Mirabelle Plum Jam with Akakies Wine

We have a Mirabelle Plum tree in the garden..well we had many plum trees years ago.

One grew, produced fruit, we ate it and threw the seeds in the garden and we had many in the end.

As we didn’t water them at all the first one died after 6 or 7 years and we ended up with just the one…

I have a photo from my childhood with my mother and younger brother underneath the Plum tree in the front garden’s parterre on one 25th of March (Independence from the Turks day) when it was in full bloom and we had returned from the parade on the main street wearing our little jackets our mother had made….

Of course I won’t be posting that picture as I’m not completely mad but just thought I would share that with you…

Anyway.. we have a plum tree. It’s not that big…5-6 years old only and how it survived the renovations covered in sand and dust I don’t know.. it produces very tasty plums although they were a little damaged this year by a freak hail storm in May so were a little beaten up.

My brother collected them all as the fruit was causing the branches to lean over covering the path and gave then to me to make a jam. And I took them…and I left them for 5 days to ripen well and when we got back from our trip to Mani I said I would make the jam.

Generally it’s not the most interesting fruit or all that tasty..well they have a taste but it’s not very strong.. it’s a little boring and it’s OK to cut them from the tree and eat them but that’s about it..

If you make jam from it, it loses it’s flavour unless you add something to lift it up a bit..

I knew from previous attempts that if you leave the peel on they get a lovely rose colour like a pomegranate. A colour I like a lot. So I decided to leave the peel on them.

I was thinking after cooking the evening meal as I was putting the fruit into the pan with the sugar ….what else I should add to it and was wondering what, as I knew I didn’t have any lemons left..

I was holding a glass of Akakies Rose wine from Kir Yanni in my hand that was left over from the roast chicken and potatoes we had had for dinner and without too much thought threw it into the pan with the fruit…

Rose wine, goes with the colour, sour, sweet and aromatic..it’ll go very well with the plums I thought..

Robert saw me do this and rolled his eyes…there goes a glass of good wine he was thinking especially as he doesn’t like plums half as much as Akakies wine.. I smiled…we’ll see..who knows what we’ll see…

I have known about Akaies wine for years and was introduced to it by my friend Angeliki Ikonomou. I first had it at her house when Rose wine was not very popular.. and I was a little blasé in the beginning..Rose wine..as if

In the end I grew to love it and have drunk it ever since,,

Many years ago I went to the Kir Yanni Winery near Florina..they had just started out and were receiving guests.. I have some photos somewhere I should dig them out.. it was a great trip through the wineries of northern Greece..anyway

The jam turned out really well… today I tried it out with bread and butter.. I gave a jar to my brother who lives next door.. I only got three jars out of all the plums…

Diffuculty: 1 of 3

Duration:15 minutes boiling time και 24 hours wait

Serves:3 small jars

Ingredients

800gr (about) Mirabelle plums well ripened and sweet

Sugar (as much as you need)

One glass of Akakies Rose Wine from Kir Yanni Winery

Method

This is not a typical recipe.

Wash the fruit well.

In a pan break apart the plums with your hands and remove their seeds. You will make a mess but it doesn’t matter.

Cover the fruit with sugar the amount depends on you.. about half the amount of the weight of the fruit.

Put in the wine and stir it all up with your hands (wear gloves if you need to)

Try the liquid.. if it’s a little sour add more sugar. Try it again repeat the process until it is as sweet as you like personally.

When you achieve the sweetness you require put the pan on the heat and boil the contents. When it has boiled and the sugar has dissolved turn off the heat and leave the mixture in the pan overnight.

You would normally put it in the fridge but I forgot and left it out..it had started to thicken the next day and was a little sour but I liked it.

Boil it again on a high heat.

Skim the top if necessary.

Put the mixture in the blender to dissolve the peel in the jam. Continue to boil until it thickens. It took me a little more than

15 mins…if you have a larger amount it will take longer.

Put the mixture once ready into jars and keep in the fridge.