Pink Java apples!... I never had a school friend who didn't have a java apple, a few Indian olives, or a raw guava in their hand. Of all, we were all naive little schoolgirls at the time. The only fruit from the mandarins, oranges, lovi-lovis, governors plums and June plums in our family's garden that were protected from us only if fruits were covered in a fire-ant nest or if the tree's height prevented us from reaching to those. Otherwise we eat them all!
We were the only ones who periodically went to our remote ancestral garden to gather fruit from the many fruit trees there. It was amazing to see Java apple trees full of shimmering bright reddish fruits that looked like fire, as well as half-ripe pink Java apples and completely ripe ones that had fallen to the ground and looked like a basket of vibrant red flowers. We were both really anxious because of the relentless torrential rains since we assumed that every single Java apple must have fallen to the ground. We both visited our family's garden with much doubt but were pleasantly surprised to discover the java apple trees in the family garden were all laden with red java apples, making them look as though they were eager to greet us both.
The green java apple that our brother gathered from our aunt's garden, which is on the same route that passes our family home, and the red java apple that we picked as far as we could in those high branches swiftly filled our basket.
Since I was a young kid, I have always loved eating my brother's sour java apple salad which he always made, with such a great blend of lime juice, salt, and pepper. At that time he was also very small. The way we gorged ourselves on his tart green java apple salad amazed and amused my little brother, and that was the only thing he knew how to make at that time. Poor guy!. This unexpected yearning to sample some of my brother's java apple salad, who is now a very robust young man who is far taller than I am, took me back to our shared childhood.
Because it was pointless to waste these fruits, and yet making jam from Java apples is quite different from making jam from other fruits, I started to make some jam out of them. Since there is a lot of water in these java apples, I first separate the liquid that has been oozing from the fruits during cooking to make cordial before making jam from the pulp that is drier. Because Java apple jam is a little different from other fruit jams, I used to always make another dessert to pair with the jam.
Consequently, next day, I made a meringue pudding like a cloud, poured freshly made custard that I had also made into the centre, added java apple jam and then garnished the pudding with multi coloured java apple pieces and raisins. While eating the pudding and sipping a glass of juice that my brother made from the cordial, with my grandmother seated next to me, it was heaven Without my knowledge, my mind wandered nostalgically back to my school days when, with my closest friends, I would eat java apples clasped in my hands, joking with them under the mango trees in the school garden.
Love you All!
Nadee
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Java apples! as a jammy filler for my Custard cloud Pudding & made Pink Cordial too
乡村烹饪 cuisine de village गाँव का खाना बनाना cucina del villaggio طبخ القرية Dorfkochen 村の料理 dorp koken 마을 요리 pagluluto ng nayon деревенская кухня cozinha da vila ഗ്രാമീണ പാചകം cocina del pueblo গ্রাম রান্না vesnické vaření landsby madlavning ចម្អិនអាហារតាមភូមិ kylän ruoanlaitto गाउँ खाना पकाउने masakan desa கிராம சமையல் masakan kampung หมู่บ้านทำอาหาร gotowanie na wsi köy pişirme làng nấu ăn ရွာချက်ပြုတ် μαγειρική στο χωριό villa coctione
Inspired by 李子柒 Liziqi and Dianxi Xiaoge
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