At our new house we have inherited an ancient and incredibly prolific plum tree. We weren't really sure when it would start to drop its fruit but now that it has begun there's no doubt: we've probably got 50 pounds of fruit growing on that tree and not enough mouths to eat all that it's giving us.

I asked the former owner what to do with all the fruit. She said that this particular kind of plum is not good for preserves, since its fruit is very watery, but I could make jelly or other recipes with them, provided I cook fast. We've already discovered that we either need to eat them almost immediately after picking them up off the ground or freeze them, because a rotten bowl of plums is not a very pretty sight!

If you are blessed with an overabundance of plums or you just want to try something new, here are a couple of Russian recipes that use plums for your cooking pleasure.

The first is a recipe for Kvass. Here's what wikipedia says about this drink: "Kvass (Russian and Ukrainian: квас, Estonian: kali) ("leaven") is a fermented mildly alcoholic beverage popular in Russia, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. Kvass has been a common drink in Russia since ancient times. It has been both a commercial product and homemade. It is consumed widely in Ukraine, and in almost every city there are kvass vendors on the street." Usually it is made with bread, but in this recipe, from Ruscuisine.com, it's just fruit.

Ingredients:
1 kg red beets
1 kg plums
(1 kg. = 2.2 lbs)
5 ltrs water (about 4 1/2 quarts)
500 g sugar
(500 g. = approx. 1/2 lb)

Directions:
Rinse the red beets, peel and cut them into large pieces. Rinse the plums, cut each into halves and remove the stones. Place the red beets and plums in a glass jar, pour in some cooled boiled water, add some sugar and put on a lid not very tightly so that the air might get through. Leave the kvass to ferment at room temperature.

I don't know that we'll be trying that one any time soon. We might try this next recipe, however, which is for Sambouk. It's a kind of moussey-fruity-gelatiny thing. This recipe is also from Ruscuisine.com.

Ingredients
500 g plums, pitted (about 1/2 lb)
5 tb sugar
2 ea egg white
10 g gelatin (about 1/2 oz - 1 packet or so)

Directions:
Sambouk is a kind of mousse but it is thicker and made from berries with egg whites. Bake plums a little and grate them. Make plum-water from the rest of plums and bones, strain it and dissolve in gelatin. Add sugar and egg whites in plum puree. Put the bowl with plum puree in the pan with cold water or ice and whip with mixer until there is foam. Volume must increase 2-3 times. Pour in gelatin carefully while whipping. Pour mass into moulds quickly.