Friday 20 September 2013

Stupid is as stupid does - Beef and Plum Rice

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Do you remember the 1994 movie Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks?
Let me tell right away, there are no similarities between Forrest's life and mine, nor are there any parallels in personality. Nevertheless, life is really like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. I for sure didn't expect at the beginning of the week to get this ...


I don't know how many kilograms of plums that are, but it must be about nine million plums. He, he, nine million plums in my home. Well, I'm not 100 % sure of that, but there must be at list nine million plums in Beijing I suppose. However, about that you could ask Katie next month, if you were anywhere near London then.
Anyway, I take up the challenge to use up all those plums before they turn bad. Right, "stupid is as stupid does". Really? We will see about that ...

About shrimp, Bubba could tell you: "Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it."
Great, but I don't have nine million shrimps, but nine million plums. 
Let's concentrate a bit more.
Of course, you can eat plums just the way they are, which I wouldn't do with shrimps.
Fine, here we go: You can make plum jam, plum butter, plum cookies, plum cake, plum cheesecake, plum muffins, plum crumble, plum pie, plum bread, plum clafouti, plum cobbler, plum chutney, plum sauce, plum salsa, plum ice cream, plum mousse, plum pudding, plum dumplings, Germknödel, Klümpe, plum pancakes, plum waffles, plum porridge, plum wine, plum liqueur, plum in fruit salad, plum in rum, plum with chicken, plum with pork, plum with duck, plum with beef, plum with fish, you can grill it, poach it, fry it, cook it and ... I reckon we stop here ... for now. Or do you have any other ideas?
Whatsoever, I started with a normal rice dish, including plums, bell pepper and minced beef. Let's simply call it Beef and Plum rice.


Ingredients:
Oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
250 g minced beef
1 tsp Chinese five-spice
1 green bell pepper, cut into whatever bite-size pieces
2 red chillies, chopped
1 tbs fish sauce 
12 plums, pitted and cut in half

Method:     
Start by heating up the oil in a pan. Toss in the garlic and fry it for a minute or even two. Add the minced beef and brown it. 
Season with five spice. Then come the bell pepper and chilli pieces. Cook for a few minutes until the pepper starts to soften.
Season with fish sauce and finally add the plums.
Just let things going for a bit so the plums get heated up. Make sure to spoon and mix everything well. In case the plums should start to dissolve, you know that you have cooked too long. Sometimes things like this happen.
If not, plate up and enjoy together with freshly cooked rice ...


Now that was just the beginning of my adventures with the plums. Of course I already united some plums with brown rum and, yes, I already did some plum jam ... Swedish recipe.
Sure, I'm totally motivated not to let the plums go to waste. In fact I already worked with half of the plums ... 4.5 million it must be then, right?
So, watch out for more.
Yes, that's it. That is all I have to say about it ... for now, because, you know, stupid is as stupid does. So you still have to wait with what stupid things I still some up with ...

10 comments:

  1. I'll admit, Christian, I never would have thought to include these flavors together to make a meal-in-one dish - but I love it! The plums with the peppers and beef sound like a tasty combination...

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    1. Thank you, Javelin. You know, no pain, no gain. The only way to find out is to try. I'm also glad it worked out.

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  2. That's an inspiring experiment, don't think I tried this flavour combination either, though I do sometimes add dried prunes to the beef stew.

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  3. The minute you mentioned Forrest Gump - I started thinking about Bubba Shrimp! That was such a great movie! I imagine Chinese five spice and plums would go quite well together. How did it taste?

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    1. Great, so the introduction worked perfectly with you. The Chinese five spice and the plums worked also well together. It tasted quite good, although the chillies didn't come through that much. Maybe they were the weak kind again.

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  4. Plums for sweetness? What a great idea and one I would never have thought of.

    Pinned and Stumbled. Thanks so much for linking up with #recipeoftheweek :) There's a new linky live now so do please come and join in! x

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    1. Well, it's not bad for an old man, right? That brain is still bringing some things up.

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  5. Lovely idea Chris. Interesting as just this weekend we made a duck recipe similar to this with a damson sauce and five spice seasoning! So I can just imagine that the lovely flavours work just as well here.

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    1. Thank you! Yes, it really works. I also made a plum chutney, that would go as well with a duck.

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