For a refreshing summer, make this tropical marian plum salad
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.
