Jenny named our share Vlad, after her cat. There are four of us in the share, and every
Monday we ride our bikes to the Woods, divide up the produce, and cheers another hard
earned week of veggies.
Today was special because it was the first day of our orchard share. So, in addition to onions,
beets, sugar snap peas, carrots, rosemary, cilantro, and cabbage, each household took
home two pounds of mouth-watering and succulent yellow and red plums—the pride of the
orchard. We sat at the picnic table and brainstormed all the ways to use our newly-acquired
produce. Jenny said a big, fresh salad. Jordan said carrot tacos (what?). I suggested plum
muffins.
We got home, very thankful that we postponed our steak dinner, and decided to make a
pasta sauce. Jordan created a rosemary, onion and, garlic pasta sauce that excited all of my
taste buds. It’s listed here:
Ingredients
-6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
-1/2 cup finely chopped onion
-6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
-1 cup chicken stock
-2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
Directions:
-Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over low heat. Add the onions; cook and stir
until they turn a deep brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic, and cook for 2 minutes,
until fragrant. Mix in the chicken stock and rosemary, and increase the heat to medium-high.
-Cook until reduced by 1/3, about 8 minutes.
-Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti pasta, and
cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain, then add noodles to the sauce in the skillet. Stir in
the remaining butter and Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
We threw it over some orecchiette and devoured it. Seriously, this was an incredibly savory
and flavorful sauce—definitely recommend this recipe
Meanwhile, I baked. The recipe said 3-5 plums, depending on size, but I was convinced
that, since we had baby plums, we needed at least ten. [Note, I forgot to document while I
was baking, so the photos take a bit of a jump.] I chopped the plums and snacked along the
way—they were quite sweet (This is important later).
Sugar Crusted Plum Muffins
Ingredients
-3/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
-1 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
-2 cups flour
-1 tablespoon baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-2 eggs, at room temperature
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-3/4 cup milk
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
-3-5 ripe plums, depending on their size, pitted and cut into small chunks
Instructions
-Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
-Spray or line 10 muffin cups. Put water in the remaining two cups.
-In a large bowl, combine 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, flour, baking powder, salt, and
nutmeg. Set aside.
-In another large bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla, milk, and melted butter. (Make sure the
melted butter is cool before you add it.)
-Fold the egg mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula. Divide the batter evenly.
Divide one half of the batter evenly among the 10 lined muffin cups.
-Add a layer of plum pieces to each.
-Divide the remaining half of the batter over the layer of plums.
-Combine the remaining 2 tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle over
the muffins.
-Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the muffins
comes out clean. Leave to cool in the muffin tin for 5 to 10 minutes before removing from tin
and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Everything went pretty smoothly, but it was odd that the recipe only made enough batter for
ten muffins when most pans hold twelve. Also, I didn’t measure out half of the batter, as it
suggested, so the tops of my muffins were a bit sparse. The muffins turned out okay. They
are really beautiful, but they consistency is a bit dry, and the plums are super sour. We think
maybe the sugar from the plums caramelized, or something. Does that happen? Also, Jordan
found a pit in his muffin—oops.
Southside CSA 