How to Cut a Jackfruit

What is a jackfruit? A jackfruit is the world largest tropical fruit. It can weigh over 80lbs. Jackfruit contains Vitamin A, Vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium, potassium, sodium, zinc, and niacin. 100 grams of jackfruit contains only 94 calories.

I love to this fruit so does my mom. The two of us purchased 7 jackfruits for this season already! Now, a lot of you may know how to eat but do you know how to pick and open one? Let me teach you what I've learned from my mum. :)


1. Pick a jackfruit that is uniform all around. Reason for this is because you'll get more flesh (bulb) than fibre (rags). Look at the one I picked below. Rags are okay to eat but it have no taste to it. Some people use it to cook...but I just get rid of it since I don't know what to cook it with.

2. Finding a ripe jackfruit. When ripe, the fruit will give a little when pressed. You can also smell the aroma of the fruit. If the jackfruit is hard as a rock and no aroma, then you should leave it alone since it will not ripe until a few days or it will never ripe since they picked too soon.

3. Some jackfruit have green skin and some have yellow skin like the one below. If you see a black skin jackfruit, leave it alone as it is rotten or overripe. Once a jackfruit overripe, it does not taste good at all and might make you sick. :) Some jackfruit have yellow, dark yellow, or orange flesh. Some flesh is more crunchy than the other. You can never really tell by the skin unless you're an expert. :)

Cut the jackfruit in half.
As you can see, I picked a really good fruit. It is mainly flesh!!! The flesh is also very big and thick. Very sweet.

Do not touch the gum as it will glue all your fingers together.
Now use one of the magazine paper and wipe the gum off the fruit. Use as many papers as needed. Or use paper towel...but magazine is better.
Cut the fruit in halves again.

Remove the central core as it is inedible. Get ready to clean the gum again.

Now cut the bottom of the bulbs. This will make it easier to get the bulbs out from the skin. As you can see if you pick a good one then you should have more bulbs than rags.
Clean off the rags and eat the bulbs. Cover and save the uncut fruit in the refrigerator to slow down the ripening process. The bulbs can be kept in air tight container in the refrigerator for at least a week! Better when it's cold!!!

Some people...include my mom eat the seeds. She cooks the seeds over boiling water for over 5 minutes and then add in a dash of salt. The seeds can also be roasted. It tastes like chestnut. Of course just eat the inside of the seeds and not the skin. :)

Cleaning is the hard part. But if you have fluid oil or kerosene oil use it to clean the knive and hands first then wash off with soap and water. It should works with vegetable oil too but takes longer.

Hope you learn something today!

Che Banh Lot (Cendol)

I tried to make this dessert many times before and I failed miserably. Either it was too hard or too soft that it breaks easily. I tried different recipes and ingredients but none works. But after failing so many times I have learned which recipe works and the easy method of making it. I like the texture to be silky soft and smooth. Eat this with syrup and coconut milk. Super good!!!



sorry for the mess. was in a hurry.:)







Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour
2 tbsp mung bean starch (can use tapioca starch)
3 3/4 cup red limestone water or white limestone water
1/4 tsp salt
1-2 tsp pandan paste
3-4 drops green color

1 can coconut milk + 2 tbsp sugar +1/4 c water + 1 tbsp cornstarch + dash salt
250 gram palm sugar + 1 slap brown candy sugar + 4 cup water

1 potato ricer (or anything with holes)
a big bowl of ice water

Method:

Red limestone water- 2 tbsp red limestone mix with 8 cups water. Stir well and let lime crystals sink to the bottom at least over 1 hr. Just use the clear water. Better to strain over paper towel. (Note: Add more water to the lime crystals after each use and you can use it again and again.)

1. Mix rice flour, mung bean starch, 3 3/4 cup red limestone water, salt, pandan paste, and green color together. Mix well.

2. Microwave the mixture 1 minute at a time until the mixture is slightly thicken like the picture above. Each time take the mixture out and stir well with chopsticks. I microwave it about 6 times. Cook another half minute if not cook. Do not let it too dry or too watery. Too dry of the mixture will make the cendol soft.

3. Have a large bowl of ice and add in some cold water. Now quickly pour the rice mixture in the ricer and press lightly to desire length. The cendol should fall freely in the water when you press it. Continue until all mixture is gone. Add more ice if water is warm. The cold water is very important for the hot mixture to harden. Drain the cendol out of the ice water and serve with syrup, ice, and coconut milk. (Note: must work quick before the mixture gets harden. Once harden it, your cendol will not come out smooth.)

4. Cook the coconut milk mixture until slightly thicken.

5. Boil the palm sugar, rock sugar, and 4 cups water until slightly thicken.

6. Put some cendol in a cup. Add in 2-3 tbsp syrup, ice, and coconut milk. Serve cold.


Note: You can serve this with red bean, mung bean paste , grass jelly, or any other dessert.

Curry Fish Balls

For my brother and sister I made their favorite fish balls. I made a big pot more than enough for 6 people. However, my brother finish 1/3 of the pot by himself overnight. :)



Ingredients:

4 bag milk fish balls
2 bag shrimp balls
2 can quail eggs

Seasoning:

15 gm curry powder (about 2-3 tbsp)
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp salt
3-5 soup spoon fish sauce
1/3 piece brown candy sugar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
6 cup water
1 can chicken broth
2 tbsp vegetable oil
5-6 hot chilies (will be spicy)


Method:

1. Fry the fish and shrimp balls until golden brown. The quail eqqs are hard to fry since it will pop open and cause bubble in oil. I only fried it a little at the end.

2. While frying the fish balls, in another pot heat the oil and add in the curry and turmeric powder. Fry in medium heat until you can smell the curry but not burnt. Add in the water and chicken broth. Bring it to boil and add in seasonings. Add more fish sauce for taste. Also add in more curry if you can't taste enough curry.

3. Now add in the fried fish and shrimps balls. Also, add in the broken fried quail eggs. Let it simmer until the sauce is somewhat thicken. Now add in the chilies and try to break the chilies to release the flavor. Remember to taste to see it and add in more season as needed. It should be tasty, spicy, not too sweet, and full of curry flavor. It should not be salty either.

Note: The longer you fry the fish and shrimp balls, the more chewy it will be. Chewy is good! This is good to eat alone or with rice. The egg yolks make the sauce creamy and super rich!

Order from Pine Island Nursery

Well, I got the tropical bug bite again! This time I ordered two trees from Pine Island Nursery, the Thai Lessard sugar apple and 48-26 Lisa Atemoya. Is it my first time purchasing from them and the shipping was great. Great packaging. However, the trees are not as big as I expected...especially the sugar apple. It looks like a 1 gallon plant put in a 3 gallon pot. Oh well, I know not to purchase from them again since their plants are smaller and because they don't ship larger plant. The trees overall look pretty healthy with only a few leaves dropped. Hope the sugar apple grow fast! Can't wait to eat the fruit. :) left is sugar apple. right is 48-26 atemoya.