Daz Switalla Flavour Secrets No.1 The Strand Chef www.no1thestrand.co.nz

While I was visiting a friend the other day his neighbour passed by with a bowl of plums.

They were large and flavoursome, with a natural milky white waxy bloom on them, you had to lean forward to eat them as they were so juicy. The plums tasted amazing compared to the last ones I had eaten from the supermarket, which were sour and dry.

Eating these fresh plums brought back many memories of scaling fences on the way home from school as a child to grab as many as I could before being sprung by the owner. Plums can be used in so many ways. When dried, they become prunes, which are also sweet and juicy containing several antioxidants and as we know, prunes are well known for their laxative effects.

The Chinese salt and dry their plums and use them for a snack and liquorice is sometimes used to intensify the flavour. The Japanese variety called umeboshi is used often to flavour rice balls or omusubi and the Malaysians make a dark, sweet chilli plum sauce by adding fresh chillies and palm sugar and cooking into a syrup.

If you do find a flavoursome, lean-forward variety at the farmers market or hanging over your neighbours fence, try slicing a few up and steeping in water in the fridge for a refreshing plum water drink. Or you could make an old favourite of mine – a plum Streusel cake.

Plum Streusel Cake

Ingredients

250g self-raising flour

80g castor sugar

Pinch of salt

150g unsalted butter, cold

1 egg, beaten

About 1 kilo plums – big juicy ones are best, cut up into eights

1-2 tbsp of castor sugar or a bit more if plums aren't sweet

Ground cinnamon

Streusel

150g plain flour

100g brown sugar

1 tbsp vanilla sugar

100g unsalted butter, cold

Method

For the cake, grease a 26cm flan or cake tin. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter all together in a food processor, mix until you have coarse crumbs, add the egg and mix until it forms a ball. Press together and wrap in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes. Roll out the pastry until you have the flan tin covered to about 5mm as evenly as possible. For the streusel, combine all ingredients in food processor and rub together with your hand until you have large lumpy crumbs. Arrange the chopped plums upright and tightly packed in the pastry, sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon over the plums and sprinkle the stuesel mix over the top. Bake at 180 degrees for about 35-45 minutes until golden brown, serve with whipped cream or ice cream while still warm.