As a Sabahan student who study in peninsular Malaysia, this traditional Borneon is one of the top reason I'm longing for home! Now that I'm home let's prepare Pickled Bambangan with me!
Bambangan or Mangifera pajang is a seasonal wild mango fruit which is a round, orangey fruit covered with brown skin. When ripe, you can peel and eat it similar to a mango.
Pickled bambangan has a perfect combination of sour, salty, tangy and mango taste. While the strong smell makes it more delicious, perfect to be eaten with rice.
It's super easy to make this dish as there are only 3 ingredients: Bambangan flesh, its seed, and table salt. We only use four bambangan for this. Oh, and you need urang kuat for one of those step. There are 9 simple steps to prepare this delicacy so let's get it on!
First, peel the skin with a sharp knife. Make sure to peel very thinly since the green outer flesh gives the best taste. For prevention, wear gloves since the saps might itch!
Secondly, wash the fruits thoroughly with running water. Then dry it with towel.
Third, peel the black spots that are left. There might be some big circular black spot and you are going to remove that as well.
Fourth step, cut the flesh away from the seed at the centre. Then, cut them into small wedges thumbprint-size.
Next, this is where urang kuat comes to play. You need to use a butcher knife and strong force to cut open the outer layer of the seed.
After that, peel another layer of the seed until only only the white insides of the seed is revealed.
Later, grate the seed with a grater like the one in the pic above. The grated seed absorbs moisture from the fruit and gives a significant taste and texture.
Then, add 2 rice-spoonful of salt to the grated seeds or according to your preferences. The salt act as preservatives by withdrawing water from the fruit. Mix all the flesh, grated seeds and salts together.
Lastly, store it in a container. You can store this for half a year long, longer if refrigerated. Serve this plainly to be eaten with rice or you can add belacan or lada to it and enjoy the delicacy of a borneon!