I remember not liking Atchara before, it's one of Philippines well known appetizer here. And to be honest I don't like its main ingredients, which is Papaya and I think that's the reason why I am not that fond of Atchara. My oldies loves it so much though. I am not a fan of papaya, I ate them but if I have a choice, I will never choose it for sure. It is like my hate with vegetable as a kid. But I already overcome that and now love veggies, a meal is not that exciting without a vegetable in the table. That's what I felt now. But I still don't like Papaya. ƪ(‾.‾“)┐
But, I started to like Atchara more as I grow older, was is because it was made by Mommy D? But, seriously, it taste good with any fried foods. I can eat lots of it if I have it as appetizer. And this will surely ruins anyone's diet. Lol. It's sweet and sour which is the taste that perfectly goes well with any salty fried or dried foods. Mommy D actually made this before New Year. And I want to share that here. We only have one bottle left right now. Who knows when Mommy D will make it again. For now, I will just enjoy it the remaining bottle.
So, the papaya that was used here was actually from Auntie Velyn. She even delivered them to us at home after harvesting them in one of the tree on her yard. And by the way, The papaya we need here is the unripe one. (._.)ﾉ
Then Mommy D grated all of them. She also soaked and massage them using salt and squeezes out its juices. And now, that's the brown sugar. That's half kilo but I think she only use 350 grams. It also have white vinegar and little bit of salt.
Here's the rest of the Ingredients, there's a lot of them. We need garlic, onions, bell pepper, and ginger. My favorite ingredients here was the ginger and bell pepper. Back then, I am deliberately avoiding ginger in any dish, but now, I eat them too after knowing how great they are for reducing inflammation. Us this how it is when you're in your 30s? The body automatically eat the nutritious ones, Lol.
Moving on, at first, I thought this doesn't require any cooking, I even told Mom about it. But she said it needs to be cook for the unripe papaya to soften. I thought, since it has vinegar, vinegar will do that in the papaya. But I was wrong. Lol.
Now let's proceed with the cooking, I don't have a photo of it but in a pan, we'll put the sugar, vinegar and some salt together. We'll cook it just until we melted all the sugar. This mixture will serve as the syrup of the papaya, and it will also give the flavor and taste with the grated Papaya.
After that, we'll mix everything, including the ginger, onion, garlic and bell pepper. We'll cook it until the papaya soften or if you prefer a crunchy type you don't have to cook it longer. But Mommy D want it softer because it'll be hard for them to digest it if its too hard.
And after stirring and turning, the papaya finally soften. Mommy D made it just how she wants it. As for me, I like whatever, crunchy or soft, anything is fine for me. And it's done!
Mommy D had to get all the jars available that she hide somewhere to put all the Atchara. But you know, the longer you leave this atchara in a jar, the yummier it become ෆ╹ .̮ ╹ෆ
Have some of you already tried this? Basically it is just a pickled papaya ＼(o)／
Lead Image Edited in Canva