No matter what you do in life, you must challenge yourself. With that in mind I set out to try a new recipe, technique or food every week. Each week I have come away from the experience with something new. This weekend while flipping through endless pages of the same old thing, I came across a recipe for Plum Kuchen. A German dessert with, you guessed it plums.
This dish was so very simple and the idea of plums appealed to me. I don't know if I have ever cooked with plums before. I went to my local market and did my very best to look like I knew what I was doing while selecting my plums. Yes, I could have asked for help and often do, but not this time. I wanted to learn. I choose four plums that were so dark in color as to be almost black and two that had a more red to their color. While cutting and removing the pits from them, I noticed that the very dark plums cut easier and the pit came out with ease. The redder ones took a bit more work. The real difference came at the time of tasting. The redder plums were still a bit firm after forty minutes of cooking, while the darker ones were much softer. As for actual taste the redder ones were more tart, which was a nice contrast to the egg and sour cream custard that covered the plums.
So you may be asking, what did I learn? One dinner guest loved the more tart flavor, while another the melow flavor of the darker plums. It's all a matter of personal taste.
I love your title to this post. Everyone should have the attitude that learning never ends. It's lifelong.
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