<em><strong>Marina’s Malaysia:</strong></em> An Edible Jungle

Tropical Malaysia, lying between 2 and 7 degrees north of the equator, is a hotbed of fertility. Mangoes grow all year round, rice can produce two crops a year and jungle springs up wherever a little piece of land is left bare. It lines the motorways, covers the hills and threatens to encroach into gardens.

Over the course of my stay, I ate a huge variety of fruit, often from stalls that pre-cut and packed it in little bags, to eat in the car as you drive along – a step up from the usual UK roadside snacks of crisps, brownies or burgers.

Some of the less familiar types included rose apples – crispy, with thinner skins than an apple and a juicy, more citrus flavour; langsat – a pale yellow, grape-like fruit; green mango, a crunchy version of normal mango; jack fruit, large, oblong, chewy and exotic-flavoured; mangosteen, dark purple with white segments inside, a little like lychees; and calamansi, a small citrus fruit, green like a lime but a cross between a lime and a clementine.

Then there is durian, banned from buses for its putrid smell and definitely an acquired taste (it has been described as “like sucking Chewbacca’s armpits”).

And this is not to mention star-fruit, papaya, guava, melon, rambutan, lychees, limes, many varieties of mango, and of course bananas, both pink for cooking or tiny and yellow and unlike any banana I’ve ever eaten before.

In Malaysian cooking, fruit is often used alongside vegetables, as with the bananas in the following vegetable stew:

Vegetables Dalcha
A delicious vegetable stew/dhal that is used, served with rice, alongside a meat dish. It will become thicker and more delicious the day after cooking.

Onion and garlic paste:
Pound together (or whizz in a blender) the following:

1 medium onion
10 shallots (Malay shallots are very small – use five ‘normal’ sized ones)
1 inch ginger
4 cloves of garlic

300 g charka dhal split peas (soaked for at least three hours, boiled with water to soften), drained.

3 stalks of curry leaves
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 cup thin coconut milk
½ cup thick coconut milk
½ bowl tamarind juice from 1 tbsp tamarind paste, soaked in ½ bowl of water and drained
3 round aubergines, or 1 oblong, cut into chunks
2 big green bananas, cut diagonally, including the skin
¼ cabbage, cut into 1 inch squares
2 green chillies, cut lengthwise
1 carrot, sliced diagonally
3 medium potatoes, cubed

Salt to taste
Vegetable or sunflower oil for frying

Method:

Heat 4tbsp oil and fry curry leaves, and onion and garlic pulp until golden (5 minutes)
Add turmeric and cook till fragrant (3 minutes)
Add dhal and a bowl of water and bring to the boil
Add root vegetables with thin coconut milk and simmer till tender
Add softer vegetables with tamarind paste
Finally, pour in thick coconut milk and add salt to taste.