hi Annie,

    Thanks for visiting. The blackberry and plum sauce was an off the cuff idea, just for that evening meal. We ate the remainder sirred through creamy sheep’s yoghurt. Excellent.

    I hadn’t considered it as a preserve. Good idea. R&D may take up the challenge – I’ll get back to you if we have success in this department.

    We created our own wild plum chutney last year. It may be synchronicity but only today I was talking with the lady who suggested this recipe. She had tasted a really fruity plum chutney and asked if we had a recipe. I love a challenge.

    The chutney https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=70 that we created was good when we sampled it on the first day. Matured for a year, we are even more delighted with it. Best made with wild plums (small and tart), it is fruity and without the usual vegetable ingredients, so very fresh. Great in a cheese sandwich and perfect with a curry.

    I have also made excellent jelly https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=19, jam and wine with wild plums. The last but not least is our damson gin https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=37

    Hope that these ideas can momentarily stem the glut.

  2. Hello! Thank you so much for your website – I seem to find my way back here every other day, as this year’s bumper hedgerow harvest forces us to ask, “So what ELSE can we do with wild plums?” We are up to our necks in them. Thanks for the Blackberry & Plum sauce recipe – does it preserve well?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags are not allowed.

2,261,839 Spambots Blocked by Simple Comments


Copyright © 2006-2024 Cottage Smallholder      Our Privacy Policy      Advertise on Cottage Smallholder


Skip to toolbar
FD