[CH] Chinese Plum Sauce
Doug Irvine (dirvin@bc.sympatico.ca)
Mon, 07 Sep 1998 19:06:51 -0700
OK Howard, we finally opened the plum sauce that Marie made about 3
weeks ago, wanted it to mellow a little! Actually it is not bad at all
and very close to the commercial stuff...make it as hot as you wish!
Oriental Plum Sauce
About 4 lbs of plums, after pitting..greengage plums will give a lighter
color sauce.
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tbls mustard seed
1 tbls 5 spice powder, available at Asian grocery
4 tbls finely chopped chiles, your choice
1 tbls salt
3 cloves garlic, minced fine
1 one inch square knob of fresh ginger, diced fine
Pit and chop plums to measure 10 cups. Combine the sugars, vinegar,
mustard seed, five spice powder, chile peppers, salt the garlic and the
ginger root in a non reactive(stainless)pan of pot. Bring this to a boil
and then add the chopped up plums, return to a boil, and boil
gently(rolling boil) stirring every once in awhile for between one and
two hours, or until thick. Fill a boiing water canner with water, and
place about 6 clean half-pint mason jars in the canner, and keep the
heat high...ladle the sauce into a hot jar, leaving 1/4 inch head room
and remove air bubbles with a hot knife or spatula along the sides and
re-adjust the head space to 1/4 inch...wipe jar rim to remove any sticky
stuff, and place a snap lid on the jar, apply the screw band until
finger tight, and place the jar in the canner, repeating for all
remaining jars...cover canner, return water to boil and process about 10
minutes at altitudes up to 1000 ft. Remove jars, and cool for about 24
hours, then check jar seals to make sure they all went down, and any
that do not, use right away,and store in the fridge...those that seal,
and they all should if you do it right, label, and store in a cool dark
spot in your cupboard. In our opinion after the taste test tonight, it
is as good(better)than the store bought stuff. We are gone for two weeks
on vacation, starting towmorrow...Cheers, Doug in BC