Plum position

Plum and cinnamon ‘leather’

Tray-baked chicken with plums, soy and ‘crumble’

This beautiful dish is full of colour, flavour and texture, plus it’s incredibly easy = winner winner chicken dinner. The crumble mix is a real favourite of mine at the moment, make a big batch and use it over basic salads, steamed greens or pretty much anywhere you fancy a little extra flavour and crunch.
 Serves 4.

For the ‘crumble”;
1 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp sunflower seeds

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine the oats, seeds, syrup, garlic and olive oil in a bowl and mix until well combined. Spread in a thin layer on a lined baking tray and cook for 15 minutes or until golden (toss mixture about halfway through). Once completely cool, store in an airtight container.

For the chicken;

8 free-range, boneless chicken thigh pieces (skin on if you can find them)
5 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
8 plums, halved
3 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup chicken stock

Preheat oven to 200°. Place the chicken, garlic, ginger and plums in a roasting tray. Season well then drizzle over the soy sauce and add a couple of tablespoons of the chicken stock.

Cook for 25 minutes. Check that the chicken and plums aren’t drying up and sticking to the base of the dish (if so, add the rest of the chicken stock) then return to the oven for another 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from the oven, scatter with the ‘crumble’ and a handful of micro herbs or coriander. Serve with steamed greens.

Frozen plum yogurt

This is so easy and a great alternative to ice creams when you are trying to be a bit good. And of course, you could swap the plum puree (pictured below) with any pureed fruit that’s in season (rhubarb is another big favourite of ours).

1kg plums
1/4 cup water
Honey, to taste
500g natural ‘Greek-style’ yogurt

For the plum puree: halve and stone the plums then place them in a large saucepan with the water. Heat very gently, stirring often and cook for about 15 minutes until the fruit softens then tip into a blender and puree until very smooth and sweeten with honey to taste. Place in the fridge to chill.

If you have an ice cream machine, place the yogurt and chilled plum puree in the machine and churn according to instructions then place in the fridge to chill. If you don’t; just mix together the yogurt and plum puree then place in the fridge for two hours. Remove and whisk then return to the fridge. Repeat this process twice.

Pikelets with blackberries and plums

This recipe for pikelets was the very first I ever posted on Local is Lovely and remains something I cook at least once a week for the kids’ afternoon tea. In this case we had them topped with a few handfuls of blackberries cooked quickly with four sliced plums, a tablespoon of caster sugar and a squeeze of lemon. Beautiful.