Young Cempedak with Smoked Pig Belly Soup

Cempedak is also called the ugly cousin of the jack fruit. Indeed, it’s a two different fruits in the same species. Even the form of fruit and trees are almost the same. The fruit of the cempedak also has a sausage-shape body but smaller in size when compared to the regular jack fruit. It has a green color when it is young and turns slightly yellowish when ripen. The fruit contains a bright yellow pulp covering the large brown seeds. The surface of the ripen Cempedak flesh is soft, sweet and haves a strong aroma which can even be compared to the smell of durian.

Young Cempedak

 

The unripe fruit is used as a vegetable or can be made into pickle. Ripe fruit can be eaten fresh but also delicious when deep-fry to made kueh. Some also use it in baking a cake or mix into syrup. It is a seasonal fruit hence it will be available only during fruit seasons.
 

Since we have plenty of it on this fruit season, I use the younger one to cook as a soup. So, try out this Sabahan simple style of cempedak soup.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 medium size of young cempedak
• 500g smoked pig belly
• Some sliced ginger
• Salt and pepper to taste

Smoked Pig Belly

 Methods:

1. Rinse smoked pig belly well, slice into small pieces.
2. Peel cempedak skin and rinse well. Halves and then slice into 1.5cm thick.
3. Fill pot with 60% full of water. Bring to boil then add smoked pig belly and ginger. 
4. When boiling, add in sliced cempedak.  Continue to cook until the cempedak become tender.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Ready to serve.

Winter Melon with Kampung Chicken Soup

Sorry to all blogger friend for not being around for such a long time.  I was fall sick and my health condition really not allows me to blogging. Cannot post any recipe for some time because I was really lost my appetite and very difficult to get into the kitchen and cooking.  Thankfully, I finally recover from loss of appetite but still unable to consume foods that are fried and spicy. At the moment, I'm more to soup dish that is simple but still full of nutrients.

My recipe for today is the winter melon with kampung chicken soup.  Winter melon also known as gorouk or guronsom by KadazanDusun.  Winter melon is a fairly big round fruit with dark green skin. Sometimes there is also a kind of long and oval fruit.  It looks like a water melon but is actually a squash. The hard, thin, mid-green skin has a waxy feel and a whitish tinge. The mildly flavored white flesh has the texture of watermelon but it not sweet. It’s high in vitamin A and vitamin C.

Winter melon has a little taste but cooking it with kampung chicken meat will make it more flavorful.  This soup is simple and relatively quick to prepare.

Ingredients:

1. 1 liter of water
2. 1 whole winter melon
3. 1 whole kampung chicken
4. 3 inc ginger
5. 1/2 cup of lihing (KadazanDusun rice wine)
6. salt to taste
7. finely chopped spring onion to garnish

Method:

• Scrub the winter melon skin to remove the waxy and a whitish tinge. Remove seeds and cut into middle-sized chunks.
• Clean, cut and drain chicken.
• Remove ginger skin and slice.
• Bring water to boil in a large pot. Add chicken and sliced ginger. Cook for about 15 minutes.
• Add in winter melon, lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Pour in lihing and add salt to taste. Simmer for another 15 minutes.
• Garnish with spring onion and serve.

This is really a healthy soup that tastes light, cleansing, and satisfying at the same time.  I finish two bowls for myself.  I serve my first bowl of soup as congee. Mix it with a scoop of plain rice.

I put some "jeruk bambangan" for my second bowl.  Do not be surprised if you sweat a lot... because this juicy, velvety winter melon soup really can detoxify your body.

Fish head with Watercress Soup

Soup is a must dish in KadazanDusun daily meal.  It is such a complementary to every meal in lunch or dinner. Even in a simple meal, there must be a sup.  Sometimes it can be served alone as a main dish and eaten with plain white rice.

My recipe for today is the fish head soup with watercress. As stated by Kitchen Flavours in his watercress soup recipe, The watercress is really nutritious and delicious as it helps to reduce heatiness and detoxifies the body. 

Watercress does have many benefits for health.  Compared to raw and boiled broccoli, raw tomato and a raw apple, Watercress is the better source of vitamins C, B1 and B6, K, E, iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, potassium and zinc.

Everybody knows that fish is an excellent source of protein, a vital source of essential fatty acids and contains a wide variety of vitamins and minerals.  So the combination of fish head and watercress soup not only tastes delicious but also full of nutrients.

Fish Head with Watercress Soup

Ingredients:

1. 1 fish head
2. a bunch of watercress
3. some ginger (thinly sliced)
4. some white part of scallion (sliced)
5. 1 tbsp sesame oil

Seasoning:

1. 1tbsp salt
2. a pinch of anchovies granules
3. a pinch of pepper powder

Method:

• Clean the fish head and cut into medium pieces.  
• Coat with cornstarch, a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper powder. Marinate for a while. Fry until golden brown.  Set aside.
• Clean and simply pluck the leaves and the soft part of the watercress stems.
• Heat up sesame oil in a pot.  Fry ginger until aromatic and then add in sliced white part of scallion.
• Pour about 1litre of water and bring to boil.
• Add in fish head followed by seasoning ingredients. Boil in medium heat for a while.
• Add in watercress, simmer for about 30 minutes.  Stir gently occasionally for fish head is not destroyed.  
• Serve hot.
  

Fish Soup with Sarawak Sour Eggplant

My Sarawakian Chinese neighbor is very pleased to give me some Sarawak sour eggplant.  She told me that the eggplant is really tasty to cook as soup with fresh fish.  Excited and can't wait to try, I take the eggplant without long-winded question and cook it as recommended. But... I was a kind of shocked. For the first time my cooking is really not to be as desired. There was kind of unpleasant smell and the taste is so weird (because the sarawak eggplant is a bit hard and taste different from the regular eggplant). I feel a bit guilty to throw away a pot of fish soup. Nobody is interested to eat it...  :(

Sarawak Sour Eggplant

Still not satisfied with the incident, I decided to ask for the actual recipe from my neighbor. I was lucky that I still keep one of the eggplant.  According to her recipe, the eggplant is actually really suitable for cooking as soup.  But the eggplant should be cooked until completely tenderize and the fish should be fried first before mixed into the eggplant soup to remove it unpleasant fishy smell. By following the recipe given by my neighbors, eventually I managed to cook the delicious soup. It was very tasty with a slightly sour taste.  Here I feel glad to share this recipe, it's totally adapted from my neighbor’s recipe...

Fish Soup with Sarawak Sour Eggplant

Main ingredient:

1. 1 Sarawak sour eggplant (sliced and de-seeds)
2. 300 gm fresh fish (I use red mullet)

Pounded ingredients:

1. 1  garlic
2. 2 shallots
3. 1 Inc ginger
4. 2 red chilies
5. 2 stalks of lemongrass

Seasoning ingredients:

1. 1 tbsp salt
2. 1 tsp sugar
3. 1 tbsp tom yam paste

Cooking Method:

• Deep-fry the fresh fish in hot oil until well done.  Set aside.
• Stir fry pounded ingredients in 2 tbsp oil until fragrant.  Add about 750ml water and bring to boil.
• Enter the Sarawak sour eggplant and then cover the pot. Simmer until the eggplant is completely tenderize and skins nearly separated.
• Add in seasoning ingredients and mix well.
• Add in the fish; keep simmering for a little while.  Done
• Garnish with chopped scallions before serving.