Prune Recipe

Do you remember prunes? Served with luke warm custard with or without lumps was enough to put one off for life. Yet the French adore them and every French cookery book I’ve ever found has at least one recipe, so there must be something about them.

They are of course dried, dark freestone plums. In earlier times they were dried in the sun, but today they are dried in special ovens where they loose 4/5 of their moisture. Usually, though not always the stones are removed first. The French consider that the best ones come from Agen, near Bordeaux. American prunes came originally from trees planted by Louis Pellier at the time of the Californian Gold Rush who sent home to France for cuttings from Agen.

If used in stews or other moist dishes they don’t need rehydrating, but if you do need to a soak for at least 4 hours in tea, wine or fruit juice will be perfect. Their sweetness is also delicious in savoury dishes, especially with such things as pork, rabbit, and lamb. They are wonderful to add an interesting flavour to stuffing and casseroles. The Dutch add them to slow cooked red cabbage in place of or as well as slices of apple. They are also good in chutneys as in this recipe.

Apple and Prune Chutney Recipe
1 ½ lbs or 675 grams of peeled and cored apples
2 ½ pounds prunes
3 onions peeled and chopped or the equivalent in shallots
2 cups of small dried fruit such as sultanas or raisins
2 cups of vinegar – cider is nice, but malt will do.
2 ½ cups of soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon of salt
spices  - either 3 teaspoonfuls of a pickling spice mix or the following:-
1 teaspoon of mustard seed,
¼ teaspoon of powdered cloves
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
Pinch of cayenne
½ teaspoon of mixed spice or cinnamon.

Place all together in a large pan and bring to the boil. The turn heat down and simmer stirring from time to time. An old trick was to add three glass marbles to reduce chances of it sticking on bottom and burning. When you can draw a wooden spoon across the bottom and it leaves a gap fro a few seconds so that you can see the bottom of the pot it is ready. This will probably take about ½ hour. Pour into sterilized jars, seal and leave at least two weeks before using. It makes about 6 cups and is good with cold meat, in sandwiches and with spicy dishes such as curries.