I think, each season brings a variety of unique and distinctive ingredients. For me, we can process these ingredients into dishes that, if consumed and prepared correctly, can even have health benefits.
But often in my opionion, I think the social media trends make healthy foods unhealthy. This is due to excessive processing. They claim they want to create something different and avoid the boredom of consuming certain foods. But I think the downside is that the boredom they're trying to eliminate actually creates a negative impact because these foods no longer have their benefits. In my opinion, On the contrary, foods that originally had good benefits become unhealthy. Instead, they prioritize appearance without any benefits.
Lately, I've been focusing more on real foods that require minimal processing. Thankfully, my weight has stabilized, and my husband and I have become accustomed to consuming less processed foods. This time, I'll share about breadfruit. Have you ever heard of breadfruit or even eaten it?
What's unique about breadfruit is its texture, which is truly similar to soft bread, but with fiber. So, the nutrients in breadfruit are excellent as a source of energy for the body.
And another benefit is that it maintains heart health.
Breadfruit isn't produced year-round. So, when it's the breadfruit season, I immediately bought some at the market. I bought ripe, almost-ripe breadfruit. This way, it'll taste sweet when cooked.
But did you know that in my country, breadfruit is actually more popular as breadfruit chips, fried with lots of flour, rather than as a healthy food?
Once upon a time, I bought steamed breadfruit. So this time, I was inspired by that market snack to make steamed breadfruit. But with another savory and sweet addition: a sprinkling of grated coconut.
This breadfruit has a round appearance and a very distinctive pattern on its skin. You can see the sap on the outside of the skin. Because the breadfruit tree itself is shaking, causing the sap to fall onto the fruit.
My suggestion is to wear gloves when you start processing this breadfruit. First, I wore gloves and then cut the breadfruit in half. You can see the fibers forming a unique shape, and I think it's very beautiful. Nature's art is truly beautiful, isn't it?
After I cut the breadfruit in half, I cut the breadfruit into slices that were fairly thick but not too thin so they wouldn't fall apart when steamed. Then I peeled the breadfruit.
Look at the peeled breadfruit slices—they look like slices of bread, don't they? Then I soaked the breadfruit in a bowl of salt water for 15 minutes.
While I waited for the breadfruit to finish soaking in the salt water, I prepared my steamer. I brought the water to a boil.
Apart from waiting for the measuring tool to be ready and the breadfruit to be soaked in salt water, I also grated fresh coconut meat. Then I sprinkled the grated coconut meat with a little salt to taste the sweetness. It's a traditional recipe that my late mother told me about. That we have to sprinkle a little salt on the grated coconut so that the sweetness from the coconut comes out and also has maximum health benefits for the body.
After my steamer was ready, the water in the steamer was boiling, I then arranged the breadfruit slices in the steamer container.
Then I steamed the breadfruit slices for 15 minutes.
Yey, after 15 minutes the steamed breadfruit is ready and ready to be served with grated coconut.
Serve it while it's warm and I think it's enough for one or two meals. Because the longer it is stored at room temperature, the steamed breadfruit slices will release mucus and this will make the breadfruit no longer tasty to eat. So finish them off as soon as possible.
Look, natural sunlight is streaming into my house, and I'm taking this picture of this breadfruit dish amidst the beautiful shadows.
The universe sent me this delicious breadfruit. Thank you, God, for all the blessings today. Thanks for reading ❤️
Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari
Anggrek Lestari is an Indonesian fiction writer who has published two major books. Now She is a full-time content creator. She has a goal to share life, poem, and food content that makes others happy and can get inspiration.
Contact Person: [email protected]
Discord: anggreklestari#3009
