Prunes, an almost indispensable component of all Soviet compotes and a considerable proportion of catering dishes, are now almost forgotten. Alas, the overseas kiwi and other pineapples squeezed a remarkably tasty product. But it is not in vain that our people passed a proverb from father to son: where they were born, it came in handy - prune sweets are tasty and remarkably healthy. Rarely does it compare with them in mineral composition, and in their ability to improve digestion.
Prune jam - general principles of preparation
• Prunes, strictly speaking, are seedless dried plums or with them. But due to the fact that dark plums are used for the manufacture of dried fruits, mainly Vengerka varieties, they are also called prunes in everyday life. Therefore, when it comes to prune jam, they mean dark plums.
• For the preparation of delicacies, not only fresh fruits are used, often jam is prepared from already dried plums.
• Fresh fruits must be ripe and not spoiled, so before using plums must be sorted, removing rotten, wrinkled and beaten mold. Ponytails are torn from the selected plums and then thoroughly washed with water, preferably warm.
• Often outwardly plums look unspoiled, but during a break near the bone you can find worms. Therefore, jam is almost always cooked without stones.
• Recipes are both very simple and quite complex. Jam can be prepared only from prunes with the addition of various spices: cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom, star anise or without them. Often it is boiled with other fruits, giving preference to peaches. Often such a treat is prepared with citruses, raisins, nuts.
• Jam can be cooked on the stove in a large thick-walled pan or basin and in the oven using a deep pan or a wide refractory bowl. Dried plum jam, cooked without boiling.
• Regardless of the method of preparation and storage conditions of prune jam, the finished treat is packaged only in clean, dry cans pre-treated with steam.
Prune Jam "Plum in Chocolate"
Ingredients:
• 3 kg of ripe plums, preferably Vengerka varieties;
• a kilo of unrefined sugar;
• butter "Farm" butter - 200 gr.;
• 100 gr. dark cocoa powder without sugar;
• a teaspoon of crystalline vanillin.
Cooking method:
1. Rinse the prunes with warm water, remove the seeds and grind with a meat grinder with the largest grate.
2. Mix the plum mass with granulated sugar. Let stand for half an hour and mix well and set to low heat.
3. Stirring and constantly removing the resulting foam, boil the mass for half an hour. Then immediately add all the cocoa and, while stirring, put the butter.
4. Stir frequently, boil plum jam for a quarter of an hour, then add vanilla sugar and stir well.
5. Lay the boiling prune jam in the jars processed over the steam and roll up the boiled lids.
6. Leave the preservation until completely cooled, wrapping it tightly in a warm, preferably woolen, blanket.
A simple recipe for prune jam
Ingredients:
• ripe, selected prunes - 5 kg;
• Unrefined sugar - 4.5 cups.
Cooking method:
1. Cut the dried prunes washed with warm water into halves, remove unnecessary seeds from the fruits.
2. Place plums in a wide basin, cover with granulated sugar and leave for one hour.
3. Then, slowly stirring, bring the plum mass to a boil and leave to cook at a moderate temperature for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside for a day. Repeat the cooking and cooling procedure three more times.
4. For the last, fourth time, bring the jam to a boil and pack in small jars, cover with sterile metal lids for preservation, each well rolled with a key.
5. Turn the jar of plum jam over the lids and leave to cool completely. Shelter is not necessary.
Prune jam with dried fruits and honey without cooking
Ingredients:
• dried prunes - 100 gr.;
• 200 gr. any light honey;
• dates, dried apricots, dark raisins and walnut kernels - 100 g each;
• a quarter of a teaspoon of crushed cinnamon;
• lemons - 150 gr.
Cooking method:
1. Scald prunes and other dried fruits with boiling water, rinse with warm water and always dry well.
2. Together with walnuts, twist the dried fruits in a meat grinder.
3. Add grated, honey and about a quarter teaspoon of freshly prepared cinnamon powder, grated through a fine grater, mix. Cinnamon can be put less or not added at all, as anyone loves.
4. Let the jam stand in the heat for about half an hour. Then transfer to a clean container with a ground or screw cap and store in the refrigerator.
Prune jam "Plum confiture with raisins"
Ingredients:
• fresh ripe prunes - 1.5 kg;
• 300 gr. honey;
• sugar - 300 gr.;
• 100 gr. raisins;
• large lemon;
• 100 ml of brandy.
Cooking method:
1. Rinse the raisins, collect in a colander and pour over boiling water, dry.
2. Transfer to a bowl, fill with cognac and leave to insist for about five hours.
3. Rinse the washed prunes, cut the pulp into cubes of any size.
4. Rinse the lemon well and dip in steep boiling water for two minutes. Then wipe dry with a towel and grate the zest with a grater. Squeeze the juice and strain it through a sieve.
5. In a deep saucepan, dilute the filtered lemon juice with half a glass of drinking water, add sugar and lemon zest and bring to a boil.
6. Enter honey and continue cooking until it is completely dissolved, if necessary, remove the foam. Do not let the syrup boil.
7. In the cooked honey syrup, dip the slices of prunes and soaked raisins. Add cognac and mix everything carefully.
8. Over low heat, bring the jam from the plums to a boil. Then lower the heat so that it only boils slightly and boil, constantly stirring, until thickened. About 45 minutes
Prune jam "Citrus miracle"
Ingredients:
• one and a half kilograms of dark plums, varieties "Vengerka";
• large orange;
• medium-sized lemon;
• walnut kernels - 200 gr.;
• 300 gr. white sugar;
• 100 gr. dark raisins.
Cooking method:
1. Remove the seeds from the drain, cut the fruits into medium-sized slices and place in a thick-walled pan, pouring with granulated sugar.
2. Cut slices of citrus into small slices with zest. Pour raisins with boiling water, rinse well, tearing off the tails, dry.
3. Add slices of citrus and raisins to the plums sprinkled with sugar and place the container on low heat.
4. While stirring, boil the citrus-fruit mixture for about 25 minutes. When the mass begins to thicken noticeably, introduce the coarsely chopped nuts, mix and boil.
5. Place the hot prune jam in sterilized jars, and tightly seal the lids.
Oven jam with almonds and cinnamon in the oven
Ingredients:
• a kilogram of fresh prunes;
• 100 gr. peeled almond nucleoli;
• 300 ml of drinking water;
• one and a half teaspoons of chopped cinnamon;
• two small cinnamon sticks;
• half a pound of sugar.
Cooking method:
1. Dip almonds and cinnamon sticks into a deep thick-walled pan. Add sugar, pour in cold water. Wait for boiling, then reduce heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes.
2. In a deep fireproof dish, put the stoned prunes, sprinkle the fruits with cinnamon powder and pour over the prepared syrup.
3. Place the container with the plums in the oven, heated to the recommended 170 degrees for one hour. Be sure to gently mix the plum jam three times during this time.
4. After that, spread the hot sweet mass into glass containers and tightly cork them with metal caps, rolling with a preservation key.
Prune jam for the winter with "Zhelfiksom"
Ingredients:
• refined granulated sugar - 1 kg;
• kilogram of ripe "Hungarian";
• one bag of "Zhelfiksa";
• star anise - 3 stars.
Cooking method:
1. Thoroughly wash the selected fruits of prunes with warm water and dry. When breaking plums in two, remove the seeds and cut the flesh into two halves.
2. Add "Yellowfix" and mix well to completely dissolve. Pour the refined and mix well the crushed plums again.
3. On high heat, bring the fruit mixture to a boil, add the star anise broken in half and simmer for 10 minutes with medium heat. Be sure to remove and remove foam from the surface of the jam.
4. Distribute the prepared jam hot over the jars sterilized over steam, quickly, reliably roll up and cool.
5. It is advisable to store such prune jam in a place with a low temperature, or in a refrigerator.
Bulgarian prune jam in the oven
Ingredients:
• ripe prunes - two kilograms;
• a pound of sugar;
• a third of cinnamon sticks or three leaves of the indrish plant;
• table 9% vinegar - 100 ml.
Cooking method:
1. Cut the washed prunes into equal halves, remove and remove the seeds. Sprinkle the pulp with sugar and refrigerate for ten hours.
2. If during this period the plums do not give enough juice, be sure to add at least 100 ml of cold water and mix thoroughly.
3. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees. Transfer the fruit mixture from the bowl to a deep pan and place it in a preheated oven. Stirring periodically, simmer the plum jam in the oven for about an hour. During this time, prunes should absorb sugar syrup well and boil.
4. When the jam reaches the desired consistency, lower the leaves of indrisha into it, pour in the vinegar, mix and place again in the oven. The leaves of indrishe, a Bulgarian plant, a kind of geranium, are completely interchangeable with vanilla or cinnamon. It is also possible to add lemon or orange zest.
5. Darken the jam for another quarter of an hour and pack hot jars on dry, previously processed over steam, and tightly seal them with boiled lids. The output should be about 1.5 liters of plum jam.
Prune Jam with Peaches
Ingredients:
• medium-sized, fully ripe peaches - 1 kg;
• kilogram of prunes;
• two medium oranges;
• bag "Zhelfiksa";
• a teaspoon of cardamom;
• kilogram of sugar.
Cooking method:
1. Sort out the peaches and prunes, tear off the tails and remove the seeds.
2. Peel oranges by carefully removing all white streaks from the pulp.
3. Peaches, plums and citruses cut into medium sized slices. If there are seeds in oranges, be sure to remove them.
4. Grate the orange peel in small chips. In a large container, combine all the chopped fruits, cover with the whole measure sugar and leave for three hours.
5. After the specified time, mix the contents of the container well and set to boil over low heat. After half an hour from boiling, add cardamom and "Yellowfix" to the jam. Use the gelling agent in accordance with the instructions on the packaging.
6. Mix well and pour into specially prepared jars, roll up.
Prune Jam - Cooking Tips and Useful Tips
• In order to soak the plums as best as possible with the syrup, pierce the fruits in several places with wooden skewers.
• Halves of plums will boil less and will not turn into porridge if previously whole fruits are kept for a couple of minutes in a soda solution (for each liter of water, take a tablespoon of soda). After soaking, be sure to rinse the residual alkaline solution well with warm water.
• When preparing jam, be sure to remove foam from its surface. If you pre-drain the plums for at least half an hour in cold water, the amount of foam formed will significantly decrease.
