Helen Graham serves up clever ways to use plums and cucumbers.
Both plums’ and cucumbers’ seasons are slowly grinding to a halt. Growing up, our next-door neighbours had a plum tree that hung over our garden, offering juicy fruit just out of reach for me and my little brother for most of the summer. Looking back, our neighbours Joan and Charles wouldn’t have cared one iota about us plucking the plums. But we would make it our stealth mission to fly under the radar, plonking my brother on a makeshift observation tower (a precariously placed step stool) while I filled my pockets.
Towards the end of September, once the plums began to fall with abundance and pile up in our garden, quickly turning into a funky smelling sticky slime, we’d put on wellies and do a celebratory jump and slide through the garden, literally covered in plum mulch.
Nowadays, as the plum and cucumber seasons come to a close, once I’ve tired of plum tarts, jams and compotes, and cucumber-based salads, I try to look at these things anew before I set my sights on root vegetables for the coming winter.
A former head chef’s voice always rings in my ear: ‘‘tell me something new about the star of the dish’’.
With plums, the point where my brother and I were wearing them head to toe would have been a good time to try the fruit with the second recipe in this feature, where ripe plums are roasted with cabbage, collapsing and dissolving, becoming the sticky dressing for their roasting tray’s bedfellow. The result is unexpected, yet highly addictive. Plums offer an amazing foil for something as deeply savoury as a cabbage, with a sourness that is more pronounced by the addition of lime juice and the slight bitterness of the charred cabbage leaves.
In the first recipe, I share a dish for grilled cucumbers. Only baby cucumbers will do for this, with their thin skin, firm texture and high density of flavour, allowing them to withstand the heat and become, somehow, more akin to a courgette, yet lighter and crunchier. It is a total revelation.
If you have a barbecue on the go, these would be even better for a lick of live fire, as long as you still salt them before cooking to ensure their texture is firmed and they are seasoned all the way through and that you only cook them on the cut side, so not to soften them too much and lose their bite.
Grilled cucumber, fennel, curry leaf and pomegranate salsa, garlic yoghurt
I love tzatziki. I love it so much that I’ve reconfigured it here to make it the star of the show, with a few untraditional starring guests. Grilled cucumbers might seem a little strange, but they take on such a different character after being cooked, and are more able to stand up to bold flavour pairings without disappearing into a puddle. Do make sure you use the baby cucumber variety — it is their concentrated flavour and denser texture that makes this dish sing.
Ready in 35 minutes.
5 Tbsp olive oil
1 fennel, halved, tough outer leaves removed and cut into small dice
1 tsp table salt
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
5g curry leaves, stalk removed
3 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp agave syrup
50g pomegranate seeds
For the garlic yoghurt
300g Greek yoghurt
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
½ Tbsp dried mint
Salt a good pinch
For the grilled cucumbers
600g Lebanese cucumbers, halved lengthwise
½ tsp salt
Method
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan set over a medium heat. Add the fennel and salt and saute for 4 minutes, stirring regularly, until the fennel is beginning to soften. Stir in the garlic and curry leaves and saute for a further 4-5 minutes, until the curry leaves are crisp and the garlic is soft.
Decant into a bowl, allow to cool a little before adding in the lime juice, agave syrup and pomegranate seeds. In a separate bowl, stir together the ingredients for the garlic yoghurt and set to one side.
Lay the halved cucumbers on a baking sheet, sprinkle with the salt and then mix with your hands so it’s evenly distributed. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes, until they release their liquid. Pat this excess liquid dry with a paper towel.
Set a wide saucepan on a high heat. You’ll need to cook your cucumbers in 2-3 batches, but once hot, place the first batch of cucumbers cut side down and allow to cook for about 5 minutes, until they are blackened and a little burnished. Don’t flip them — you still want to retain some crunch and freshness. Transfer the first batch to a plate, then repeat with the remaining cucumbers.
To serve, spread the garlic yoghurt on to a plate, top with the cucumbers and sprinkle over the salsa.
Roast savoy cabbage and plums with star anise, cinnamon and soy dressing
When you roast plums in this way with the cabbage slices, they collapse and dissolve into the cabbage, creating a sweet, tangy dressing. Do make sure the plums are ripe and soft — it is also a great way to use overripe plums, especially when the season is drawing to a close and you’re left with a glut.
Ready in 45 minutes
1 savoy cabbage, cut into 8 equal wedges
300g ripe plums, halved, de-stoned and each cut into 8 slices
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp table salt
For the dressing
40g brown sugar
100ml water
5 star anise
3 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp fish sauce/vegan fish sauce
For the garnish
40g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
15g coriander, roughly chopped
Method
Preheat oven to 220°C/gas mark 7. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add the cabbage and cook for 3 minutes, until the leaves are bright green.
Strain and allow to cool and steam dry in the colander for 10 minutes or so. Add to a large lined baking tray along with the plums, oil and salt.
Toss so it’s all coated in the oil, then roast for 20-25 minutes, turning halfway, until the cabbage leaves are crisp at the edges, and the plums have collapsed and turned jammy.
While the cabbage is roasting, add the sugar, water and star anise to a small pan and set on a medium-high heat.
Simmer for 10-15 minutes, until reduced by half, then strain the syrup into a small bowl, discarding the star anise and allow to cool. Stir in the lime, soy sauce, cinnamon and fish sauce.
Remove the baking paper from the cabbage, then pour over the dressing and toss together thoroughly. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the peanuts and coriander. — The Observer
- Helen Graham is a chef and food writer in London
