Resep Garo Bunga Pepaya & Ikan Cakalang Fufu Khas Manado, Manadonese Papaya Blossom with Shredded Smoked Skipjack Tuna

Garo Bunga Pepaya dan Ikan Cakalang Fufu khas Manado

Garo Bunga Pepaya is a traditional vegetable dish from Manadonese or  Minahasa descent people in North Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. Garo Bunga Pepaya derived from the word garo which means mixed or stirred and bunga for flower or blosssom, while pepaya is Indonesian word for papaya or papaw. Literrary, garo bunga pepaya means stir fry papaya blossom or flower. Papaya blossom is actually a unmatured buds of male papaya flower. Bunga pepaya had a bitter taste, that’s why this ethnic tropical edible flower requires a proper treatment prior too cooking. Several known  methods are boiling the papaya blossom with salted water and/or kapur sirih or calcium hydroxide,  besides, you can simply add  daun jambu or guava leaves while you boiling it. This methods can be used to treat the papaya leaves for making  tumis bunga dan daun pepaya,but this treatments is not necessary if you want to cook the young papaya fruit.

Resep Tumis Bunga Pepaya dan Ikan Cakalang Fufu

Originally, garo or tumis bunga pepaya from Manado is typically hot and spicy dish with a pleasant bitter after taste. Generous ammount use of bird eye chilli is a common preparation for masakan Manado or Manadonese dish. Different from my stir fry papaya blossom and  leaves, garo bunga pepaya did’t use the any papaya leaves but daun melinjo or gnetum gnemon plant leaves to reduce the bitter taste of the dish. Garo bunga pepaya is usually accompanion with cakalang fufu or smoked skipjack tuna. The shredded smoked skipjack tuna give a savoury flavour and smokey aromas to the dish.  Since i can’t access any cakalang fufu nearby my place, then i purchased the fresh skipjack tuna and try to smoking fish without smokers. Even this is not the autentic cakakalang fufu, but i think it’s stilll had a nice smokey flavor.

Stir Fry Papaya Blossom/Flower with Shredded Smoked Fish

Garo bunga pepaya is contains pandan leaves. Pandan leaves is a potent fragrance leaves thats very common add to Manadonese cuisine like iga sapi bakar bumbu rica-rica or grilled ribs with hot chilli sauce. You can tide up or thinly slice the pandan leaves before using it. Remember to watch the amount of the pandan leaves because it can easily overpowering the dish. Other fragrance ingredient that usually used in Manadonese cuisines is kaffir lime leaves, daun kemangi (lemon basil)  and lemongrass, diffrent from Padangnese cuisines like rendang, kalio or gulai, the kaffir lime leaves and the lemongrass is not discarded because it’s thinly sliced. Thats why you use  only the soft  white part of the lemongrass  into almost Manadonese cuisines recipe.

Resep Tumis Garo Bunga Pepaya Khas Manado:

Ingredients :

• 250 gr papaya flower/blossom (bunga pepaya)
• 50 gr daun melinjo, you can replace ot with endives or cabbage, roughly chopped
• 100 gr ikan cakalang fufu, you can replace with smoked ell, anchovies, salmon or other smoked fish, sheddered
• 4 cloves garlic (bawang putih), thinly sliced
• 6 shalots (bawang merah), thinly sliced
• 12 or more bird eye chillies (cabe rawit hijau dan merah) , crosswisely sliced
• 1/2 cup lemon basil leaves (daun kemangi), finely chopped
• 3 cm pandan leaves (daun pandan), thinly sliced
• 1 cm ginger (jahe), finely chopped
• 2 kaffir lime leaves (daun jeruk purut), deveined and thinly sliced
• 2 lemongrass (sereh), peeled and use the soft while part only, crosswisely sliced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp oil

Instruction:

1. Heat up oil in a wok pan, saute garlic and shallot until slightly browned
2. Add the pandan leaves, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and chilli, saute aother 2 minutes
3. Add the smoked fish,  papaya blossom and saute another 3 minutes
4. Pour 1/2 cup of water, bring to boil and season with salt and pepper evenly
5. Nearly done, add the daun kemangi or lemon basil, turn off the heat and serve immediately

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