Pumpkin leaves have a rough texture with fine hairs covering the leaves and stems. In my area, Binjai City, pumpkin leaves are usually processed by boiling and eaten with chili paste, there are also those who process pumpkin leaves by means of curry. Today I will cook pumpkin leaf curry with the addition of Sunti acid, typical of the Acehnese tribe. I will tell you how to make Sunti acid at the end of the post.
The taste of pumpkin leaf curry that is given Sunti acid tastes more delicious, because Sunti acid can be used as a substitute for tomatoes and serves as a natural flavoring.
Before cooking pumpkin leaf curry, I will prepare the main ingredients in the form of pumpkin leaves and coconut milk. I will separate the pumpkin leaves from the stems, I also take the young stems. The young stems are light green and still soft, while the old stems are dark green with a hard texture.
The parts that I like are the top of the stem, flower buds and baby pumpkin, because after being stirred, the taste is soft but still crunchy, different from the leaves which have a rough texture.
I only use half of the coconut to make 1 liter of coconut milk, the way I blend the coconut with 1 L of water, then I strain until I get coconut milk that is not too runny and not too thick.
The ingredients that I use to make the pumpkin leaf curry are :
2 bunches of pumpkin leaves that I have separated the leaves from the stems
1 L of coconut milk
50 grams of red chilies
4 cloves of garlic
4 cloves of red onion
3 pieces of candlenut
2 segments of turmeric
1 segment of ginger
2 stalks of lemongrass
3 pieces of Sunti acid
1 tablespoon of salt
1/2 tablespoon of sugar
pepper powder to taste
100 mL of water for blending the ground spices
3 tablespoons of cooking oil for frying the ground spices
How to cook it is
1.Wash the onion, garlic, candlenut, ginger, turmeric, red chili and lemon grass.
2.Enter the onion, garlic, candlenut, ginger, turmeric, red chili and lemon grass into the blender.
3.Add water to the blender.
4.Blend until all ingredients are smooth.
5.Heat the cooking oil.
6.After the cooking oil is hot, then add the ground spices, stir-fry until it boils.
7.Add coconut milk little by little.
8.Add salt, sugar and Sunti acid, cook the coconut milk until it boils, stir so that the coconut milk doesn't break and keeps the delicious coconut milk taste.
9.Enter the pumpkin leaves little by little, because the pumpkin leaves will wither after 2-3 minutes in the pan, so that all the pumpkin leaves can be mixed well with the coconut milk.
10.Give enough pepper powder according to each taste, then cook until all the pumpkin leaves become wilted and the coconut milk boils.
After the pumpkin leaf curry is cooked, serve with warm rice. The taste of pumpkin leaves in curry is full of spices and Sunti's sour taste makes curry dishes richer in taste. In addition to rice, pumpkin leaf curry can also be served with white bread.
Now I will share how to make Sunti acid. At first the purpose of making Sunti acid was to preserve star fruit vegetables, this fruit is widely available in the Aceh area. People process this vegetable starfruit into Sunti acid, so that the vegetable starfruit that has been made into Sunti acid can last for years. Asam Sunti is one of Aceh's special spices made from starfruit (Averrhoa bilimbi). Sunti acid is commonly used to cook tuna, anchovies, make various chili sauces and additional spices in curry dishes. Asam Sunti has a sour and salty taste. The salty taste of Sunti acid is due to the process of making Sunti acid which uses salt as a natural preservative.
There are 2 types of vegetable starfruit that are usually made into Sunti acid, namely green and yellow star fruit, because I only have the yellow one, I will make Sunti acid from yellow star fruit. First I will choose an old star fruit, usually marked by the fruit that has a lot of flesh. To make Sunti acid, I used 1 kilogram of star fruit and 200 grams of coarse salt.
Next, wash the star fruit acid and throw away the flowers at the base of the fruit.
Arrange it somewhere to make it easier to dry, I use TAMPA (round woven bamboo). While stacking, add salt to taste, then dry in the sun.
After one day, the starfruit acid starts to shrink.
The second day I dried again, before drying, add salt until all the starfruit acid is covered with salt. So every time I dry, I give salt.
It took me 8 days to make Sunti acid, it all depends on the heat of the sun. after 8 days the result is like this.
The Sunti Acid that I made can last for 2 years. Store in an airtight place to preserve the taste.
Thank you for reading my post.
Best Regards
@umirais