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I DON’T know why we search far and wide for low-fat recipes when we have our own right at our doorstep. Think of yong taufu, fishball soup and this recipe, papaya titek.
"Picture provided by SPH"
This is an old nonya recipe that uses papaya – yes, the fruit – with a nonya spice paste called titek. Everything is boiled together in water or stock No fat, no oil, merely some shrimp with which to flavour the pot.
We nonyas eat it with rice. Ladlefuls of the broth, sweetened by the papaya and enlivened by sambal chilli.
And now I discover that papaya has lots of good things in it such as carotenes, vitamin C and flavonoids; the B vitamins, folate and pantothenic acid; and the minerals, potassium, magnesium; and fibre. Which may all help in preventing nasty diseases such as cancer, especially of the colon and heart disease.
In fact most of the red fruits will also do the job so just make sure you include red cherries, strawberries, watermelon and pink grapefruit in your diet. One of the signs denoting that a fruit is rich with antioxidants is that it is red in colour.
While eating a fruit raw is best as the nutrients are not destroyed by cooking,you can however increase the occasions for fruit eating if you cook it up.
The Cantonese do a fantastic double-boiled soup with pork, green apples and apricot kernels. The Thais, of course, eat green papaya in a salad, but sometimes I get tired of the assertive flavours of a Thai dressing.
Sometimes I long for the gentleness of a stewed papaya, spiked just a little by a spice paste, which describes papaya titek to a T.
Ingredients:
Papaya titek (For 8-10)
- 1Tbsp. shrimp paste
- 1 cup shallots, peeled
- 2 red chillies
- 4 candlenuts
- 100g shrimp
- 1tsp. white peppercorns, crushed
- 6 cups prawn stock or water
- 800g papaya
- 1tsp salt
Method:
- Place the ingredients for the spice paste in a food chopper and process till fine.
- Peel the prawns and reserve meat and shells. Place prawn shells and six cups of water in a saucepan and boil for 30 minutes. Strain stock and leave aside.
- Peel papaya and scoop out seeds within with a spoon. Cut papaya into large chunks.
- Place prawn stock, spice paste and crushed peppercorns to give a characteristic peppery note to the soup in a pot, large enough to hold the papaya. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.
- Add the papaya pieces, then the peeled prawns. Season with salt to taste. Bring to the boil again. Serve with chilli (toasted shrimp paste and chilli) on the side.
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