A million dreams…

This is our celebrated wild jungle fern, the midin…

…but somewhere along the line, the name got distorted by the local Chinese and became “million“. It is very popular, a must have when dining at our restaurants probably because it is very nice plus it has a somewhat auspicious name.

When my friend from Singapore came here many years ago, he brought some home. His mum cooked it and it looked really nice in the photograph he sent me – if I am not wrong, she fried it with sambal hay bee (udang kering/dried prawns) but he said it was rather hard in the lower half. I scrutinised the photograph closely and I noticed that they cooked it whole.

Prior to cooking it, you should cut away the lower half especially the part where it was cut/plucked. It would have turned brown/dark…

…and besides, the lower part is hard. Cut around two to three inches from the curls – you should be able to do it very easily and that would be an indication that the midin is young enough, crunchy and delicious. If you have difficulty cutting, it may be a bit too old so move up the knife closer to the curls where it would be easier to cut.

These ferns grow in the wild in the belukar (secondary forest) so you can expect to see a bit of dirt, some of the leaves that have come loose, grass perhaps so you will need to rinse them thoroughly a few times. You may see some with dark spots…

…and you may want to use your knife to get rid of those. Just scrape gently and they will be gone. Actually, you can just rub in between your thumb and your finger and the spots will come off quite easily.

There you are! My missus bought half a kg and I got it all done in no time at all…

She fried it with sambal hay bee (udang kering/dried prawns)…

…and there was enough for the three of us for lunch and also for dinner that day.

I noticed that my missus also bought some paku (another type of jungle fern) when I was taking the midin out from the fridge. They do not keep very well and will turn dark in a few days and will not be so nice anymore. That is a lot more tedious to prepare – I think I did blog about it once but I can’t seem to be able to locate the post now. Come back tomorrow – I shall show you how to go about it all over again!