Delicious dishes from canarium fruit

(Baonghean.vn) -The old star fruit dish, once familiar to the villagers, has now become a strange and attractive dish that urban people want to buy and enjoy. Not only because of its special fragrant flavor, star fruit also reminds us of the taste of our hometown.

The canarium tree is a woody plant, flowers in February and bears fruit in August. There are two types of canarium: black canarium and white canarium (black canarium is also called mui, white canarium is den); white canarium is green, turning light yellow when ripe; black canarium is shiny black when ripe.

Canarium can be processed into many delicious and attractive dishes such as black canarium sticky rice, canarium stuffed with meat, canarium chicken soup, canarium salted...

Good star fruit is long and slender at both ends, still feels hard to the touch, the skin is smooth and powdery.

Black plum sticky rice

Black plum sticky rice is a famous dish that is both sticky and fragrant, rich and fatty without being greasy.

A steamer of sticky rice with several kilos of sticky rice needs 1/3 of the filling to be canarium. To prepare a steamer of sticky rice with canarium, you have to wash the sticky rice and soak it the night before, then wash the canarium seeds and pour them out onto a tray the next morning. After being stewed, the black canarium seeds are peeled off their thin outer shells and the seeds are separated to get the pulp. Once you have enough canarium filling, toss it with rice, add a little salt and put it in a steamer to simmer.

After steaming the sticky rice, mix in the canarium pulp and stir well. The sticky rice will change from white to a beautiful purple color. The canarium pulp can also be stir-fried in fat with a little seasoning powder and fish sauce before being mixed with the sticky rice. The aroma of the sticky rice blends with the aroma of the canarium pulp to create a delicious aroma that stimulates the taste buds.

Chicken and plum soup

This is an easy and simple dish to prepare. The Chinese plums are picked, washed, and the chicken is cut into bite-sized pieces. Fry the ginger until fragrant, then add the Chinese plums and chicken and stir-fry for about 5-7 minutes, then add enough water to cover and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes until both the Chinese plums and chicken are well-cooked. When the soup is cooked, add the spices, a little fresh pickled shallot leaves and roots, and soaked and cleaned wood ear mushrooms. Cover the pot for about 2 minutes and then the soup can be scooped out and eaten.

When scooping the soup into a bowl, we will see the soup has many different colors: yellow of Chinese jujube, white-yellow of chicken, green of leaves, pickled onions, dark purple of wood ear mushrooms, turmeric yellow of ginger and chicken fat. The soup is very clear with the sweetness of chicken mixed with the slightly sour taste of Chinese jujube, the mild spiciness of ginger and the aroma of pickled onions, making it unforgettable for the eater.

Braised meat and fish

Black plum stewed with meat or fish is a dish that is highly anticipated during plum season. The plum is best when the whole seed is crushed, the kernel along the plum seed will seep into the flesh of the fruit, then stewed thoroughly with pork belly... The sour and astringent taste mixed with the half-lean, half-fat meat makes the rice more delicious and rich. The meat is no longer too greasy and fatty, the plum is then slightly astringent, slightly sour, and rich, the richness of the pork belly and the plum kernel is released.

Braised fish with Chinese plum is a popular dish of rural people. When braised, the sour taste of Chinese plum seeps into the fish, making it soft and slightly sour, while the sweetness of the soy sauce and protein of the fish seeps into the Chinese plum, removing the astringency and reducing the sourness. The Chinese plum has a sweet and sour taste, rich and fatty, and you can eat it forever without getting bored.

Stuffed plums

To make black plums taste rich and not bitter, they need to be made the day before. Wash the plums thoroughly with water to remove the resin. Boil 1/2 liter of water in a pot, add about 3 tablespoons of salt and stir well, remove from the stove and let cool to about 75 degrees, cover the plums with water, cover and leave in place (also known as stewing plums) and use the next day. When the plums are soft, take them out, split the fruit lengthwise to get the flesh, and remove the seeds.

Minced meat, wood ear mushrooms, washed and chopped mushrooms, add a little crushed shallots. Mix all ingredients well, season with a little spice. Stuff the mixed meat mixture into the plums and arrange on a plate. Heat oil in a pan, then put the plums in the pan to fry, carefully flipping them over so they don't burn. When the meat inside is cooked, arrange each fruit on a plate for a nice presentation. Or if you don't like fried food, you can arrange them on a plate, put them in a steamer to cook for about 7-10 minutes.

Eat the plums while they are hot and dip them in fish sauce and chili.

Salted plums, plums with fish sauce and chili

The process of making salted plums is quite meticulous. The plums are collected, washed, then put into a pot to boil until the fruit is cooked evenly. Taste it, if the plum pulp separates from the seed and is chewy and fragrant, it is done. Then let the plums cool and put them in a jar or pot to pickle.

Use boiled water to cool, add salt to cover the plums and cover the jar tightly. After about 2 weeks, the plums will ferment and turn sour, then you can take them out and eat them.

During the soaking process, the plums will secrete resin and form large patches on the surface of the salt jar. Therefore, people occasionally open the lid, use a ladle to remove the resin film from the jar, and then seal the lid. When eaten, the salted plums have a slightly sour taste, retain their aroma, the plum flesh is peeled but still has a chewy, crunchy texture and the salty taste of the salt mixed with the rich, sour, and sweet taste on the tip of the tongue.

You can also make pickled plums with fish sauce and chili. Wash the plums, use a knife to cut them into 4 pieces, remove the seeds, and soak them in salt water for about 30 minutes to reduce the bitterness and prevent them from turning black. Soak the plums in fish sauce, garlic, chili, and sugar, wait for the spices to soak in, and then eat them. Young plums are a bit sour and astringent, but after eating, they have a sweet taste that lingers on the tip of the tongue.

Ngoc Anh

(Synthetic)