VanFoodies.com

I like stone fruits: peaches, plums, cherries and mangoes. What are stone fruits, you ask? Also called drupes, they are fruit that have a large stone, often mistaken as seed, inside. Think about what a peach looks like when you cut it open, or a plum, or even a cherry. What we usually call a pit is actually the stone, and the seed is inside the stone. I love the juicy flesh of stone fruits and they are so good, and so sweet, just on their own. However, I’m always curious about finding savoury ways to enjoy them. And now, I have one idea.

Did you know:
…plums are a good source of vitamins A and C, as well as several antioxidants?
…there are only 46 calories in a 100g serving of plums?

Recently I got my hands on some Chilean pluots. Pluot is a hybrid fruit, part plum and part apricot. It’s nicknamed “Dinosaur Eggs” in Chinese because of its spotted skin. The fruit is in a beautiful red colour. I decided to make a grilled cheese sandwich with them. Now I don’t think plum and cheddar, the typical choice of cheese for grilled cheese, go together, so I’ve substituted it with brie. And to elevate it, I opted for sourdough for a chewy texture and some tang in flavours.

Fun fact: Chilean plum season is from mid-November until April, which is the opposite of local fruit season in BC.

The beauty of a grilled cheese is that you can build it in however way you want, so I’m only providing a guideline here in terms of ingredients.

Ingredients

• 4 Plums (I used Chilean pluots)
• 1 loaf of Sourdough
• 200g Brie
• Fresh Basil or Sorrel (I used some microgreens called Sky Hearts by a local farm Sky Harvest)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Remove the pit of the plums and slice them into pieces 1/8in thick

2. Slice the brie to similar thickness as the plum slices

3. Line the sourdough with brie, then a layer of plum slices

4. Add some basil or sorrel, then salt and pepper to taste

5. On medium heat, melt some butter on a non-stick pan

6. Drop the sandwich on the pan, move the sandwich around to allow the bread to absorb some of the butter

7. Turn the heat to low. Using a heavy object (a smaller pan or a heavy plate), press down the sandwich and let it cook for 5 minutes, until the bottom has turned golden brown.

8. Flip the sandwich and press it down again for another 3 minutes, until that side has turned golden brown as well.

9. Take it out of the pan, and enjoy!

Final Thoughts

I loved how refreshing the sandwich tasted! I could still taste the sweetness of the plum and the acidity and tang from the sourdough and microgreens paired really well. The brie was rich and creamy but didn’t overpower everything else. If you want something a bit more hearty, add some ham or Italian speck.