Christmas is near and as usual, I am broke; there are gifts to give, feasts to plan and a ton of booze that insists on being drunk. Who am I to deny the drink’s will! But after most of the gifts are bought and wrapped, placed under the Christmas tree I’ve usually missed a few people of interest that I love, but can’t afford to buy something super-duper fancy for but to whom I still want to send a token of my appreciation.
This is where I ask myself, WWCD or “What would Caesar do?”
Well, he’d probably march his Legions to their homes and sack them, which is why he was later known to be Rome’s most famous knife block. But before he became a tyrannical pin cushion bleeding on the floor of the senate he may have engaged in some Yule Tide gift giving himself during the festival of Saturnalia, swapping roles with his slaves and offering gifts to his family and friends. The Romans were after all the inventers of Turducken, taking it to all awe-inspiring levels stuffing an elephant with a camel, a camel with a cow, a cow with a pig, a pig with a goose, a goose with a duck, a duck with a chicken, a chicken with a finch and a finch with a grass hopper.
As I don’t have an oven large enough, I thought that maybe I would just make a condiment that would go well with any game meat, inspired by an ancient Roman sauce for venison and given an Asian twist, this bad boy is great as a glaze, a dipping sauce or in stir fries.
Ingredients:
1.5 kg red plumbs, deseeded, chopped
I/2 cup chopped dried dates
1 large onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cm ginger, minced
2 cups sugar
1tbsp course sea salt
4 bay leaves
1 stick cinnamon
3 star anise, crushed
1 tsp cloves, crushed
4 cardamom pods, crushed
2 tsp smoked paprika
1tbsp dark soy sauce
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil
Method:
- Make a spice extraction: place the ginger, cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves star anise, cardamom pods and 1 cup of vinegar in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the vinegar liquid through a mesh into a jug to add back to the sauce later. Discard solid spices.
- In a large cooking pot on a medium heat sauté the onions and garlic until translucent. Add the chopped plumbs, dates, salt and paprika stirring constantly until soft. Add the vinegar spice extraction, sugar, soy sauce and water and bring to the boil.
- Remove from the heat and with a stick mixer, puree the sauce until smooth.
- Pour into sterilised jars and cap loosely.
Pasteurise the jars
- Place a tea towel or washcloth on the base of a large stock pot and arrange the jars in the pot so they fit snugly with the least amount of wiggle room.
- Fill the pot with water to 1 inch below the shoulder of the jars. Place the lid on the pot and bring to boil. If you have a pressure cooker, even better. After 45 min, turn off the heat and carefully remove the jars and tighten the lids.
