Prune Plum Prep! | The Alt-Weekly, Issue No. 35 (Patreon)

Notes, News, and Nerdiness from JKLA World HQ

I’m sitting on the little dock on Lake Union near our office in Eastlake as the sun is setting through the hazy sky and realizing that it’s only 8:15. When the summer starts to leave Seattle, it leaves fast.

But there’s still a lot of summer-feeling things going on at home. My daughter Alicia and I spent the past week constructing a tree house which is currently sitting on the ground in the middle of the yard as the hardware to attach it to the tree never arrived. (This means we still have disassembling and reassembling it all up in the air to look forward to.) Alicia helped where she could (she’s an expert at driving in screws once they’re started and in operating the chop saw and circular saw) and spent the rest of the time harvesting the plums and peaches that are dripping from the trees in our back yard.

Those plums, incidentally, are Italian prune plums—the egg-shaped, purplish green, yellow-fleshed variety that can be dried into prunes. Though I’d be willing to bet that if you’ve ever had these delicious fruits fresh in your kitchen, they ended up in some version of Marion Burros’ plum torte, first published in the New York Times in 1989.

That’s where 88% of my plums I used to borrow from neighbors ended up, at least. (10% went into plum clafoutis, and the other 2% melted into moldy puddles in the fruit bowl.)

This year, with my own plum tree laden with what looks like 40 to 50 pounds of fruit, I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of the most useful, fun way to make use of them, and I think we’ve managed to hatch a plan that may or may not involve your help. Stay tuned.

A quick shoutout to my friend and fellow Seattle chef Matthew Broussard, who just released a really fun cookbook called Now We’re Cooking. Last night Matthew, Grant Crilly of Chefsteps, and myself* had a really fantastic conversation about his book, restaurant culture, the nature of creativity, and what it means for a recipe to belong to you.

You can order Matt’s book, see his live event schedule, and follow his socials here: https://acooknamedmatt.com/shop/

*Sorry Akari, I couldn’t resist.

It's Tempura Time

Every month, our Cookbook Club here on Patreon tests three recipe variations following a certain technique or recipe blueprint. This month, the club is testing three different takes on tempura, inspired by this batter recipe:

Classic shrimp tempura, using tricks created by Japanese chefs.

Tempura sauerkraut, a favorite dish that started as an accidental kitchen invention.

Flaky fried fish, with beer added to the batter for a darker, deeper finish.

From there, club members test the recipes and provide feedback to help shape Kenji's upcoming cookbook. For anyone looking for a monthly project in the kitchen—complete with exclusive recipes—consider becoming a member today!