Buah sukun goreng ( Breadfruit fritters )

Buah sukun goreng ( Breadfruit fritters )

Ribbon-like, young  petai pods at the tips of slender boughs  sway gently in the morning breeze while beyond it, above a tree line, a coconut palm tosses its feathery head. Nearby, dense kesidang creepers festoon a fence, its white blossoms filling  the air with its faint fragrance. Within a fenced area a hen clucks and a lone rooster let out a lonesome crow. The sight, smell and sound are reminiscent of a kampung scene.

However, my wife and I are enjoying the rustic ambience in my sis place at Ujung Pasir, right  in Melaka Town. We are sitting at a table of an open kitchen while my sis, Juliet , is busy deep frying buah sukun for breakfast. Above a kitchen wall, among a tangled mass of verdant vegetation, we  see  a sukun tree and my wife take a snapshot of the tree.

The sukun tree seen above the kitchen wall

Noticing our interest my sis says,

“We’ll take a look at the sukun tree after breakfast.”

Less than twenty minutes, the deep fried buah sukun ( breadfruit fritters ) and a bowl of melted palm sugar are placed before us. We dip the fritter in the melted palm sugar and we find the sweetness of the palm sugar complements and enhances  the  potato-like taste of the fried buah sukun and its lightly coated crunchy batter.

Buah sukun goreng (breadfruit fritters) and a bowl of melted palm sugar

After breakfast, treading gingerly across a pebble-strewn ground carpeted with creepers, we make our way toward the sukun tree. Along the way we spot a kantan plant  ( torch ginger plant) and my wife took a photo of it.

Bunga kantan( torch ginger) plant

We reach the sukun treea and our eyes scan the tree in search of the fruits.

Buah sukun among the large leaves

 Among the large leaves we spot a few fruits and my sis points to us two moderately ripe buah sukun which are just right for making buah sukun goreng (fried breadfruit fritters).

Moderately ripe buah sukun

 She then explains to us how to make buah sukun goreng.

Ingredients

1. Peel and slice the buah sukun.

Sliced buah sukun

2. Batter:

    (i) 1 cup of wheat flour

    (ii) 2 tablespoon of rice flour

    (iii) A pinch of salt

    (iii) ice- cold water

    (iv) cooking oil for deep frying

3. Palm sugar

Instructions

1.   Mix well wheat flour, rice flour and salt. Slowly add in ice-cold water until you get the right consistency.

2.   Heat oil in a frying pan or wok

3.   When the oil temperature reaches 185 C deep fry the well coated buah sukun until golden brown.

4.   Place the sukun goreng on paper towel for it to absorb the excess oil.

5.   Serve with melted palm sugar 

Forgotten fruits of my childhood days

Forgotten fruits of my childhood days

By C S Wan

“ What are these?”

I paused to look in the direction of the voice.

A small group of excited customers was crowded round a box, staring and examining its content. Curious, I craned my neck to look at the cause of the excitement.

Fruits at a Supermarket

“Ah, just some pulasan,” I sighed, noticing the fruits that had aroused so much interest and curiosity.

Later, as I sat at a table in the food court of the supermarket, I thought about the morning’s incident and it dawned on me that even though I grew up in a kampung, I had not seen a pulasan tree since leaving the kampung .  The pulasan and  many other local fruits which were so common in my childhood days have become a rarity. 

My mind drifted back to my childhood days in Batu Berendam, Melaka,  when I used to follow my cousin, Eng Kim, to the nearby cemetery in Jelutong where sentol trees grew in abundance.  The trees grew to a height of about 100 feet, but somehow Eng Kim was able to bring down the fruits with just a short stick. The silence  of the morning would often be broken by the whistling of a stick slashing through the air followed by  loud thuds,  as the fruits hit the hard cement floor of the tombstone.

We would sit on the floor and let our strong, sharp teeth sink into the hard rind of the sentol.

Ripe sentol fruits

I also remember, just across a pond in front of our kimpoh’s house stood a stately binjai tree.  We, kids, were warned by the adults to stay away from  the tree as the binjai tree was reputed to be a favourite haunt of the pontianak ( female vampire ).  However, as we, kids gazed longingly at the luscious, irresistible  fruits all the warnings were soon forgotten.   Some kids would sneak home with their bodies covered with rashes.

“ Celaka betul budak-budak ini. Berapa kali gua dah  kata jangan pegi sana. Ni dah kena sembur bota!” 

The 'endearing admonishment' of an irate nyonya wafted from a neighbouring house.

The binjai  is a kind of mango with a distinctive heady fragrance. According to my sis there are two varieties: one is sourish sweet and usually eaten fresh, while the sour variety is often eaten with sambal belacan or made into jeruk binjai. (preserved binjai). 

A binjai 

There is also the buah lanjut which resembles a binjai , but with a darker brown skin . Whenever the binjai and buah lanjut were in season, the air would not only be filled with their strong fragrance, but also with the sound of laughter and shouts of

“Buah binjay, buah lanjut. Cabut misay, kelueh jangut”

As darkness crept across the village, flying foxes filled the darkening sky and we knew the fruit season had arrived.

Flying foxes filled the darkening sky

 For my cousins, siblings and I it was a welcome sight for it was a harbinger of a much-awaited trip _   a trip to grandpa’s  orchard in Machap. Grandpa’s  orchard was whimsically planted with a wide variety of local fruits. The more common fruits such as rambutans, durians, cempedak, jackfruits, and langsat grew side by side with the lesser known fruits such as pulasan and namnam.

The pulasan resembles the rambutan, but whereas the rambutan has leathery rind which is covered with soft, pliable spines the rind of the pulasan is covered with thick, straight, fleshy spines.  The rind of a ripe pulasan is dark red and the flesh is usually sweeter with a slight aroma.

A pulasan tree

Pulasan

One of my favourite fruits at the orchard was the namnam. The kidney –shaped fruits grow in cluster at the trunk and although the fruits with their uneven skins may not look appealing, their sweet-sourish, succulent pulp make up for their appearance. 

A namnam tree

As we trod through the dense undergrowth, we stopped to pick the langsat  that hung in strands from the branches of trees with dark green leaves.

 

A langsat tree

There were also rambai trees with fruits that resemble the langsat. Although the pulp of the rambai can be sweet, they tend to stick to the seeds and to enjoy the fruits one must be prepared to swallow the pulp together with the seeds.

A rambai tree

I remember the adults would tell us kids,

"Telan biji rambay . Kelueh pokok kat pusat baru tau!"

( Swallow the seeds. A tree will sprout from your navel, then you'll know!")

We knew they were empty threats, as we did not see any kid with tree sprouting from his navel and we did not suffer from constipation.

Today, years on, the sentol trees at the Jelutong cemetery are all dead and buried, the fruit trees in the kampung have been bulldozed to make way for a housing estate and our grandpa's orchard at Machap has been completely submerged beneath the water of a reservoir. 

"What are these?"

The next time I hear that question at a fruit stall , I shall pause and take a look. Perhaps, someone is fascinated by a fruit and maybe it is one of the forgotten fruits of my childhood days.

Notes: Photos of the pulasan and langsat were taken during a trip 
            to my sis place at Simpang Empat, Alor Gajah.   
             Photos of other fruits courtesy of Google bloggers.


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Lost Orchard