London Plains Blog: Organic Box diary online

A bumper 4 in one edition. The month of September. I don’t know about you, but I get a much better idea of seasonality by a month’s retrospective. A happy (lazy) accident reveals September fruits in all their glory. Especially plums. A glut of plums picked on holiday (even weekly doses of plums in the box weren’t enough) became the sticky and delectable Zwetschgendatschi.

The weekly scores:

7th September

Fruit: black grapes, Victoria plums, bananas, Worcester apples, pears

Vegetables: round beans, beetroot, Gem Squash, tomatoes, oninon, carrot, potatoes, spinach, salad bag

14th September

Fruit: bananas, peaches, pears, appleas, plums

Vegetables: leaks, green pepper, celebration sqaush, salad bag, kale, tomatoes, potatoes, onions

21st September

Fruit: bananas, apples, pears, avocado, nectarines

Vegetables, mushrooms, carrots, beetroot

onions, sweet potatoes, potatoes, Romanescu cauliflower, rainbow chard

28th September

Fruit: peaches, bananas, avocado, pears, apples.

Vegetables: salad bag, spinach, broccoli green pepper, tomatoes, parsnips, onions, carrots, potatoes 

Regularly enjoyed at a local Turkish cafe for breakfast and adopted and adapted as a quick and tasty supper.

The basic ingredients are:

1 or 2 chopped onions- left cut in strips rather than atomised.

tomatoes – again, roughly chopped,

eggs 4 (1-2 each)

peppers – deseeded and choped

to which can be added – feta cheese (I definitley do, mushrooms etc).

salt

herbs (sep. parsley) /seasoning as required

In a wideish frying pan (for which you have a suitable lid) gently fry the onions in a bit of olive oil – give them time. Add in the peppers for a bit, then tomatoes and mushrooms with a bit of salt and pepper to season.

Give it a few mins. to cook then make wells for the eggs and break them in - crumble in the feta – half to a full standard size pack. Cover with lid and cook gently as if poaching – the aim is to leave the yolks a little runny but it doesn’t really matter.

Open lid minutes later to – hey presto – a fast and delicious supper with crusty bread or rolls  

There are many variants to this German (nay, Bavarian) recipe out there but the basics involve putting halved/quartered plums on top of bread dough and baking until you arrive at a sticky, sweet-yet-tart, cake-come-pudding. Irresistable. Useful to have a Bavarian on hand to coach you through – but not essential.

For the base :

luke-warm milk/water (whatever quantity is right to get the right doughy consistency 100ml plus?)

flour (250-300g)

pinch of salt

sugar/honey (1 tsp for getting the dough going)

dried yeast (1 tsp)

For the topping:

plums (a dozen or more – depending on the size of your base)

sugar (enough to help balance the tartness not overwhelm it) 

cinnamon (tsp or so)

Make the dough for the base by dissolving the dried yeast in the warm milk or water adding a little sugar to fuel it. Mix in the flour slowly until you get to a good dough consistency. Leave for an hour or more (depending on how warm the environment is) to allow the dough to rise.  

Wash the plums, halve and stone them.  Mix the cinnamon with the sugar.

Prepare baking sheet with baking paper & set oven to 180 0C 

Knock down the dough and roll out – not too thick, not to thin – enough so that the plums can be pressed in gently and will leave a nice doughy layer under them when cooked. Place the dough on baking sheet and layer the plums on the surface – cut side up and placed closely together - and sprinkle over sugar/cinnamon mix.  Bake in the oven for 30-45 mins. It should come out with the bread dough cooked nicely through and the sweet sticky plums bubbling nicely on top.  Allow to cool for as long as you can resist.