Spicy starfruit, ANYONE?

I said I was a diet. I do not eat carbs, I said. And then, I made this!

It is my own doing as I just cannot resist chili. Others may have a sweet tooth, my Kriptonite is all things spicy.

A friend gave me some belimbing. It’s a local fruit from the same family as the starfruit, except that it’s super sour and normally best eaten cooked with dishes or sambal, or pickled. I could be wrong but I think this species is called belimbing buluh.

1. Clean and then cut the belimbing into smaller pieces.

2. Blend together about 10 shallots, 3 or 4 pieces of garlic, 2cm square of belacan (shrimp paste), 6 fresh chillies, 6 dry chillies (more if you like it spicy), a thumb of kunyit (turmeric) to get a paste going. This is by no means the absolute accurate proportions, as I’m just going guesstimates. Nothing to say you can’t add a bit more or less of something. I cut some fresh lemongrass in small pieces and fried it together with the paste rather than blending it as well.

3. Heat up the wok and some oil, and then fry the paste till fragrant. Or, another yardstick would be when the oil separates from the chili.

4. Throw in the belimbing, fry till it softens, add in salt and sugar to taste.

And it’s that simple! Eaten with some hot rice, I dare say it would be hard to stop at just one bowl. It took me sheer willpower to stop at three spoonful of rice! And yes, I really counted three!

The sourness of the fruit plays off the spiciness of the chili, balanced by the salt and sugar, so there’s no need to add any other condiments really.

Check out my next post for Nasi Lemak Sambal.