Text 2429, 137 rader
Skriven 2008-02-14 15:05:13 av Glen Jamieson
     Kommentar till en text av Dale Shipp
Ärende: 2008 PICNIC  80214
==========================
 -=> Quoting Dale Shipp to Carol Shenkenberger <=-

 -=> On 02-12-08  02:04,  Carol Shenkenberger <=-
 -=> spoke to Janis Kracht about 2008 Picnic <=-
 
 > What is durian?
 
 CS> LOL!  You didnt ask that!  Tell me you didnt ask that!  You are about
 CS> to be indunuated with replies!
 
 CS> BTW, I can get them fresh here and since I'm driving...  Just need
 CS> another who knows how to get the dastards open.  Have a box of the
 CS> cheapest (not even ziplock) samwich baggies on hand ok?  Twist tie type
 CS> is cheapest and works fine!

 DS> We can now get them fresh here at several Asian stores.   At several
 DS> picnics where they showed up, we used a hammer and a Sears Slim Jim
 DS> crowbar to open a crack and then pry them open.   At the first
 DS> picnic we went to, we have pictures somewhere showing what we did. 
 DS> We transported the thing from here to Colts Neck, NJ (Pat Stockett's
 DS> place then) -- frozen and double wrapped in a styrofoam cooler to
 DS> seal it.    It was allowed to thaw suspended from a tree down wind of
 DS> the main picnic.   When it came time to bust it open, Jim Bodle held
 DS> it while I applied the crowbar.   He came away with bloody hands.

If you are going to have the "fruit of kings" as the piŠce de
resistance at a picnic, it would be preferable to speak to a
knowledgeable shop-keeper, telling him when you expect to open it.  The
most common variety of durian is the Thai Monthong, but if you can find
it, the smaller, almost spherical Malaysian or Indonesian kind has a
superior flavour.  Left to itself, a durian will spontaneously split
when it is fully ripe, shortly before it goes rotten, but ideally it
should be opened when it is ready, using hands only.  (Leather
gardening gloves are essential for that, if you don't like the sight of
your own blood.)   Ripening can be delayed by keeping it refrigerated.

The five lines of natural partition are not obvious, so you have to
look carefully, and possibly assist initial splitting with a strong
knife.  The flesh should be quite soft, and almost custardy.  Durian
lovers will not worry about the aroma of juice sticking to their hands,
and will relish splashes on their clothing, as dried bits can be picked
off for later consumption.

The quantities to serve range from zero for some, to at least one
durian per rabid enthusiast.  Don't waste the seeds, which can be
boiled or fried or baked like chestnuts.  Their flavour is very mild,
and completely different from the flesh which surrounds them.

And for Janis's benefit:

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05
 
      Title: Durian    "The Cheese That Grows on a Tree"
 Categories: Info, Fruits
      Yield: 1 Informatio
 
MMMMM----------------------DURIAN OR DURION---------------------------
 
  A tall fruit tree (Durio zibethinus) of the Chocolate family, is
  found in the East Indian islands with leaves resembling those of the
  cherry and with large bunches of pale-yellow flowers. Its fruit,
  called durian or durion, is about the size of a coconut and has a
  hard thick rind covered with soft spines. The cream-colored meat is
  flavorsome, but has a bad odor. The fruit contains ten or twelve
  seeds each as large as a walnut. When roasted the seeds taste like
  chestnuts. In Indian markets, the durian commands a higher price than
  any other native fruit. One tree yields about 200 fruit each year.
  
  Grown in the Philippines, Malaysia, and southern Thailand, they are
  seldom exported. The smell of the durian has been described as
  "sewagelike" or like that of a "rotten onion."  According to Alfred
  Russell Wallace, "It has a rich butterlike custard highly flavored
  with almonds, but intermingled with wafts of flavor that call to mind
  cream cheese, onion sauce, brown sherry, and other incongruities." No
  one is neutral about about this fruit.  There are people who like its
  strong flavor and penetrating aroma and cannot stop eating it once
  started. There are others, not under its spell, who will not approach
  within yards of the opened fruit and will steer clear of anyone who
  has eaten it. Its taste is most like a robust overripe Roquefort.
  Raefel Steinberg writes that some airlines in the region specifically
  forbid passengers to take fresh durian aboard an airplane, and in an
  airconditioned hotel in the Phillipines he saw a printed notice to
  the effect that "Firearms and durian fruit are prohibited in the
  rooms."
  
  This large, globe shaped fruit has a hard, yellow-to-green and heavily
  spiked shell over a fleshy segregated interior of soft, sweet flesh.
  When ripe it has a strong, nauseating odor which makes it a difficult
  fruit to stock. It is, therefore, rarely available fresh. Even in
  Malaysia and Indonesia where it is grown, it reaches only selected
  fruit stands for its two annual seasons. Its flavor is intense and
  can best be described for its similarity to tropical fruit salad.
  Eating it fresh can be an acquired taste. It is used raw in ice
  cream, desserts and to make candy. it is sometimes fried, cooked in a
  skin over charcoal or steamed in the same way as breadfruit. A
  yellowing of the skin indicates the fruit is ripe. Durian lovers are
  known to open the prickly soccer ball-sized fruit with gusto and dig
  out with their fingers the sticky yello pulp while telling stories
  about the durian's supposed aphrodisacal values.
  
  In Sumatra, cooks prepare a chile pepper-hot stock, "Sambal".  One
  version, "Sambal Tempojak"  is made from fermented durian fruit,
  coconut milk, and a collection of spicy ingredients.
  
  Durian is sold in cans or bottles, packed in sugar syrup. Each
  segment of flesh has one or several large black, shiney seeds which,
  in Indonesia, are roasted and eaten as snacks.  The petals from
  durian flowers are eaten in the Batak provinces, while in the
  Moluccas islands the peel is used as fuel to smoke fish.
  
  It is also known as "ambetan", "dooren" (Indonesian), doorian
  (Malaysia) and "turian" (Thailand, meaning "king of fruit").
  
  =========================> Notes and Credits <====================
  
  "Funk & Wagnalls Standard Reference Encyclopedia", 1969 by Reader's
  Digest Books, Inc.
  
  "The People's Almanac" by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace
  Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1975  ISBN 0-385-04186-1
  
  "The Encyclopedia of Asian Food and Cooking", by Jacki Passmore,
  Hearst Books, 1991  ISBN 0-688-10448-7
  
  "Foods of the World, Pacific and Southwest Asian Cooking", by Rafael
  Steinberg, Time Life Books, 1972, 70-114231
  
  Researched by Dorothy Hair 5/23/94 Re-U/L to Cooking by Burt Ford.
  7/95 11/95 2/96 7/96 11/97 8/98 08/03.
 
MMMMM
 

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