Took a drive down into Buffalo NY a few weeks back and came across these Cherry Plums at the Trader Joes, intrigued… so a package came home with us. Unfortunately they were a bit to tart for my liking and the texture wasn’t what I expected. I hoped they would have been a bit firmer and not as soft. Childhood Chris kicked in and a chow was born.
You’ll Need…
1 package cherry plums
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 lemon (juice)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
Scotch Bonnet pepper (see notes below) thinly sliced
3 leaves shado beni (culantro) finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon water
Notes! I used an entire Scotch Bonnet pepper including the seeds and white membrane around the seeds. Use as much hot pepper as you can handle and the variety you can access or prefer. Should you not have lemon juice, lime will work as well. Should you not be able to source Shado Beni (chadon beni , culantro), cilantro (coriander) will work – about 1 tablespoon chopped. WARNING! Wear gloves and wash your hands with soap and water after handing such hot peppers as Scotch Bonnet.
Give the Cherry Plums (everyday North American Plums will work.. should I be able to source Caribbean type plums in the future, I’ll be sure to share that recipe) a wash, then (watch the video below) slice though the plums, hitting on the seeds inside as a guide. These cuts will allow for the spicy sauce to work it’s way inside.
Using a paring knife worked best for me.
Basically all you have to do now is place all the ingredients into a large bowl or jar and mix well. Remember to make it as spicy as you can handle. Yes, Habanero and Bird’s Eye peppers are great in this as well.
If there were stems on the cherry Plums, remove them at the start please.
Allow it to marinate or soak after you give it a good mix for about 30 minutes in the fridge before you dig in.
If you wanted to add some grapes (cut in half) or slices of apple in the mix, that would be delightful. Chow is meant to be spicy and the sort of spicy, herbal, citrus juice or marinade is prized to sip on at the end.
NO! I didn’t get a hint of Cherry in these Plums, however the Chow was excellent.
