The first ones to arrive in stores were labeled Dinosaur or Dinosaur Egg. Pluot sounds just as strange, but none of those names captures the luscious sweetness and complexity of the new hybrid plum that seems bound to take over the market.
Pluot, the trademark for a cross between plums and apricots, has the rich, juicy flesh of a plum but more sweetness thanks to the apricot’s naturally higher sugar content. There’s none of the pucker that can sabotage the most delicious of plums. Instead, there’s an astonishing interplay of flavors and aroma–vanilla, honey, melon–almost like a glass of dessert wine.
Chefs love them for the glorious color, texture and flavor they bring to tarts and other desserts. Growers love them too; they think of them as a better plum, sweeter and sturdier. Plums, with their thick skins, have always stood up well on the road, and Pluots are no different, but they ripen beautifully and more consistently than most plums. In the next few years, the industry predicts that they could account for a fourth to half the plum supply.
The original cross, 50-50 plum and apricot, was called a plumcot and can be traced to the famous botanist Luther Burbank more than 100 years ago. Pluots evolved out of that early hybrid but most are about three-fifths plum to two-fifths apricot.
The Pluot was developed and named by Zaiger’s Genetics, a plant breeder near Modesto, Calif. Leith Zaiger, the company’s general manager, said that Zaiger’s had been developing Pluots for 35 years but that only in the last year or two had there been enough successful commercial planting to supply the domestic and export markets on a large scale.
The fruit started turning up in produce stands in July and should be available until the end of September. Dinosaur and Dinosaur Egg are brand names established several years ago for Pluots grown by one California grower, Jackson Family Farm. They bear a tiny sticker showing a brontosaurus, but even without the label the fruit is easily recognizable. It is a hefty fistful with pinkish-red skin dappled in gray and deep reddish flesh sometimes fading to ivory. As appealing as the color is, the flavor is better: deliciously sweet and meaty with a hint of tartness.
Dale Janzen, a field agent with the California Fruit Commission, estimated a total of 3 million boxes of Pluots, or 87 million pounds, will be sold this year, compared with 17 million boxes (476 million pounds) of plums.
About 200 varieties of plums are grown in California. Most are in season for just a couple of weeks. But the consumer is rarely aware: Most shops tend not to label them except by color, although you may spot names like Simka, Fortune, Friar or Catalina.
Elephant Hearts are easier to spot. They are fat like Dinosaur Eggs but are actually plums. They’re slightly pointy with brownish skins, bright scarlet flesh and a concentrated, jammy flavor.
Plums were first cultivated in China about 2,000 years ago. They are classified as drupe fruits, with a single large stone, like peaches, nectarines and cherries. There are several families of plums, some of which have been crossbred for hundreds of years, so sorting them out is a challenge. To put it simply, most big plums were developed from Japanese plums brought to America in the 1880s by Burbank.
Because plums and Pluots have jewellike color and often excellent flavor, there is every reason to use them in the kitchen and not just in the fruit bowl. The pits are sometimes tenacious but are usually small and can be extracted with little waste. Even though plum and Pluot skins are relatively thick, they don’t have to be peeled for most recipes.
Pluots can be used in recipes calling for most plums except the small Italian prune plums or other cooking plums. But to replace Pluots with plums, always choose larger, meatier, sweeter varieties like Black Diamonds, Elephant Hearts, large Kelseys and Fortunes.
Plums–and now Pluots–are a wonderfully reliable fruit because they are not as prone to bruising like peaches and nectarines. Stored in a brown paper bag at room temperature, they ripen well.
Like tomatoes, plums and Pluots are ready to eat when they yield to light pressure without feeling soft. They can be refrigerated for several days. Plums and Pluots rarely suffer from the dry mealiness that can affect poorly stored peaches, nectarines and apricots.
PLUOT CARPACCIO WITH GINGER SAUCE
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Chilling time: 30 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
8 ripe red pluots, halved, pitted
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup ginger liqueur or brandy
6 mint sprigs
1. Slice pluots paper thin with mandoline or fine slicing blade on a food processor. Reserve any uneven slices, scraps and those pieces with a hole from pits.
2. Arrange perfectly round slices closely overlapping like petals on each of 6 dessert plates. You should have about 25 slices a plate. Refrigerate.
3. Finely chop remaining pieces; you should have about 1 1/2 cups. Place in small saucepan. Add sugar, ginger and water. Heat to simmer; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fruit has nearly dissolved and is like a sauce, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in liqueur. Transfer to metal bowl; place bowl in ice water to chill. Refrigerate if not serving right away.
4. Drizzle about 3 tablespoons sauce over each plate of sliced pluots; garnish with mint.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories ………… 175 Fat ………… 7 g Saturated fat .. 2.5 g
% calories from fat .. 36 Cholesterol .. 45 mg Sodium …….. 495 mg
Carbohydrates …… 10 g Protein ……. 18 g Fiber ………… 1 g
PLUM TARTLETS WITH TOASTED ALMOND CREAM
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 35-45 minutes total
Yield: 6 servings
Adapted from City Bakery in New York City.
Pastry dough for 6 four-inch tartlet shells 3 ounces (about 1 cup) slivered almonds 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, cut into 6 pieces 1 large egg yolk 7 plums or pluots, each cut into 6 slices
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line pans with pastry, line pastry with foil and baking weights. Bake 10 minutes. Remove foil; continue baking until golden. Remove from oven; set aside.
2. Spread almonds on baking sheet. Toast in oven until golden, about 5 minutes. Let cool; transfer to food processor or grinder. Process until coarsely ground.
3. Place sugar in bowl of electric mixer. Add butter; toss lightly to coat. Beat at medium speed until mixture is creamy and no confectioners’ sugar shows. Add almonds; beat 30 seconds. Add egg yolk; beat to blend.
4. Spread mixture evenly in tartlet shells. Stand 3 plum slices, skin-edge up, in a row down center of each tartlet. Stand 2 more slices on either side of each row. Bake until almond filling is puffed and golden around the edges but soft in center, 25-30 minutes. Plums will brown around the edges. Remove from oven. Transfer to wire rack; cool. Filling may sink a bit as tartlets cool.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories ………… 340 Fat ……….. 24 g Saturated fat .. 9 g
% calories from fat .. 60 Cholesterol .. 65 mg Sodium ……. 70 mg
Carbohydrates …… 31 g Protein …… 4.5 g Fiber …….. 2.8 g
