Delicious dishes from my hometown's canarium fruit

I grew up in a small village surrounded by mountains and forests in Tuyen Quang province. Since ancient times, people here have known how to find available vegetables and fruits in the forest to process into daily dishes and Chinese jujube is one of them.

The Chinese jujube is diamond-shaped, bright yellow when ripe, and has a sour taste, so it is not easy to eat. However, thanks to this taste, Chinese jujube is combined to make many delicious dishes. Two popular dishes made from Chinese jujube in my hometown are Chinese jujube stewed with duck and fresh Chinese jujube stewed with ginger.

Before cooking, the Chinese jujube must be broken open and soaked in cold water for about 15 minutes to release all the sap. Cut the duck meat into small pieces, stir-fry for about 5 minutes, then add the Chinese jujube and cook together. After seasoning with spices, fish sauce, pepper, and a little water, cover and simmer over low heat for about 30-45 minutes to complete.

In the cold weather of late autumn, braised duck with Chinese plums will be very delicious with rice. The richness of the duck meat, the slight sourness of the Chinese plums, combined with other spices, create a very special flavor. Many guests from the lowlands come to my hometown, those who are treated to braised duck with Chinese plums all praise the deliciousness and do not forget to buy a few kilos of Chinese plums as gifts.

Fresh plum stewed with ginger is similar to pickled plum. Crush the plum and soak it in hot water for about 10 minutes, then take it out and put it in a bowl. The spices for this dish include minced ginger, salt, and MSG. Mix all the spices with the plum, then stew for about 10 minutes to let the spices soak into the plum and you have a delicious ginger stewed plum dish.

Canarium fruit is not always available, because canarium season usually lasts from June to the end of September of the lunar calendar. However, the villagers still have a way to preserve canarium fruit by soaking it in salt or drying it for later use. If you have the opportunity to travel to the northern mountainous provinces of our country during this time, do not miss these special dishes!

Source: https://nld.com.vn/diem-den-hap-dan/mon-ngon-tu-qua-tram-que-minh-20201105221838699.htm