Plum and Tomato Sauce for Winter

Name: Plum and Tomato Sauce: Homemade Plum Ketchup for Winter
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: Caucasian cuisine
Ingredients: Blue plums 0.5 kg; Ripe tomatoes 0.5 kg; Chili peppers 1–2; Garlic 1 head; Sugar 1–2 tsp (5–9 g); Ground coriander ½ tsp; Sweet paprika ½ tsp; Salt, black pepper to taste; Wine vinegar as needed

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We make plum sauce, store it in small jars and use it all winter. It comes out thick and pleasantly tart, so it works with grilled meat and shashlik, with oily fish and even as the sour base for kharcho soup. Besides plums, we add ripe tomatoes, chili, garlic and spices, often in different proportions.

Sauces are generally considered liquid additions to dishes, usually main courses or sides, that make them juicier and more nourishing. They contain spices and ingredients whose flavors bring out the main flavor of the dish. For example, sour cream with syrniki or potato pancakes is almost a must when serving, just like tomato ketchup or an adjika-based sauce with meat.

Cooking makes wide use of sauces based on fruit and vegetable pulp, cooked or raw. A fresh plum and tomato sauce made without heating is like a Mexican salsa, but it hardly keeps at all and is made right before using. Sometimes you’ll come across salad-like fruit and vegetable mixtures used as a sauce or condiment.

In tkemali sauce for meat and kharcho soup, cherry plums (tkemali) are often replaced with plums. Plum tkemali tastes, by and large, little different from the cherry plum version. It’s just as fragrant, spicy and noticeably sour, and its red color, from the tomatoes and the plums’ own pigment, means you don’t need to add tomato to soups. The Caucasian plum satsebeli sauce is made in a similar way; the difference is mostly in the spices and extra ingredients.

When you make plum sauce for winter, buy round, dark blue plums with reddish flesh and a small pit. They’re firm and pleasantly tart, and the sauce comes out with a delicate flavor and a gorgeous deep red color.

Homemade plum and tomato sauce is quick and easy. The main ingredients, ripe blue plums and tomatoes, are blitzed in a blender or meat grinder, and the garlic and chili can simply be chopped with a knife or crushed in a press. If you like, you can think of it as plum ketchup: everything is mixed and simmered with spices until it’s as thick as you want. Then the sauce is spooned into sterilized jars and keeps perfectly all winter.

Homemade plum sauce for meat, preserved for winter.

Ingredients

3–5 jars

Blue plums 0.5 kg
Ripe tomatoes 0.5 kg
Chili peppers 1–2
Garlic 1 head
Sugar 1–2 tsp (5–9 g)
Ground coriander ½ tsp
Sweet paprika ½ tsp
Salt, black pepper to taste
Wine vinegar as needed

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the ingredients

For the plum sauce to be pleasantly tart without needing wine vinegar, use tart-sweet plums with even-textured flesh. When we make pickled plums, we use the so-called “Hungarian” variety. But it’s not great for plum ketchup or plum sauce for meat. The “Eurasia” variety is ideal: large round fruit, with or without a bluish bloom, very dark, with red-orange flesh. Use ripe red tomatoes that peel easily and have few seeds.

First, prepare all the ingredients. Peel the garlic and crush it in a press, or finely chop it with a knife.
Seed and finely chop the chili.
By the way, you can adjust the heat of plum ketchup or plum sauce with dried chili at any stage of cooking.

Scald the tomatoes with boiling water, then peel and seed them. Wash any bluish bloom off the plums and remove the stems and pits.

Grinding

Put the plums through a meat grinder; you want small pieces to remain. Blend the tomato flesh to a purée.
If ripe tomatoes are hard to find, use a can of tomatoes, drained.
Put the tomato, ground plums and chili into a heavy-bottomed pot. The heavy bottom means there’s no need for high heat while it simmers.

Cooking the sauce

Put the pot over medium heat and start heating it. While it cooks, stir the plum sauce often, or even constantly; it sticks to the bottom and burns very quickly. Add 1–2 tsp sugar (5–9 g) and ½ tsp each of ground coriander and sweet paprika, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Taste the sauce. Only if it doesn’t seem sour enough, carefully add natural white or red grape vinegar, a little at a time. When the tomato and plums come to a boil, add the crushed garlic.
Stirring constantly, simmer the sauce over low heat, uncovered, until it’s as thick as you like. Careful: the thick mixture tends to spatter as it bubbles.
As a rule, plum ketchup is made thinner. Plum sauce for meat is best made thick, so it barely flows.

Filling the jars

Meanwhile, get a few small jars (120–150 ml) with lids ready. Wash them well and fill them with boiling water from the kettle for 5–10 minutes. Pour boiling water over the lids and a large spoon too.
When the mixture is as thick as you like, turn the heat under the pot down to the minimum. Spoon the boiling plum sauce into the jars right to the brim and seal them tightly at once. Wrap the jars in a blanket or wool sweater until they cool completely.
Plum sauce preserved for winter keeps perfectly in the pantry. Open the jars as needed, then keep them in the fridge so the sauce doesn’t turn. You can use it in soups or as a dip for grilled meat and shashlik. Or just spread it on fresh bread.

Calories and macros

39 kcal

100 g

Protein1.1 g11% of kcal
Fat0.3 g7% of kcal
Carbs7.9 g82% of kcal

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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To Get It Right

Which plums to use

Round dark blue plums, firm and pleasantly tart, with reddish flesh and a small pit; the “Eurasia” variety is ideal. “Hungarian” plums don’t suit this sauce well; save them for pickled plums.

So the sauce doesn’t burn

a heavy-bottomed pot, so you don’t need high heat;
stir often, or better constantly: thick sauce sticks to the bottom quickly;
cook uncovered, but carefully: it spatters as it bubbles.

Heat

Use 1–2 fresh chilies, to taste. If the sauce isn’t hot enough, you can add dried chili at any stage of cooking.

What to serve it with

grilled meat and shashlik;
oily fish;
a sour base for kharcho soup: with this sauce you don’t need to add tomato to the soup;
simply on fresh bread.

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Questions and answers

How is plum sauce different from tkemali and satsebeli?

Tkemali sauce is traditionally made from cherry plums, but they’re often replaced with plums, and plum tkemali tastes little different from the cherry plum version. Plum satsebeli is made in a similar way; the difference is mostly in the spices and extra ingredients.

How long do you cook plum sauce?

In this recipe, about 30 minutes over low heat, uncovered, until it’s as thick as you like. For ketchup, leave the sauce thinner; for a sauce for meat, cook it down until it barely flows.

Can you make plum sauce without vinegar?

Yes, if the plums are tart-sweet: then there’s enough acidity and you don’t need vinegar. Add vinegar only if the sauce tastes not sour enough, a little at a time, and use natural grape vinegar.

Can you make plum sauce without cooking?

You can, but then it’s a fresh sauce, like a Mexican salsa. It hardly keeps at all, so it’s made right before serving. For a winter preserve, the sauce is cooked.

How do you store plum sauce for winter?

Sealed jars keep well in the pantry. Keep an opened jar in the fridge so the sauce doesn’t turn. If the lid has bulged or the sauce smells fermented, don’t eat it.

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