Yummy Plums

This is not a recipe blog. I just happen to want to share this recipe because I just made it up and think I might not be the
only one who loves it so much I almost cried. 


It has four ingredients: Plums, blackberries, brown sugar and BUTTER. Yes, I know, butter can be a little bit naughty. But it is not evil or wrong. It is very natural and very nice, just don't have it every day. 

We do not usually have pudding unless we have guests or we have had a small dinner and need a bit of extra something. But tonight we had pudding, on a normal Monday night when we really didn't need it at all and the person I am going to blame is the Co-op.

They reduced loads of their fresh produce this evening, just as I was passing after work, and I was rather delighted by their lovely golden yellow plums and their huge dark blackberrries. Both were hugely reduced and I knew

there was a frying-pan back home waiting to get bubbling with something yummy. 

After dinner, which I ate quite fast because I was itching to get back to the hob, I heated the frying pan, added a big knob of butter, about a rounded desert spoonful, and let it melt gently. 



I then shook in a goodly pile of light brown sugar, by eye, about two serving spoons, and turned up the heat ...

... stirring until the sugar had mostly dissolved and the mixture had darkened slightly.

I then threw in four halved plums. These were nice firm plums that I just cut in half, pulled out the small stones, and let them sit flesh-side down in the now toffee-ish sauce, still on a high heat.

After a few seconds I stirred them to coat them in the sticky, thicker sauce then threw in the blackberries (half the punnet, which was about 14) and stirred them well.

At this point I didn't know how this would all turn out, but you already know this has a happy ending because I've told you. I thought it would remain just lightly poached fruit in a toffee sauce but the blackberries really transformed everything.

As they heated through, they released their deep dark juices, turning my golden brown sauce to gorgeous wine red and thinned it somewhat. Turns out this is a good thing 'cos the toffee sauce could have just been a lumpy mess otherwise. 

I let it cook on for another minute or so then decided it was finished and turned off the heat.

 Now what would really go well with this is a bit of vanilla icecream or Creme Fraiche but we had no icecream and our Creme Fraiche was an ancient embarassment so we used some reasonable double cream which was lovely too. (When I made this again to photograph I served it with plain Greek Yoghurt and a swizzle of maple-flavoured golden syrup to cut through the tang.)

I got a small bowl each, spooned in the plums, which was four halves each, then the blackberries, which was about 8 each (they are whoppers) and drizzled over ALL the deep red toffee sauce, of which there was plenty. Then I drizzled just a little bit of cream on, so as not to be toooooo naughty and had a little taste. I really almost melted into a pile of cosy happy warmth but there was more pudding to be enjoyed, so I did. 

I do hope you'll give this one a go. It is so quick, about five minutes from start to finish and pretty cheap. You don't need much of it to feel like you've had a real treat and it is just so completely delicious. You can use any plum you fancy but I do recommend the blackberries as their juice gives something extra special to this pudding. Really, any fruit poached lightly in butter and brown sugar is going to be edible though isn't it! Enjoy!