How to choose A Good DURIAN

Durian is an expensive fruit, if not the most expensive.
Thus buying durian is a very risky transaction.
Unless you are enhanced with x-ray vision, then, some basic knowledge and skill are needed while selecting and buying durians.

Here are few simple tips I picked up over the years :

Follow your nose
The overpowering, repugnant odor is most essential in durian as the King of tropical fruits .
Durian without the pungent smell, or anything less should be out of consideration .

Some varieties are good, but with less smell . But there are not many of that out there.
A good durian can be smell miles away, or should I say, as long as the durian has nice smell, it’s a good durian !
Safest way is of cause don’t try your luck ! Anyway, luck has nothing to do with it.
It is always better safe than sorry !

The pungent odoriferous flavour of the durian can be categorized into 4 main flavour profiles :
1.Pungency due to sulphur compounds, eg n-propyl mercaptan, dimethyl disulphide ,
2.Fruitiness due to aromatic esters, eg n-butyl acetate, ethyl butyrate ,
3.Creaminess, eg diacetyl, gamma- & delta-lactones ,
4.Green notes due to aldehydes and alcohols, eg cis-3-hexenol, trans-2-hexenol
( Lim TK, 1993, DURIAN Diseases and Disorders, Tropical Press Sdn Bhd, KL )



Look hard

# Avoid de-formed fruit – deformed means less edible pulp, more husk.

# Look for fruit with nice sharp tip – blunt or damaged tip may indicate the fruit had been handled numerous time, why can’t sell? Don’t pay for the answer.  

# Don’t buy fruit with cracked skin – cracked skin means over-ripe !  besides, the cracks may may cause bacteria contamination, which in turn cause food poisoning.

# Don’t share with insect borer – some say the insect knows a good durian, I think insect mana tahu pilih ?

# Reject diseased fruit – fungi and bacteria infested fruit, buat apa beli ?



Shake it !
Hold the fruit close to you ear, shake it, listen for a shaky sound . ( don't be too gentle with it.  shake harder )

( don't be a sissy ! off the gloves ! )

The sound indicate that the fruit is nicely ripen.
Both under-ripe and over-ripe fruit will not have the shaky sound.  Unripe fruit will have its pulp firmly attached to the inner husk, while the over-ripe pulp will be too soft to have the shaky effect .

Durian fruit exhibits a characteristic climacteric pattern in respiration and ethylene production. The ripening of durian indicated by they pulp becoming soft, creamy and sweet, with the presence of the strong odour and flavour typical of the fruit ( Tongdee, et al, 1988, Effects of harvest maturity on respiration, ethylene, production and the composition of internal atmospheres of durian, In Proceeding of Seminar on Durian, Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research, Bangkok )

Tongsui 糖水2 之‘饮’

糖水，顾名其义，甜之水。但在粤语却是以‘食’糖水而非 ‘饮’之。糖水多数煮得较浓，如花生湖、红豆沙、绿豆沙、芝麻糊、杏仁糊等都以少水煮成糊状。番薯汤、腐竹薏米水则煮得较稀，故可理所当然 ‘饮’之。

吾爱饮糖水，所以煲的糖水都用多水，煮得稀稀的，又甜又香，热天冷饮，人生一大享受！

Tongsui 糖水

Tongsui 糖水, is a collective term for any sweet, warm or chilled soup or custard served as a dessert at the end of a meal in Cantonese cuisine. ( so it was said ).

There is a wide variety of tongsui, ( of some I never heard of ) namely black sesame paste 芝麻糊 , douhua豆腐花 , egg tongsui 鸡蛋糖水, got fan 葛粉, gui ling gao 龟苓膏, hasma 雪蛤, red bean soup 红豆汤, sai mai lo 西米露, mung bean soup 绿豆汤, six-flavors六味, peanut paste soup花生糊, steamed egg custard 炖蛋, sweet potato soup 番薯糖水, sweet almond soup杏仁糊, sweet walnut soup. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongsui )

Are tongsui belong solely to Cantonese cuisine ? I doubt it. I am a Hokkien, but my family had as far as I can recall, served tongsui as such as red bean soup, mung bean soup, sweet potato etc.






糖水之谈 ？! 免谈！

不然！糖水之可在粤菜占一席， 并非无过人之处。以简单的材料煮出不简单的糖水， 何曾简单！

又、糖水之所以甜， 不止在于糖的分量，而是在于心 ( Ongzi’s 煮义论 )。 固汤水之谈， 非泛泛之谈也！

叁、糖水之谈，旨在抛转引玉。吾厨艺不精，煲糖水非我所长，还请各位多多指教。

再说，煲糖水非人人精、非人人懂，无人写，岂何以学？多一人写，则多一人传。何乐不为？

Spices

Pandan flavor extract

Something a kitchen should have #1 : pandan flavor extract

Pandan leaves are used widely in Southeast Asian cooking. They have a nutty, botanical fragrance which enhances the flavor of foods. Pandan leaves are from the Pandanus amaryllifolius of the screwpine family. The aromatic scent is of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which also give jasmine rice and bread flower ( Vallaris glabra ) their smell.

Pandan is so important in SE Asian cuisine, that it can be found in every village and sub-urban. Propagation is very easy, a cutting properly watered and fertilized will grow into a huge bush.

However, pandan leaves are sometime not as easily available as it should be. And sometime even though I put a generous bunch of pandan leaves into my tong sui 糖水, there are hardly any fragrant out of it ! Lagipun, getting fresh pandan leaves is especially difficult when work long hours and hardly finds time to go to market.

This is when I find a little bottle of pandan extract is most useful and convenience. It comes in small bottle e.g. 25ml, in various brands. A little drop of it is suffice to flavor a big pot of tong sui. Magic potion it is !

Kaya

Kaya, also known as seri kaya, is a coconut jam made from a base of coconut milk and eggs. It is sweet and creamy, often in golden brown or green depending of the amount of pandan and caramel.





Ingredient :

1. Sugar 70g
2. Egg x 2
3. coconut milk powder 25mg
4. pandan flavour


Instruction :

1. beat egg with sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
2. add in coconut milk powder and pandan flavour, blend well
3. steam over water, stir till cooked
to make the kaya golden brown in colour, melt 2 tsp of sugar separately, and stir in the caramel

as a child , I'd watch over and over again as my mother prepared the jam .

she, of c0urse, used the traditional original coconut milk and pandan leaves.

it was a lot more tedious back then, as we cooked from gasoline-stoves. its a long process stiring the jam over the flame.

however, the kaya my mom made was the best i had ever tasted.

there are still room for improvement for my kaya. it is far from perfect. yet, its delicious despite the look, I assure you.

Cassava Cake木薯糕 Kuih Ubi Kayu

Ingredients :

A1 fresh cassava 1kg ( ≈ 3pc ), grated

A2 fresh coconut 200g ( 1/4 pc ), grated
A3 sugar 白糖5 tbsp

A4 corn flour 薯粉4 tsp

A5 pandan flavoring

A6 margarine 植物油 for frying

Instructions

1. grate the cassava with a grater.

This is a very tedious job. Dangerous at times. It will spoil the mood if one carelessly grated own hand

I prefer the modern way using a food processor instead. Only need to cut the cassava into small pieces before putting into the food processor. A push of the button will do. May need to add a little bit of water to smoothen the grinding though.

2. Add in the grated coconut, corn flour, sugar and a pandan flavouring

Fresh grated coconut is not easily available in big cities, therefore can replace with coconut milk. packed coconut milk can be readily available in almost all supermarkets and hypermarkets, whether in liquid or powder form.

Sugar is optional as freshly harvested cassava is sweet by itself.
Corn flour too is just another ingredient can be omitted. However adding some will help make the cake more sticky and voluminous.

3. Steam the dough in steamer for around 15 – 20 minutes

The cake can be kept in refrigerator for days. Can be heated over frying pan.

To heat over frying pan, put some margerine in the pan over small flame. Wait till the margerine melted and spread it over the pan. After frying , its a bit yellowish, crispy outside, with a nice fragrant. The taste is as good, if not better.

I like to have it with a nice spread of kaya. Yum yum !