Chili Plum Sauce

Spicy, sweet and tangy, this chili plum sauce is the perfect combination of all three. It's wonderful with duck, pork or chicken. 

Several years ago, we were discussing our Christmas dinner menu and our elder daughter suggested roast duck, Peking-style. I was intrigued because I don’t think I’d ever roasted a whole duck. (Although once I came close.)

We love pan-fried duck breast so even when I came across a whole duck when we lived in Cairo, I broke it down so I could pan-fry the breasts and confit the legs and thighs. And we adore classic cassoulet. I guess you could say we are duck people. 

And, of course, I’ve eaten roast duck in Chinese restaurants so I knew that the skin had to be shatteringly crispy and that it’s often served with plum sauce, which I usually find too sweet. So while my trial duck dried out, I searched for plum sauce recipes that would suit my palate. Adding chili peppers seemed like a great idea. Unfortunately the original blog I adapted my recipe from is no longer active on the interwebs or I would share the link.

This was in our front room so it got a few second glances from the neighbors as they passed by. 

I’m pleased to tell you that trial duck was fabulous and we did indeed have roast duck for Christmas that year and most years since till 2020 shut us down as a family who could get together. Last year, we just couldn't do the same menu because there was just no way to pretend that things were normal. I have high hopes for 2021.  

Trial bird was a crispy success. Maybe one day I'll post that recipe.

Chili Plum Sauce

This recipe makes a generous 6 2/3 cups or 1575ml of chili plum sauce. Feel free to halve it but when plums are at their peak and a bargain to buy this summer, why not make the whole batch? You can use it in the traditional moo shu pancakes with roasted duck or as a marinade or dipping sauce for pork or chicken. I have also been known to whisk it into a vinaigrette with olive oil and a little extra vinegar, which is lovely on a green salad or over sliced cucumbers. 

Ingredients

2 small red chili peppers

9-10 cloves garlic

4-inch piece fresh ginger

18 plums (Mine weighed about 3 1/2 lbs or 1600g) 

2 cups or 480ml red wine vinegar

1 2/3 cups or 332g sugar

1 1/4 cups or 296ml reduced salt light soy sauce

2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns

Method

Cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Then cut them into small chunks.

Use the tip of a sharp knife to split your chili peppers. Peel and slice the ginger and garlic. 

Add the plums to a heavy bottomed pan and cook for 20 minutes over medium-low heat.

Add the chili peppers, garlic, ginger, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and Sichuan peppercorns and bring the mixture to the boil.

Reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering, cover with a lid and simmer for 5-6 minutes, or until the plums have softened completely.

Carefully blend the hot mixture to a purée in batches in a food processor or straight in the pot with a hand blender.

Strain the purée through a sieve into a bowl. Pour the hot plum sauce into sterilized jars. 

Enjoy with roast duck, chicken or pork! 

Here are our moo shu duck pancakes! Pancake recipe: moo shu pancakes

It's Sunday FunDay again! Our host Karen from Karen's Kitchen Stories invited us to share recipes with chili peppers, a theme that is near and dear to my heart. Many thanks to her for the great theme and her behind-the-scenes work. Check out the other chili-peppery recipes we are sharing below! 

• Chile Pancakes from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Chili Plum Sauce from Food Lust People Love
• Creamy Chicken Tortilla Stew from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Enfrijoladas from Making Miracles
• Homemade Salsa Verde from Sneha's Recipe
• Maharashtrian Green Chilli Thecha from Cook with Renu
• Mirchi Ka Salan from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Roasted Monkfish Over Mole Negro from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Spicy Carrot and Broccoli Salad from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Thai Curry Noodles from Palatable Pastime

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Spicy Cod and Merguez Traybake

This Spicy Cod and Merguez Traybake is a lovely combination of mild and spicy, flaky and chewy, a tasty way to enjoy both cod and merguez in one dish, not to mention fresh tomatoes and salty olives.

I like to joke that I was bilingual before I learned my second language because my first three years of school were in the British system. I learned to read and write the way they do. Year four - at an American school - was a relearning of spelling rules and punctuation. 

I spent the summer before that memorizing the whole times tables (through 12!) which apparently American kids had already learned as well. Worst summer ever for a nine-year-old! I was almost glad when school started and I could stop practising(Br.E.)/practicing(Am.E.) [In British English, "practise" is the verb and "practice" is the noun. In American English, "practice" is both the verb and the noun. And now you know my pain.] On the plus side, I still have the times tables cold. 

This recipe starts with a little vocabulary explanation of my title and an apology for those of you who already know. (I see you, my fellow American devotees of The Great British Bake-Off!) The way I’m using it here, the word traybake or sometimes tray bake as two words, is the British English equivalent of sheet pan dinner in the United States. That said, while a sheet pan dinner is always a main course, a traybake can also be something that is cut up and served as a sweet snack or dessert, like brownies or cake. 

In fact, if you browse the BBC Good Food website’s “traybake collection” there are only sweet recipes. You have to search for “savory traybakes” to get the links to our so-called sheet pan dinners. Even then, a few sweet recipes appear in the list. It’s all very confusing really.  

Now that I've gotten that off my chest and clarified absolutely nothing, on with the savory traybake! 

Spicy Cod and Merguez Traybake

The impetus for this recipe was our Fish Friday Foodies host Wendy choosing “seafood dishes that go with red wine” as our theme. This flavorful dish sure does! Do not worry too much about the exact weight of your merguez or your cod. I’ve given the exact weight of mine to give you a guideline. A little bit more or less won’t make much different to finished dish. This recipe is adapted from the British food magazine, Olive, where just to confuse matters further, they’ve called it a tray roast. Honestly. I can't even. 

Ingredients

10 1/4 oz or 290g small merguez (spicy lamb) sausages or large ones cut into chunks (Look for these at your local halal butcher. Yes, I bought mine here in the States.) 

1 large Spanish onion

3 tablespoons harissa, divided

3/4 cup or 110g red grape tomatoes

3/4 cup or 110g yellow grape tomatoes

1/2 cup or 85g dry cured black olives, unpitted

2 cod loins, 1.6 lbs or 710g total

olive oil

For garnish and serving:

flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1 lemon, cut into 8 wedges

Recommended to serve: my extra rich creamed potatoes (they are made with actual cream!) or your favorite crusty bread

Method

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C. 

Peel and cut the onions into thin wedges, discarding the hard root end. Cut the little tomatoes in half and pit the olives by hitting them with the flat of a knife and removing the pits.  

Cut the cod loins into six equal pieces. 

Put 1 tablespoon of the harissa in a small bowl and mix it with 1 tablespoon olive oil to loosen. Brush the cod with the mixture on both sides and set aside. 

Put the merguez sausages in a large baking pan. Drizzle with a little olive oil and roast for 10 minutes in the preheated oven until browned on the outside. I left mine hooked together and then cut them apart with scissors, once browned. 

The merguez will release some lovely flavored oil. Stir the onions in it and roast for another 7 minutes. 

Add the tomatoes and olives into the baking pan. Dollop the harissa around and give the whole thing a right good toss with two rubber spatulas.

Spread it all back out single file.  Nestle the cod amongst the tomatoes, olives and onions. Give each piece of cod another tiny drizzle of olive oil. 

Put the pan back in the oven for 17-20 minutes or until the cod reaches an internal temperature of 145°F or 63°C and is just cooked through. This will depend on the thickness of your cod. Mine was pretty thick and it took the whole 20 minutes. 

Scatter with parsley and lemon wedges.

I served mine as I suggested above on a generous mound of creamed potatoes. If you don't have potatoes, you definitely need some crusty bread to sop up the delicious pan juices. 

Enjoy, as per this month’s theme, with a glass of your favorite red wine! 

P.S. Don't let the fancy bottle in the photo fool you, if you tried to zoom in. We enjoyed this dish with a French table wine called La Vieille Ferme that is as inexpensive as it is lovely. I included that bottle in the photo because it is special to us. It is a 1986 vintage which is what we've enjoyed every year (since 1987) to celebrate our anniversary. We aren't partial to a country or vineyard, especially since they are getting much harder to source each year. We'll be opening another one on 22 March! 

It's time for my Fish Friday Foodies to share what they've been cooking up! Many thanks to our host and organizer Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for her behind-the-scenes work and this challenging theme. 

• Culinary Adventures with Camilla is serving up Crab-Stuffed Ravioli in a Spiced Pepper Sauce + 2017 Comanche Cellars Zinfandel
• A Day in the Life on the Farm is Exploring Malbec outside of France Paired with Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon 
• Making Miracles brings us Fish with Red Wine Sauce 
• Karen's Kitchen Stories shares Shrimp in Tomato and Chile Sauce
• Food Lust People Love has a Spicy Cod and Merguez Tray Bake
• Sneha's Recipe made Surf and Turf with Shrimp and Sausage Skewers

Are you a food blogger who would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas. 

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Coca-Cola Bundt Cake #BundtBakers

This Coca-Cola Bundt Cake is moist and delicious, a bit of Southern tradition in the shape of a Bundt, perfect for your next get-together, family celebration or picnic. 

The traditional Southern Coca-Cola cake is usually baked in a 9x12 in or 23x31mm rectangular pan, and is very similar to a Texas Sheet Cake. For this month’s Bundt Bakers theme of caffeinated cakes, I decided to make one in a Bundt pan instead.

I did debate with myself about the wisdom of such a move because Coca-Cola cake is normally served straight out of the pan it’s baked in. I did wonder if it would turn out of a Bundt. Turns out that my fears were justified.

So, a little word of advice: Do not skimp on the buttering and flouring of the pan for this cake or you might struggle to turn it out nicely. Mine stuck a little bit but I managed to get it successfully unstuck with a thin rubber spatula. 

Since we are still isolating for the most part, I made a small cake in my favorite 6-cup Nordic Ware anniversary pan. Feel free to double the batter for a 12-cup pan (and, of course, increase the baking time) if you have a large family. 

Coca-Cola Bundt Cake

Because this is cake, after all, don’t even think about using diet or zero Coke. It would also be sacrilegious to use Pepsi. As my daughters would say, fight me. 

Ingredients

For the cake batter:

1 cup or 200g granulated sugar

1 cup or 125g all-purpose flour, plus extra for the pan

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 can (6 oz or 177ml) regular Coca-Cola (not Diet or Coke Zero)

1/4 cup or 57g unsalted butter, plus extra for the pan

1/4 cup or 30g unsweetened natural cocoa powder

1/4 cup or 60ml buttermilk

1 large egg, at room temperature

For the Coca-Cola glaze:

1 cup or 125g confectioners' sugar, sifted 

2 to 3 tablespoons Coca-Cola 

Optional for decorating:

Haribo cola bottle sweets

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C, butter and flour a 6-cup Bundt pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking soda and salt. 

In a small saucepan over a low heat, melt the butter with the Coke and cocoa. Bring it to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the butter is melted and the mixture is completely combined and warm. 

Fold the warm mixture into the flour/sugar mix, until just combined. If there's still a little flouring showing, that's just fine. 

In a small bowl, whisk the egg and buttermilk until blended. Quickly whisk a couple of tablespoons of the thick batter into the eggs. Add two more tablespoons, still whisking briskly. 

Now add the egg mixture to the batter and whisk to combine.

Pour the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.

 Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean.

Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for about 15-20 minutes. Run your clean wooden skewer around the sides of the pan and then invert it on a serving plate. 

Leave to cool completely before drizzling on the glaze. 

To make the glaze, sift the powdered sugar into a mixing bowl to remove any lumps. Add Coca-Cola a tablespoon at a time until you get a good pouring or drizzling consistency, depending on how thick you like it. You may not use all of the Coke. (Guzzle the rest of the can - baker's privilege.)

Once the cake is completely cooled, pour or drizzle the glaze over it. I like to use a piping bag with a small tip to make the drizzle more controllable but that’s not essential. Decorate with Haribo cola bottle sweets, if using. 

Enjoy! 

As I mentioned above, this month’s Bundt Bakers theme is caffeinated cakes. Many thanks to our host, Rebekah of Making Miracles for her behind-the-scenes work and the fun theme. Check out the other caffeinated Bundts below: 

• 7 Up Bundtlets by Sweet Sensations
• Caramel Macchiato Mini Bundts by Magical Ingredients
• Coca-Cola Bundt Cake by Food Lust People Love
• Coffee and Baileys Individual Bundts by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Coffee Chocolate Bundt Cake by Making Miracles
• Dirty Chai Mini Bundts by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Espresso Chocolate Bundt Cake by Patyco Candybar
• Ginger & Lemon Green Tea Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze by Patty's Cake
• Marble Coffee Bundt by Sneha's Recipe
• Vietnamese Coffee Bundt Cake by All That's Left Are The Crumbs

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

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