Life at the cottage: Mangoes and Dabai

There were plenty of mangoes back at our orchard the last time we were there ....all we have to do was going down the river bank and pick up the fruits ...the ripe mangoes tend to fall off the tree ....so, there wont be any need for us to climb the tree or to pluck it ....

pick of the day ...from our own tree :-)

My mom and dad planted lots of fruit trees in our orchard ...if i am not mistaken, they started planting these trees way back in late 1980s ...I was still at school then ...and since then, they had planted numerous variety of fruit trees - rambutan, durian, mangoesteen, longan, jackfruits, tampoi, dabai etc etc ...and those trees had already mature and started to produce lots (and i mean A LOT!) of fruits ....those who benefit from this are us - the children and grandchildren ....

the mangoes - sweet and fresh!

besides that, we also went to pluck our dabai ...for those who do not know what it is, or who have not seen dabai before, it actually tasted a lot like olive ...and the colour is more or less the same ...dark purple-ish colour, with oily flesh ...

dabai ( Canarium odontophyllum of the family Burseracea)

This fruit is very popular in Sarawak ...often fetched around RM18-29 a kilogramme ...my friends who have never seen this fruit before often asked me how do we cook it ...well, there are a few ways to cook this ...well, the truth is, you don't really "cook" it ...here are some tips on how to prepare your dabai dishes:-

(i) soak the fruits in hot water till it soften ...and then eaten as it is, or with a dash of salt ...and some people might prefer to take it with a dash of soy sauce ...accompanied with hot, steaming rice ...; or

(ii) alternatively, you can take out the flesh of the softened dabai (throw away its seed), and sauteed with onion, garlic,and a little bit of fresh chillies (if you want it hot); or

(iii) dry the soften dabai in hot heat (outside, under the sun) for 1-2 hours, then marinate it with lots of soy sauce (thick or light soy sauce), dash of sugar, a bit of olive oil and leave for an hour or so; or

(iv) you could preserve it in salty water ...and it can last for 6-12 months (but it became salted dabai).

A friend of mine told me that she made pesto from dabai flesh - just replace the pine nuts with dabai flesh. I have yet to try this, as the dabai season just ended. Perhaps I could try it next year :-)