BEAR’S DUBPLATE MASHUPENTER THE WING CHUN BEAR
I love Dub Reggae. I love Kung Fu. What you go do? This dish is a celebration of my love for Chinese food, Wing Chun, and heavy, heavy Dub Reggae. I used to train in the Martial Arts of Wing Chun.
Those were the days… Lol!
INGREDIENTS
1 Stir fry medley
1 Quinoa & wholegrain rice packet
1 Red onion
2 Garlic cloves
1 Low salt vegetable stock cube
1 Plantain
1 Lemon
Low salt soy sauce
Maple syrup
PREPARATION
Peel and wash the red onion along with a selection of the stir fry medley. Seeing as I'm cooking for 1, I didn't use all the baby corn and spring onions (scallions). If you intend to cook for 2 then you'd have to use the whole medley.
Dry the red onion with a kitchen towel. Get a pan/dish suitable for frying and add a bit of coconut oil or any other oil - about a tablespoon of liquid oil. See pic below.
Place the stir fry medley on a kitchen towel; let the water drain off. Cut the red onion into rings and add the rings to the pan/dish. No heat just yet!
Now cut the spring onions (scallions) into 2 or 3 thin slices. And cut the red pepper into circles as shown in the pic below. You can either plaza the stir fry medley on a kitchen towel or on a dish. I left them on a kitchen towel after cutting them in order to avoid adding more to the washing up! Leave them aside for now.
Next, we get a pot and place the vegetable stock cube and add a bit of water as you can see in the above pic. We're going to add the packet of wholegrain rice and quinoa a little later...
About the plantain… I've had mine for weeks whilst contemplating a suitable recipe for it. Most people would've thrown it away thinking it's over-ripened. Well, I'm not like that. Ideally, your plantain wouldn't be as ripe. After giving it a rinse, I wrapped the plantain in aluminum foil and placed it in the oven. Being so over ripened, I should've first wrapped it in greaseproof paper and then the aluminum foil.
Your plantain won't be that ripe and should resemble a banana with a few brown spots. When it's firm you could remove the skin and place on a baking tray.
Anyway, you won't need to preheat the oven. Either remove the skin or if you leave the skin on make sure you add a few slits with a sharp knife to stop the skin from splitting and prevent the plantain from hemorrhaging. Place the plantain on a baking tray, and pop it into the oven. We're not ready to apply any heat just yet.
We're good to start…
THE METHODOLOGY
Introduce a medium heat to sweat the onion rings down.
See? The onions are looking nice. They're not overcooked. Remove from heat. Keep stirring as the residual heat could cause the onion to burn.
Once the residual heat has dissipated you add all the stir fry medley. Before you return the onions and stir fry medley back to the heat, you introduce heat to the pot containing the stock cube and a bit of water.
Once the heat is on the pot containing the stock cube and water return the onion and stir fry medley back to the heat. We want to gently fry the contents; the vegetables should be firm - al dente. As soon as the stir fry medley starts to wilt, remove from heat. Once the stock cube pot behind to simmer, use a fork or wooden spoon to dissolve it in the simmering water. Do not let the water dry out! If need be, remove from the heat to ensure the water does not evaporate.
Now turn on the oven with the plantain, about 190 (electric) should do it! Now add the rice to the pot containing the stock cube and water. Give the rice a stir to absorb the water and stock cube remnants. Remove from the heat as the rice will cook in about 2 minutes.
Next, we return the stir fry to the heat. We want a little less than medium heat. While the stir fry medley gently cooks, juice the lemon and pour into the stir fry. From there, add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and give it a stir. Add 2 tablespoons of Maple syrup and stir. If it gets too hot, remove from heat. Keep mixing as the residual heat has the potential to burn the vegetables. Stop stirring when the heat has dissipated.
With the pot of rice, add roughly a teaspoon of turmeric, black pepper cayenne pepper, and a sprinkle of coriander. There's no need to add salt as the stock cube contains enough! Mix but don't return to the heat just yet.
Add Chinese 5 spices to the stir fry, mix and return to the heat. Stir and reduce the heat. The liquid should be gently simmering. Return the rice to the heat and mix the seasoning. If the moisture starts to dry out then remove from heat, add a tablespoon of water and return to the heat. Keep stirring the rice and break up and clumps.
Turn the heat off from under the stir fry, stir to avoid burning. Give the rice one last mix, and turn the heating off.
PLATE UP
Plate up the rice as shown in the pic below or as you like.
Then add the stir fry on top. Remove the plantain from the oven and turn it off. If you've chosen to leave it in its skin then be careful when removing; it's very hot! And add as shown in the pic above. Your plantain should look a lot better than mine. As you know, my plantain was over ripened and I'm lucky to have been able to use it at all!
You could slice your plantain in medium sized circles.
It serves 2. It's possible to cook 2 plantains - size depending.
Enjoy!
Love,
Bear XOXOXOXOXO
No comments:
Post a Comment