Thursday, March 06, 2008

Pithed Off



Did you know that the flesh of the pomelo (the heaviest of all citrus fruits) weighs less than half of the total, once you peeled off the very thick skin and got rid of the spongey white pith? I weighed a whole fruit (taken from "our" tree in Kudat) and then weighed the resulting pale pink flesh to learn this. (Amazing the things you do when you're not madly busy!)

I was disappointed by the opinion of Tom Stobart (The Cook's Encyclopaedia) that "the chief distinction of (the fruit) is that it is probably the ancestor of the grapefruit". He's obviously never tasted a good pomelo in Asia to give it such faint praise!

The ones from the garden in Kudat have very juicy, palest pink flesh, not very sweet which is why they're good in this Thai salad. You can try it with grapefruit if you can't get pomelo.

THAI POMELO SALAD

1 medium pomelo or 2 grapefruit, peeled and flesh broken into small segments
1/2 cup freshly grated or dessicated coconut, lightly toasted in a dry wok
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon castor sugar
2 tablespoons lime juice, or more to taste
1 tablespoon crisp-fried shallots
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced and slowly fried in oil until crisp
fresh coriander leaves

Put pomelo flesh, coconut, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice in a big bowl, stirring to mix well. Taste and add more lime juice if needed. Just before serving with rice and other dishes, scatter with the shallots, garlic and fresh coriander.




2 comments:

Tiffany said...

That pomelo salad sounds good.

Wendy Hutton said...

It certainly is. You can also mix pomelo segments with avocado and a vinaigrette for a Western salad. We're having the Bistro Cooking salad with bacon chunks, bread and garlic tonight (plus tomato & gruyere tartlettes to start, then a Mediterranean chicken, potato, tomato & olive dish, followed by a sorbet). No doubt I'll regain the 1 kg I've lost during the week!