10-minute, Forgotten Plum Compote

From gathering the ingredients to cooking, this plum compote is ready in 15 minutes. Photo: Sai Raje

There are two things I never do when it comes to eating and cooking. One, buy large fruits that are smartly packaged in plastic and cellophane. And two, make something from scratch in a microwave oven (it doesn’t excite the cook in me). 

Last week, I ended up doing both. With fantastic results.

Until now, I had steered clear of those clingfilm and Styrofoam packed, large 'imported' plums. However, on one particularly mundane grocery run last week, I was really tempted by the plums. Their dark red colour suggested that they would be perfectly ripe. So I picked a pack of four. I promptly ate one as soon as I got home. The plum was surprisingly crisp, very juicy, and a tad more tart than sweet.

So sprinkling the segmented fruit with a bit of caster sugar and microwaving it seemed like a good idea. I half expected to end up with warm, soft segments of sweet and sour plum. But I accidentally set the microwave oven timer to 10 minutes instead of three, and forgot all about plums once they went in.

Ten minutes and three warning beeps later, I opened the microwave door to see a glorious, bubbling, ruby-red mess in the glass bowl. The plums and sugar had more or less turned to a mush that was a perfect balance of tart and sweet. I call it compote because it uses just fresh fruit and very little sugar. You can really taste the plums in this one. And it is certainly more satisfying than any store bought jam that's laden with preservatives and artificial colours. After letting the compote cool down for a bit, I transferred it to a clean, dry glass jar and popped it into the fridge.

It makes for a great topping on toast, pancakes, hot chapatis and homemade scones. But I especially like to stir a spoonful of this compote in a bowl of hot oatmeal and milk porridge at breakfast.

Forgotten Plum compote

Ingredients

4 large, preferably ripe plums

6-8 teaspoons of fine caster sugar

 

Method

Cut the plums into segments and transfer to a microwave safe glass bowl. Add and mix in the caster sugar. Pop into the microwave at maximum power (that was 750W for my microwave) for 10 minutes. You may stir through the plum mixture halfway through the microwaving process.

Cool the compote at room temperature for 15-20 minutes. Transfer to a clean, dry glass jar with a good lid, and store in the refrigerator. It will store easily for three weeks, but I am not sure it will last until then!

 

Makes about 250 gm of compote.