Cempedak Fritters

Fruits from the backyards

Got these lovely fruits from Pit Fung, my sister who resides in Tuaran. Cempedak, longans and seedless guava are all from her friends' backyard. The local oranges are from the backyard of Mr. Pang, a friend from Keningau and the custard-apple from our own backyard. We are truly blessed.

Cempedak

A cousin of the more popular jack fruit. Not one of my favourite fruit as I find it too sweet and texture wise, too mashy. My late mother was the only person I know who would eat the fruit as it is. For most of us, the fruit is only palatable when deep-fried in batter much like pising gorang, banana fritters.

Peel the outer skin to get at these luscious fruits.

Make a batter of 2 C flour+1 heap T cornflour+-1 1/2 C water+salt+1T cooking oil, mix lightly. Coat each seed with batter and drop into hot oil to deep fry. Lower heat when crust is formed and fry slowly for about 10 minutes to ensure the inner seed get cooked. This will take a while if you want a nice soft powdery nutty texture inside.

Done

Haven't had these for years and I have forgotten how good they were.

The crispness at first bite, then the soft sweetness hits you together with the lovely aroma and last but not least, you get to the nutty core...oh... a lethal combo.

Once started I couldn't stop, I just kept going and had one piece after another. Later, felt so guilty that I just had to skip dinner.

Bryan loved it too, Keshia doesn't and Leanne will only eat until the flesh and discard the seed.

Jo