A couple of days ago I went on one of my jogs around the neighbourhood. Listening to my music and lost in my own world, I felt something squash underneath my feet. I looked down and I saw plums. Little bluey purpley plums scattered and squashed all over the floor with their yellow orangeish pulp oozing out. I looked up and saw a massive plum tree just chilling there and staring at me with all its beautiful fruit hanging and teasing my parched lips.
I knocked on the door that was closest to the tree and asked the lady if I could pick some and she said yes. She led me to her back garden and there was another tree there with a lot of plums that had fallen on the grass. I asked her if she had ever used to them to cook or even make a plum tart but she couldn’t care less about all that. I think she had better things to do like taking care of her baby, so she was happy for me to take as much as I wanted.
So I jogged home, grabbed my mum (for extra hands) and a bag and excitedly fast-walked back to plum heaven.
Imagine having a plum tree in the front and back of your house. There’s so much to do with them (which I will be trying soon because I’ve still got a lot left) so I went for the most obvious thing to do with plums; a sorbet infused with the intensely fragrant spice of all time.
I was genuinely surprised at the beautiful colour of the plum mixture after I blended it. It’s a bit of a dark horse like blueberries where its juice is clear and then you bake it in a muffin or add it to a smoothie and the whole colour just overpowers and defines the recipe. It’s amazing.
What I needed:
- A lovely lady with a massive plum tree in front of her house (or just go to the supermarket)
- 1kg plums (after deseeding)
- 250g sugar (caster or granulated)
- 1 litre water
- 9 cardamom pods, peel and grind the tiny seeds inside
- Boil the sugar in the water until dissolved . Leave to cool [Note: you can boil the plums with the water if you want, the end product will be the same).
- Pour the plums into a blender together with the ground cardamom seeds and the sugar water and whizz it up.
- Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a large bowl if you’re not a fan of bits.
- In order to prevent ice crystals from forming, use cling film right on top of the mixture.
- Leave in the freezer for 4 hours or until frozen but not completely; it should kind of look like granita.
- Blend it once again until the texture is smooth then freeze overnight or until your tastebuds can’t handle the suspense anymore.
- When you’re ready, leave to melt for a couple of minutes, serve it up, sit back and enjoy the sweet smooth meltiness of harmonised flavours.
I did consider baking the lovely plum lady a plum pie/crumble with the rest (there was LOADS of it still left after making the sorbet) but I wasn’t sure she’d like it…hmmm I should’ve just done it anyways.
Do you have a plum tree or any fruit trees around you? When life gives you a fruit tree do you make all the recipes its capable of or are you not fazed by it?
on the 4th photo i was a little scared of how it was gunna work but it looks gorgeous…i have a damson tree in my garden so i might try this, even though its kinda bare atm :p, next year its grapes to look forward to :p
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Thank you Joseph!
Oh wow you have a grape tree in your house?! That’s amazing, you could totally make your own raisins or wine!
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well i have a grape vine, but the grapes arent big enough yet 😦
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Absolutely delicious and original ice cream.
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It was very delicious and I’ve still got a lot of it in the freezer, best snack ever!
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Thanks for becoming a follower, I so appreciate it. Funny you should post sorbet, I had a ton of it yesterday using the excuse of a sore throat. It was more gelati but boy, it was amazing.
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Hope you’re feeling a bit better, what flavour did you have?
I bet sorbet has so many health benefits that we just don’t know about yet, we need to get some researchers on it!
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I had vanilla and vanilla chocolate chip. I ate the entire pint. My throat felt better because it was frozen 🙂
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Mmmm that sounds yummy! You’re totally allowed to eat more than a pint of that cos it doesn’t count if it’s for health reasons like your sore throat 😉
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The color came out really nicely! Like you said, surprisingly so. I’ve never much used cardamom in cooking but this makes me want to give it a try! What’s the flavor like?
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I know right! I was genuinely blown away.
I normally use cardamom in curries with cumin, coriander etc because of its fragrant smell and distinctive taste. So when coupled with the plums, it took on a whole new dimension. The flavour was bold; sweet, sharp and tart from the plums and fading in the background was a warm subtle slighty aniseedy mintyness from the cardamom. It tasted lovelier than it sounds!
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Thinking about it now, cardamom does remind me a bit of ginger
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If this is what you’re paying me in, I’ll totally hop the next flight and cook for you 😀 haha
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Haha can’t wait!
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Yum!!! We have a rogue Damson tree hiding in our woods. I watched it like a hawk and then swooped in and picked it bare the second the fruit ripened. We didn’t get much, but enough for 4 jars of super yummy jam! Will try this, sorbet is yummy as I am SO over boring lemon sorbet! 🙂
You should try plum clafoutis with your left over plums. Yummy! 🙂
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I need a new adjective! Its Monday morning though, so I’m allowed to be repetitive.
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I wanna make jam but in our house we don’t really eat things like bread or scones or anything that complements jam but that plum clafoutis does sound yummy though.
Yummy is a very acceptable adjective to describe food, there’s no other word lol
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I love your blog Aisha.. I am now follwing secretly on my blogger dashboard.. you are soo creative and good at this. I will definitely come here for inspirationand well to feast my eyes..
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Awww thank you Joke, I genuinely appreciate it! You actually inspire me to chop off this chemically-infused hair and go down the natural route but I’m not brave enough for that yet lol
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