Summer Recipes, Vol 3. Plums,

Summer Recipes, Vol 3. Plums, Cherries, Apricots and Pluots.

There is something magnificent about the genus Prunus. Beautiful blossoms in February, lovely fruit in early summer, dried fruit the rest of the year, not to mention the noyeaux, the kernel of the stone, which can be used for ice cream or liquers (but, please be careful with using them in liquers, as the cyanide can be dangerous if you do not know the exact proportions and amount of steeping).

For me, nothing speaks better of summer than the few weeks that apricots are at the peak of ripeness. The smallest bite evokes a whole lifetime of early summers, with a good part of the day spent at my grandparents’ house, under the shade of elm trees (51st and T Streets for those who know Sacramento). The temperature in the shade would be 100+, but it was great.

My grandparents had a next-door neighbor named Edward. Edward was a classic eccentric: the Christmas tree was disposed of around the time the apricots were ripe, newspapers accumulated, the usual stuff that eccentrics would do if they followed any sort of pattern. Behind the houses on T street is an alley, a dirt road where the Italians would have their Victory gardens (although my family was raising their own produce since time immemorial).

At some point Edward planted an apricot tree, even though he was not a big fan of apricots. The result was that my grandmother and I had the run of the tree in the height of the season. And the rest of the year meant my grandmother’s fantastic apricot jam. So, for me, these great stone fruit resonate with early summer.

Some of the other great uses for these fruit include various brandies. From the Serbian Slivovica to the Hungarian Barak Palinka to the Prunus eau de vie made by Bonny Doon, the flavor of these fruit is well suited to the making of clear spirits. Other uses include the lekvars, those delightful pastes made from dried apricots and prunes.

At some point, some genius decided to hybridize the plum and the apricot. The resultant fruits are known as Pluots, and sometimes favor the apricot, but generally favor the plum. At the local farmers’ market one of the farmers wanted to go home and was selling pluots for $1 for as many as one could fit in a bag. I could not resist, and, even though many of his pluots were overripe and oozing juice, I bought a bag. At home I put the firm ones in a bowl and the others went into the refrigerator for cooking.

Tonight I decided to make a duck with pluot sauce, and that is the recipe I will share (there had to be a point somewhere in this rambly post other than a tribute to the noble stone fruit).

I started by removing all the loose fat from the cavity, and cutting out the excess skin. I chopped this into small bits and put it into a saucepan and covered with water. I set the saucepan over a low flame to render. If you cook duck or goose and throw away the fat, you are committing a grave sin. Duck and goose fat is the best cooking fat known to man. We will return to the fat later.

I sauteed the liver in olive oil and pounded it to a paste in a mortar. I added a handful of pounded pancetta and four mashed garlic cloves and then fried some caraway seeds in the remaining olive oil in the skillet. I added them and about five pounded juniper berries to the pancetta and liver. This is the subcutaneous stuffing (known as battuta in Italian).

I rinsed and dried the duck and made about 10 incisions in the duck in which I stuffed the battuta. I then thoroughly rubbed sea salt and fresh cracked pepper all over the outside and cavity of the duck, and placed a lemon, sliced into about 5 slices, into the cavity. I placed the duck in a baking pan.

I heated a half cup of extra virgin olive oil to the smoking point and poured it over the duck and immediately placed the duck in a preheated 425 degree oven. I basted the duck and lowered the heat to 375 about 15 minutes into the cooking. I basted the duck every 10 to 15 minutes and added a diced carrot, a diced stalk of celery, and a diced onion at 40 minutes into the cooking.

Meanwhile, I cooked the overripe pluots (I just squished them into the saucepan, removing only the stones) at medium low heat. When the duck was done (about 1 ½ hours), I removed it, placed it on my cutting board and covered it in foil. I then skimmed off the fat (which I reserved to fry day old bread for fabulous croutons), and deglazed the pan with cognac. As it was cooking the alcohol off, I added a generous pinch of flour, and stirred it over medium high heat. When the flour had cooked for a couple of minutes, I poured the whole thing through a strainer, mashing the vegetables to extract all of the juices. I put this into a saucepan, added the cooked pluots (similarly pressed through a strainer) and about a half cup of ruby port. I cooked it down at medium high heat, skimming occasionally. After the duck had been out about 10 minutes, I carved it into good serving pieces and covered with the pluot sauce.

Now, let us get back to the rendered fat. When it is done (the sputtering stops), you have two elements: clear, rendered fat and cracklings. The fat is reserved for other uses later (put it in a container in the refrigerator and it will last quite a while, unless you use it as frequently as I use the stuff). I strained the whole thing and put the cracklings in my mortar. I added freshly grated nutmeg, allspice, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper and pounded it with the pestle. I put this in my salad (like bacon bits, but much better).

I served the duck, the salad (forgot to get a baguette today), San Pelligrino sparkling mineral water, and Rosemount Estate’s 2002 Shiraz. I saved the leftover sauce (there is a lot), and will probably use it on either smoked cornish game hens or a roasted pork loin.

Summer is good.

Posted by erik at July 2, 2003 12:31 AM | TrackBack