Each morning I run into Piopio from Struan Farm to check the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand. It's part of my job as the official stand manager. I usually take some surplus herbs, fruit or veg from the gardens to contribute since it's amazing how quickly things turn over in the stand. But at this time of the year there's heaps of fresh fruit and veg grown in local gardens and orchards on offer.
One day this week I found a box of what I thought were grapes, but was informed by sister-in-law Anna that they were, in fact, damson plums. Now I don't normally take much if anything from the Community Stand given how much we grow ourselves here at Struan Farm. Every so often a scallopini or a lemon, maybe. But I was sufficiently intrigued by the prospect of playing with damsons that I grabbed the box. There's an air of mystery surrounding damsons; they are coveted, have rather a cult following amongst foodies. I wanted to understand why.
Once home I did some research, and decided to try making damson curd and damson jam that first day. For the curd I used the recipe that's linked, but I added sprinkles of cinnamon, ginger and whole cloves (2) inspired by another recipe I came across. The damsons are softly cooked in a small amount of water then put through a sieve. I used my old fashioned food mill, which saved considerable time and effort. It's similar to what my mother used to make homemade apple sauce when I was growing up and a handy thing to have around.
The puree is then put into a glass bowl on the stove over a pot with gently boiling water (this is called a "bain marie," you could use a double boiler instead if you have one) with butter, the spices and caster sugar. Once the butter has melted beaten eggs are whisked into the mixture, which is then continuously stirred until thick. Like lemon or any other fruit curd the trick is to keep the heat low and consistent, and to keep stirring, so the eggs don't scramble. It took me about twenty minutes until the curd was thick enough to coat the back of the wooden spoon.
The hint of spice adds interesting flavour to the curd. The colour is a bit different from the vibrant puree, but it tastes good. It lasts for two weeks in sealed jars in the fridge.
Then it was on to the "jam." I don't know if what I've made can technically be called jam, since I used the milled puree rather than whole fruit. Be that as it may, I weighed the puree and with 880 grams used an equivalent amount of sugar, rather standard fare in jam making. I added the same spice combination as above since it tasted so good. I may very well just call it "Spiced Damson Something" and leave it at that. I ended up with five jars.
Next comes "damson and rosemary cheese" from "The Modern Preserver," but that's for another day since it's time consuming a la fruit paste. Think I have just enough fruit left for that!
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