Young Papaya In Coconut Milk Gravy

When ripe, papaya becomes a delicious sweet fruit. When still young, young papaya can be a delicious savory side dish to serve with rice.

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Living in the country side is really nice. We can access the village while we can still travel to the city center which is not too far away. Living in the country side means you can go to the vegetable garden as often as possible.

The majority of my family and my husband's family are farmers. So, our family has many different types of vegetable gardens. It allows me to have a pleasant gardening experience, even though my own garden is not as large as my uncle's and aunt's.

This time I will pick young papaya from my husband's aunt's garden. I deliberately invited my husband to pick papaya in the garden because I was going to cook a young papaya dish for lunch.

On a fairly hot morning, I rode a motorbike accompanied by my husband to my husband's aunt's garden.

There is a papaya tree that bears abundant fruit. Well, for your information, this papaya plant is a local type of papaya whose fruit is not sweet and tends to be soft. So, when ripe, this type of papaya is only used to feed birds or other poultry such as chickens and ducks. Because of these conditions, we also use young papaya for side dish menu.

This type of papaya will have a shorter fruit shape that is slightly rounded at the ends. Not long and not oval, like the California papaya type which is sweet when it is ripe.

I took 3 young papayas. These papayas have a lot of sap. So, you should wear gloves if the skin on your hands is quite sensitive.

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Apart from taking young papaya, I also took banana leaves from this garden. I will use banana leaves to wrap traditional cakes.

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Young Papaya In Coconut Milk Gravy

This recipe is inspired by a Filipino dish. However, of course, I modified this recipe with spices and herbs that I usually use for cooking so that it is more familiar to my family's palate.

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I added spiced grated coconut. Derived from grated coconut which has been seasoned with various local ingredients. This spiced grated coconut is usually used as a complement to rice dishes and is also added to many savory dishes that use coconut milk ingredients.

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Apart from that, I also added several pieces of red chilies and green chilies because I, my husband, and my mother-in-law's family like spicy flavors.

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For an authentic creamy taste, I use candlenuts. Having a name similar to nuts, I think because the texture is similar to peanuts, it also releases natural oils when crushed. Candlenuts are very suitable as a spice in dishes that have coconut milk gravy.

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As a complementary mixture of young papaya in coconut milk, I added tempeh as a good source of protein. Also, I added carrots to add beautiful color to the dish so that it doesn't become a pale color overall.

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Well, I also used my mother-in-law's kitchen to cook this time. So, you'll see all the cooking properties that I don't normally use for cooking. Stay tuned.

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The Ingredients

• 1 whole young papaya, cut into wedges
• 100 grams of tempeh, cut into pieces
• 1 carrot
• 300 ml of coconut milk
• 500 ml of water
• 5 tbsp of spiced grated coconut
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• (optional) chilies

white puree seasoning

• 3 cloves of garlic
• 5 cloves of small red onions
• 5 candle nuts

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The Cooking Instructions

STEP 1

Cut the young papaya into two parts with the knife in a straight line downwards.

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Remove all the seeds attached to the papaya flesh.

After all the papaya seeds have been removed, cut the young papaya into wedge shapes. Then, peeled them.

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STEP 2

Soak young papaya pieces in water with a teaspoon of salt. Soak for at least 15 minutes to remove the sap from the papaya flesh.

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After 15 soak, then wash young papaya pieces again with water to avoid salt part.

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STEP 3

In a blender, combine garlic, red onion, and candle nuts with 100 ml of water. Blend until they become puree.

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STEP 4

Prepare a medium or large cooking pot. Then, add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil. Once the oil is hot, add puree seasoning with bay leaves and pieces of chillies. Stir-fry for a while.

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STEP 5

Add young papaya pieces. Also tempeh and carrots. Stir-fry for a while.

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Add 500 ml of water. Then, cook them for about 20 minutes until papaya is soft in texture.

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Cook them with a cover. Cook over medium heat. Laterthe water will appear to shrink. Before adding coconut milk, make sure the young papaya is tender when you pierce it with a fork.

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STEP 6

Add coconut milk, also, spiced grated coonut, and salt. Steer well and take them simmer.

Correct the taste before they are removed. You can add a little salt if your tongue feels it is too sweet due to the influence of coconut milk and spiced grated coconut.

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Serving

This type of young papaya dish is suitable to be served with rice. This whole dish can be served for up to 5 servings.

I'm happy, my husband's family is happy with the results of my cooking using young papaya ingredients. This dish is a new thing for them to enjoy young papaya side dish in coconut milk. In general, my mother-in-law only serves young papaya using the stir-fried method.

Actually, I was quite surprised too. It turns out that coconut milk mixed with spiced grated coconut has a taste that matches each other. This is my new favorite recipe for serving young papaya. So, until next on my kitchen stories.

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Thank you for reading my blog and reblog if you want my blog this time worthy of reading by others.

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Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari

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