Plum Raspberry Crumble saves the Night!

Now I have a sweet tooth! I want something sweet, like chocolate. I don't think I have anything chocolate in this house, except for that trail mix with chocolate pieces...but I don't want that. I don't know what I want. Looking around, I spy...plums. Right there in the hanging basket above my kitchen sink. Right in plain site. 

"Honey," I say as I am washing the last of the dinner dishes, "can you look up 'plums' on the SLO Veg website and see if they have some recipes for dessert?" Lee looks and reads off several suggestions while I mull them over: Caramelized Plum-Ricotta Black Pepper Crostini...no, whatever crostini is, I don't want to make it. Sounds too complicated. Grilled Plums with Spiced Walnut Yogurt Sauce...nooo, made something like that with peaches the other night. Open faced Plum Tart...hmmm, maybe. Plum Carpaccio? Nah, not sure what that is. Plum Cornbread??? Oh, here we go: Plum Raspberry Crumble. That's the one. Funny thing is, I had saved that very recipe to my blog back in August. I guess I have been thinking about making it for quite some time.

So I proceeded to chop of a few plums into bite-sized bits, squeezed an orange and got about 2 tablespoons of juice to pour on the plums, searched in the freezer for those raspberries I had frozen a few weeks ago, and mixed up my fruit with sugar and a dab of almond flour. Then I used my hand-held stick mixer with the food processor attachment and mixed up the crumble part. Butter, brown sugar, salt, oatmeal...simple. I put the fruit mixture into a butter ramekin and added the crumbled topping, then baked it in the oven for 30 minutes. A dollop of ice cream and my sweet tooth is about the be satisfied. Thanks for the recipe, SLO Veg!

*****************************

Plum Raspberry Crumble  

Servings: 8 Level: Easy  Time: 1 Hr

Ingredients: 
2 pounds red plums, cut in 1/2, pitted, and cut
  in 1-inch wedges 
2/3 cup granulated sugar, divided 
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided 
2 tablespoons orange juice 
1/2 pint fresh raspberries 
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed 
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, 
  diced 
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats 
1/2 cup sliced almonds, plus extra for sprinkling 

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the sliced plums, 1/3 cup of the granulated sugar, 1/4 cup of the flour, and the orange juice and toss well. Add the raspberries and toss lightly. Pour into a 9 by 12 by 2-inch baking dish. For the topping, place the remaining 1 cup of flour, the remaining 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, the brown sugar, and the salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. Pour the mixture into a bowl, add the oats, and work it with your hands until it's in large crumbles. Add 1/2 cup of the almonds and mix well. Spread the topping evenly over the plums, making sure the fruit is covered. Sprinkle with some extra almonds. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the fruit is tender and bubbly and the topping is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.  

Pork Chops and Plum Sauce

Have plums? Make plum sauce! It was really, really easy, and a first for me. Water, sugar = boil. Add sliced plums, ginger, lemon juice, and hoisin sauce. Puree. Pour onto grilled chops. That's it!



The hardest part was grinding the coriander to make a seasoning for the chops. Well, it wasn't actually hard. I ground the coriander seeds in my coffee grinder. Then I mixed it with seasoned salt and coated both sides of my pork cutlet. I grilled both sides, then put it in the oven in a ramekin to cook a little more because it was a really thick chop. Pour on the sauce and enjoy. Preferably with a glass of wine, but I am taking mine to work in a plastic container. Oh well! Hope Lee likes it. He has to grill his own chop.

Pork Tenderloin with Plum BBQ Sauce (Plums) 

Servings: 4  Level: Easy

Recipe from the SLO Veg website:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar 
1 cup water 
1 (1-inch) piece peeled ginger, grated 
4 plums, sliced 
1 teaspoon five-spice powder 
1/2 lemon, juiced 
1/3 cup hoisin sauce 
2 pork tenderloins, silver skin removed 
Vegetable oil 
2 tablespoons grill seasoning 
1 tablespoon ground coriander

Directions: Heat a grill pan, broiler or grill to high heat. Heat the sugar and water in a medium pot over medium-high heat. When the mixture reaches a bubble, reduce the heat to medium-low and add the ginger, plums and five-spice powder. Simmer for 10 minutes, then stir in the lemon juice. Remove from the heat and let cool for about 5 minutes. Add the plum mixture to a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Pour into a medium bowl and stir in the hoisin sauce. Reserve. While the plums are cooking, put the pork tenderloins on a sheet pan and coat with oil, grill seasoning and coriander. Grill, or broil 6 inches from heat, until just firm, about 20 to 22 minutes. Remove from the grill to a cutting board and tent with foil. Let rest for about 5 minutes, then slice and arrange on a platter. Top with the plum barbecue sauce and serve.

Plum sauce is ready for the beautiful pork tenderloin cutlets