I do not know what the name is in English or even in Chinese, but it is what the Malays call buah puloh or buah tupang to the Melanaus…
They grow on very big trees that resemble those of the breadfruit or buah sukun and when they are ripe, they will drop off the trees. The skin will be soft or even mushy, and you take out the dark brown-coloured seeds…
…and throw away the skin. You boil the seeds in water, adding a bit of salt – the same way you cook groundnuts and then you eat the kernel of the seeds, after removing the hard outer shell and the thin inner layer of skin (like in the case of groundnuts too) which is of a lighter shade of brown.
The one in the above photo was not ripe yet, so the seeds were not really brown in colour. However, it could be used in cooking. You have to remove the outer green layer or the “thorns”…
…which can be quite a chore because of the sap. That was why I did it on a piece of old newspaper and put my hand in a plastic bag – I could wrap everything up after I had finished and throw it all away. You may get the sap on your knife too but it can be easily removed using cooking oil. Having done that, you will have to cut the fruit into bite-size chunks but make sure that you cut away the core inside as well.
This one was a bit old, so I decided against cooking it in rich santan/coconut milk gravy (masak lemak) and opted for the much simpler kampong/country-style masak rebus (boiling) instead. These are the ingredients you need…
…one chilli, some ikan bilis (dried anchovies) and belacan (dried prawn paste). Of course, if you want a stronger or hotter soup, you may add more but that was all that I used. Put all those in water and bring to a boil…
Allow it to simmer for a while so as to let the flavour come out of the ikan bilis and belacan before you put in the buah tupang…
Bring it back to boil and allow it to simmer until the skin and the seeds are soft. As I have said earlier, this fruit was a bit too old, so the shell was brown in colour. That would mean that when eating, you will have to remove the shell from the seeds as it can be a bit too hard. If the fruit is truly muda or young, the shell will be whitish and you can bite and chew it easily. Thus, you will not need to remove it at all.
There you have it, easy as A B C…and I can assure you that it is very delicious. There is no need to add salt or msg as the ikan bilis and belacan would be salty enough and they would have contributed to the sweetness of the soup as well…but you may add those things according to taste if you wish or perhaps a cube of ikan bilis stock to enhance the flavour.
Now, that is the standard recipe and procedure to cook our kampong (village) or country-style soup which we call sayur rebus. Instead of the buah tupang, you may choose a combination of cangkuk manis or paku (jungle fern) and young baby corn, or perhaps you prefer cangkuk manis with sweet potatoes or pumpkin…and if you want to add a few udang galah (freshwater prawns), it will definitely go a long way in making it a lot tastier.
Give it a try! I’m sure you will love it unless you are one of those who find the smell of belacan repulsive…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 