Plum is a sunny fruit, useful, generous for vitamins. Has a positive effect on the human body. In the cold winter evenings there is not enough summer fruit, so delicious and useful. Therefore, during the harvest season it is necessary to have time to prepare plums for the winter.
Plum preparation methods for the winter
- Drying
- Freezing
- Marinating
- Compote
- Jam
- Mashed fruit
There are several ways to preserve fruits for a long time. Depending on the desired result, plums can be frozen or dried, cooked compote or jam, and you can go more extravagant way and marinate the fruits. After all, plums can be added not only to desserts, but also to meat, fish dishes or salads.
Drying
In dried plums, a lot of vitamins and trace elements. Ideal option for drying are varieties with high sugar and pectin content. Selected specimens with dense pulp, fully ripened. The stone should be easily removed when pressed.
After careful selection and removal of pits, plums must be blanched. Dip them first for a couple of minutes in boiling water, and then into a cold one. Put on a flat surface and remove excess moisture with a paper towel. To give the plum a beautiful shiny-black look will help soaking for 5 minutes in a syrup consisting of honey and water in a 1: 2 ratio.
You can dry plums in many ways.
- In the sun. Dry fruit can be on plywood or a baking sheet, having covered it with paper. It will take from 2 to 3 weeks. You need to rotate instances several times a day. At night plums need to be brought into the house, and in the morning again exposed under the sun.
- Gas or electric oven. Plum halves are laid out on a baking sheet in one layer. With 50gr. With fruit dried for 3 hours. During this time, the plum needs to be turned 2 times. The temperature is increased to 70 gr. C and left in the oven for another 1.5 hours. The plum should be dried at home for 3-4 days.
- Electric Dryer. The plum is placed on the special grates of the electric dryer upwards with the flesh. Set the temperature at 45 ° C.Close the lid. First, the drying lasts 3-4 hours. From time to time, you need to change the grids in places. Between the drying stages, you need to take breaks at 5 o'clock, in order to avoid the secretion of juice. The second stage of drying takes 6 hours at a temperature of 65C.Third: 5 hours at 70 ° C.
You can check the drains by pressing on them. No liquid should be released. The product is elastic, one-piece, it does not dissolve in the hands. Keep the workpiece in a glass container or ceramic, in a cool place. Such dried fruits can be used in the preparation of meat dishes, as well as as an additive to baking.
Freezing
One of the easiest ways to prepare plums for the winter is to freeze. The main secret of the successful preservation of the product is the right choice of fruit. Plums should be with a thick skin, with a lot of sucrose in the composition and easily detachable bone.
Fruits are well washed under running water, remove the stone, if necessary, and dry with a tissue. Spread in a bag or container necessarily in one layer. Send it for 2 hours to the freezer.
When plums frost, they can be placed in one bag or shape. In winter, they will be easily separated from each other. You can store fruit in this way for six months.
After defrosting the plums do not lose their shape. The taste is natural, which immediately recalls the summer. The useful properties of the product are preserved.
From frozen plums you can prepare compote, add to the cake or make a dessert. For baby food, this option is ideal. Defrosted fruit can be added to the porridge or mashed.
Marinating
Plums perfectly match with meat. Therefore, they are often used as a piquant addition to the preparation of meat dishes. Also they are added to salads. You can also enjoy fruit in the winter, if you prepare them from the summer by the way of pickling.
- Select plums are washed, punctured with a toothpick from different sides and dried.
- Prepare marinade: 9% vinegar( 250 ml) is mixed with sugar( 1.2 kg).Add peas of black pepper, cloves and bay leaf to taste. Marinade is dense and a little bit, but then it will become much more at the expense of juice, which will drain plums.
- The mixture is boiled.
- Plums pour hot marinade, cover with a lid and insist the night on the table.
- In the morning the marinade is drained, boiled again, poured on top of the plums. And so it repeats 3 days in a row.
- Then the cans are prepared, sterilized, they contain fruits with marinade. The billet goes to a cool place.
Pickled plums will be the opening on the festive table. The only drawback to the way of pickling is the availability of vinegar in the recipe. To small children and people with gastrointestinal diseases such dishes are contraindicated.
Compote from plums for the winter
What could be better than a tasty and healthy home compote on a winter evening? He can cheer up, cheer up, remind about summer. Such a bright and beautiful, it's the place on the festive table. Prepare it simply, you just have to follow some rules.
- Select plums need to be washed, divided in half and removed bones.
- Fruits are poured into cans. They should occupy half the volume of the container. Pour boiling water and insist 15 minutes.
- Water is poured into a saucepan, sugar is added to taste. The liquid should boil, and the sugar dissolve.
- The resulting syrup is poured into cans. Cover with covers and stand for 10 minutes.
- Then again boil the liquid in a saucepan, without draining. Then the fruit is poured into the mixture, rolled up with lids.
- Banks turn upside down and leave to cool. Clean in a cool place.
Plum jam
Many consider jam as the most delicious prune plum for the winter. It is useful such a jar as an addition to baking, decoration of pies, and just a snack with tea. Jam is not difficult to cook, and how much joy it will bring in the winter cold!
You can add a variety of products to plum jam, which will make it even more original and tasty. So, an excellent combination is a fruit with chocolate.
- First washed and peeled plums( 2 kg) are covered in a cup and mixed with sugar( 500 g).Leave for 24 hours to start to stand out juice.
- The next day, add sugar( 500 g), cocoa powder( 40 g) and vanilla sugar( 50 g).Fruit gently mix and put on a slow fire for an hour. The time of preparation of the jam will depend on the maturity of the specimens. Ripe plum is brewed very quickly.
- Hot jam immediately poured into cans, previously sterilized, and closed with lids.
In the presence of such wonderful helpers in the kitchen, like a bread maker or a multivarker, the process of making jams becomes even easier. All components are simultaneously pawned in the bowl, the "Jam" mode is selected for the bread maker, and "Quenching" for the multivarker.
Jam is a favorite way of harvesting plums. First of all because of its stunning taste, in the second, because of the simplicity of the cooking technique itself. But it must be remembered that a large amount of sugar is included in the finished product, it can not be called dietary. If you choose sweet varieties of plum, then you can completely abandon the sugar. Such jam will have a pleasant sourness, which is suitable for baking or any other dessert.
Puree
At home, it is very easy to cook plum puree. For children this is the most delicious and useful treat, which contains only natural ingredients. Great for complementary foods. Also, mashed potatoes can be used as an additive to cereal.
- Plums are divided into halves, bones are removed. Fruits are washed well with water and loaded into a comfortable large cup.
- Fill with water and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Plums recline on a noisy or sieve, grind over.
- The finished liquid mashed potatoes are boiled again for 5 minutes and rolled into cans. Send to the refrigerator until winter.
Recipe does not require the addition of starch, the plum itself has excellent qualities of thickener. Having stayed in the bank, such puree will become thicker. Its nice and easy to eat with a spoon.