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Indonesian Kitchen: Delicious unripe fruits
Some people are known to get stomachaches when consuming green or unripe fruits
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ome people are known to get stomachaches when consuming green or unripe fruits. But some fruits are okay. One famous unripe or green fruit of the tropics, abundantly found in Indonesia, is the jackfruit.
It is also said to play an important role for some foods in specific regions. In Yogyakarta for instance, the unripe jackfruit is worth much money because cooks will make it into a specific dish and earn money by selling the dish made from the produce.
Combined with some specific dishes, nasi gudeg plays a significant role in the daily fare of Yogyakarta. The dish became famous not only in Indonesia but also abroad, shipped off by foreigners to their country.
The gudeg nangka taken overseas has been cooked in a special earthenware cooking pot known as kendil in Javanese. Cooked for a relatively long time over a low flame, the gudeg kendil is edible and still tasty for about two weeks, when kept refrigerated or in a cool place. Very young jackfruit, as big as a soccer ball is also used in many other regional dishes. The sour sayur asam from West Java includes young jackfruit as does sayur lodeh from East and Central Java. In East Java people add young petai beans and anchovies in East Java.
In some region, people do not add other vegetables mandatory for lodeh such as long beans or the leaves and young fruit of the melinjo plant because young jackfruit sayur lodeh already has a special rich flavor.
Sometimes sayur lodeh nangka is cooked in a light broth of ox bones before thick coconut milk is added.
As prices of most produce increase, young jackfruit is not as cheap as it was before. In the olden day Java, sayur lodeh nangka was not suitable for guests, today it can be found even at the table of most up market food joints.
For those about to handle the jackfruit it is highly recommended that they oil their hands lightly when peeling the skin of the young jackfruit. Otherwise, their hands could get all sticky.
In recent years, jackfruit has gained currency in Europe. Once, I dropped by at a friend’s place in Saint Tropez in South France. I asked her did she cook for lunch or would see have eat at cafes?
Sigrid, my friend, said that she would cook rice and make a soupy Indonesian dish out of jackfruit she bought in Amsterdam. “I am in the mood for an exotic lunch,” she said.
Another green fruit growing easily in a small piece of soil is the papaya. Ripe papayas are easy to handle but it takes certain skill to cook unripe ones. One of the most common dishes for green papaya is using them in preparing stir-fries or rich coconut milk sauced dishes. In many local cuisines green papaya is used as the main ingredient of traditional set of dishes. In Jakarta, a popular breakfast is the lontong or ketupat sayur. The sayur or the soupy dish is made from cubes or sliced green papaya. It is this dish that is also widely sold by street vendors.
The same dish is also popular in western Sumatra but instead of papaya the main ingredient used is edible ferns.
In East Java, green papaya is sliced and made into a rather hot and spicy sambal goreng. This dish is usually served with the rice cake of ketupat or lontong,. But in most places, rice takes the place of rice cake. Green papaya leaves can also be used as a tenderizer for meat dishes especially when preparing mutton or goat meat which tends to be a bit chewy.
In Aceh, kitchens are full of rather unripe fruit during the month of Ramadan or when expecting a reunion of an extended family. A variety of unripe fruits are available during this season like papaya mengkal the half-ripe papaya, firm green mangoes when in season, sour fruit or belimbing sayur and other locally grown fruit varieties.
Acehnese women are known for their ability to make attractive, sweet fruit decoration called manisan buah and after a while kitchens will resemble flower gardens. The manisan buah is a favorite decoration for Idul Fitri or as present given in family reunion.
Another popular unripe fruit is mango. One of the varieties of mango is the rather long mango called mangga Indramayu which is good for fruit salad.... Take 400 grams of mango, 300 grams of semi-ripe light red papaya flesh, one egg, ½ teaspoon of salt or to taste, ½ teaspoon of pepper or to taste, 50 grams of granulated sugar, 1 tablespoons of lime juice, 100 millimeters of salad oil, 200 grams of avocado flesh and 100 grams of green peas.
Cut mango and papaya in cubes, set aside. Put an egg, salt, pepper, granulated sugar and lime juice into a blender, and blend on high speed until well mixed. Now put the oil drop by drop into the blender until it thickens. Serve with your favorite dressing or avocado slices or cubes.
