KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — It’s April again. Time for the sweet and juicy marian plums, also known as buah kundang in Malay. A brief tropical treat, for as long the season lasts for this fruit.
Despite its name, the marian plum (Bouea macrophylla) isn’t a true plum but rather a close cousin to the more well known mango. Unlike mangoes though, these are tinier in size (perhaps a clue to why they were thought to be plums by early Western discoverers).
We can find marian plums all over South-east Asia; besides Malaysia, they are popular in Thailand and Indonesia too. Known as mapraang or mayong-chit in Thai, ramania in Indonesian and thanh trà in Vietnamese, a marian plum by any name would taste as sweet...
...provided it is ripe, that is. When unripe, the fruit is a pale green and tastes sharply tart. Once its skin changes into a more orangish hue, however, its flesh turns much sweeter, albeit with a slight acidity.
It’s a taste you remember long after the season has passed. You’d pray for the next year to arrive sooner, if only to enjoy their honeyed notes once more.
Of course, when a fruit is in season, there is bound to be a surplus. Rather than be boggled by a surfeit of raw fruits as dessert after a heavy dinner, why not feature them as the highlight of the meal itself?
Here is a recipe for a tropical marian plum salad, promising a refreshing summer and memories that will last till the season comes around again.
MARIAN PLUM SALAD
The marian plums are what are on display in this dish, so they are the main ingredient. You want to make sure they are ripe so that their natural tangy sweetness will take centerstage.
But the fruit alone won’t a salad make. To flesh out the dish (as an appetiser or a side to your main meal), you’d need some bright acidity from fresh lime juice and some pungent umami from fish sauce.
Blanch the French beans so they retain their vibrant green colour and crunch. Use red chillies or red cili padi (bird’s eye chillies), both for their heat as well as their sharp red colour.
Palm sugar (such as gula Melaka) will add a lovely fragrance to the salad dressing. Ordinary sugar or syrup wouldn’t be quite as aromatic.
Combine all these — it’s nearly entirely an assembly other than the blanching of the French beans — and you’ll have the perfect summer salad!
Ingredients
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon coconut oil
½ teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar (or gula Melaka), ground into powder
6-8 ripe marian plums, peeled and deseeded before cut into bite-sized chunks
5-6 French beans, blanched then cut into 1-inch sticks
2-3 red chillies or 5-6 red cili padi, thinly sliced
Fried shallots, for garnishing
Method
In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, coconut oil, fish sauce and ground palm sugar. Stir well to mix. Set this salad dressing aside.
Add the marian plums, French beans and red chillies to a larger mixing bowl. Pour the salad dressing over these ingredients and toss to mix thoroughly.
Divide into two plates to serve and garnish with fried shallots. Serve immediately.
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