Simplicity Coimbatore , star fruit
After a particularly weary Friday ,I arrived home in the evening to a most welcoming sight. Piled high on a large steel platter was a generous mound of vibrant star fruit and some other citrus berries.But it was the star fruit which captured my attention completely and was literally a sight for sore eyes.
For those of you who may think that the star fruit isn’t native to India,that would be incorrect.The star fruit tree thrives in a tropical environment and has existed in the Indian sub-continent for hundreds of years.This was a fact I discovered on Wikipedia a few years ago when I first cooked with the star fruit.
Coming back to my stash of star fruit,I had to first find out who sent it. I do know that so many of my friends and family members have star fruit trees growing in their gardens, right here in Coimbatore. After a little bit of going back and forth much to my friend Divya’s amusement I finally figured that it came from her home.The fruits were picked at it’s optimum.The colours on the skin had just begun turning yellow, with bits of green here and there,the fruit was firm and glossy. I couldn’t wait to run the fruit knife through that crunchy freshness.
When produce is this fresh ,it must be first enjoyed (I think) in it’s raw form without any additions. And that’s exactly what my son and I did. We had a helping each at breakfast the next day and happily crunched our way through the morning’s conversation.It had just the right amount of sweet with a hint of sour.Just perfect! I actually don’t understand when people say that star fruit is bland…maybe it just wasn’t plucked at the right time !
The star fruit is referred to as natchathira pazham in Tamil because of the pretty star like shape when sliced and also known as carambola or kamrakh. Star fruit saplings are easily available in nurseries in Coimbatore.It grows to become a beautiful tree so if you are looking to plant one, this is a good choice.
A few years ago we made a huge batch of star fruit preserve using lemon and jaggery.It was really tasty but there’s only so much of it that one can eat. So this time around I was thinking of doing more savoury dishes .While walking around the family farm ,I noticed that we had some pomegranate and limes that were perfect for picking. The combination of sweet and sour flavours seemed ideal to pair with the star fruit.
After cleaning the star fruit,we trimmed some of the brownish ridges and cut it into slices of medium thickness. Into the same bowl went the pomegranate kernels, thinly sliced small onions , fresh coriander leaves and stems.The dressing was simple.It consisted of juice of lime, salt , karupatti (palm jaggery) to balance the sour and dried red chilli flakes. Add it to the star fruit ,mix and let it chill until serving. A final topping of roasted peanuts and it was done.
This salad was a wonderful accompaniment to a warm bowl of millet noodles stir fried with some mushroom ,garlic ,spring onions and soy sauce. It felt good to treat such amazing produce with the respect it deserved.
There was still so much left over that we did some pickling by cooking it with green chillies, asafoetida (perungayam) ,jaggery, salt and cumin (seeragam).It’s delicious on the side with some chappathis or curd rice.
The star fruit ,I’m told , is also versatile to use in rasam. I haven’t tried that yet but apparently it’s a similar process to that of making a pineapple rasam. What is also nice is to make a nice drink with the star fruit. I know we have rains at the moment and we are all more likely to help ourselves to a warm brew rather than a cold drink but considering that the star fruit grows pretty much throughout the year, we can always save the thought for when the weather isn’t so cold.
All it takes is to mush the star fruit with a bit of lemon, salt and fresh mint. Add it to a cocktail shaker with some ice cubes and give it a good shaking. Pour a little in each glass and top with half toniq water and half with club soda.Add a star fruit slice for garnish and it’s good to go. Ginger , mango ,pineapple are all equally yummy options to add to the star fruit emulsion. ( A dash of gin is ideal for a cocktail version of the same !)
While the star fruit looks exotic and might be considered ‘imported’ ,it’s really not ! It thrives beautifully here so do consider growing your own.
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