Asian Fruit and Veg -- A Glossary -- Please Contribute

[Leggy Peggy]

This thread is designed to help you to know more about Asian fruits and vegetables.
Feel free to post questions, answers, photos and the like, so we all learn more.
Here are descriptions that have been contributed so far (in alphabetical order).
The last entry is a link to another guide to Asian ingredients.

Bitter melon

Bok choy

Calamondin

Carambola

Dragonfruit

Durian

Jelly fungus

Kabocha

Kombu

Lotus

Luffa, edible (loofah)

Lychee

Mango

Mangosteen

Milk fruit (star apple)

Mung beans

Pomegranate

Salak

Tamarind

Yuzu

Asian Ingredient Guide

[Celticevergreen]

Tamarind



Originally from Africa, this fruit is now resident thoughout Tropical Asia from India to Thailand and Indonesia and into southern China.

The pulp of the fruit is eaten while green and also while ripe. The green pulp is very sour as well as acidic and is used in pickling recipes. The ripe pulp is more sweeter and is used as a sweetener in dishes such as desserts, ice cream, jams and syrups. It is also a natural laxative if consumed in large quantities.

This fruit is also used in Indian medicine as well as those in Southeast Asia.

[Leggy Peggy]

Thank you Celticevergreen.
I think this is exactly the kind of info for this thread.
I'll put a table of contents at the top so people know what's here.
If I get really clever, I might figure out to make each entry link.
Oh, wow, I have figured it out. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Celticevergreen]

Bok Choy



Bok Choy, also called Chinese Cabbage along with its relation, Napa Cabbage, is a member of species Brassica. Bok Choy is a favorite in Cantonese cuisine while Napa Cabbage is a favorite of Beijing cuisine.

More than twenty varieties of bok choy are available and can be found around the world. Originally from China, bok choy can be found in Korean, Thai and Filipino cuisines.

Cooking Times for Bok Choy

Boiling: 3 - 4 minutes for the stalks, 1 - 1 1/2 minutes for leaves.
Steaming: about 6 minutes for the stalks, 2 - 3 minutes for leaves
Stir-fry: about 5 minutes for stalks, 2 minutes for leaves - the leaves should be just wilted and bright green.

[Leggy Peggy]

Thanks again Celticevergreen -- you have posted one of my favourite foods -- bok choy. I have two bunches in the fridge right now. I add it to everything I can.

As an aside, when I want to add an ingredient here, I will send it to you to add -- that way I will get the Zaar email notification about the new message that allows me to create the link to the exact entry. Hope that makes sense.

Everyone else is very, very welcome (in fact, encouraged) to post their own contributions because I get email notifications when anyone posts -- except when I post myself.

[Celticevergreen]

Got ya, LP!!

And now on to our feature presentation


Dragonfruit



Dragonfruit, also called Pitaya, is the fruit of a type of cactus from Central and South America. Inside, the flesh may be white or red - both will have tiny black edible seeds, just like kiwi fruit. The skin is not edible so peel and eat or cut and scoop the flesh out. Dragonfruit is said to have the taste between a kiwi and a pear while others find it just plain bland. Can be found in Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino and Sri Lankan cuisines as a component of salads or blended into juice.

Pitaya cacti flower overnight, usually wilting by the morning. They rely on nocturnal creatures such as bats or moths for fertilization by other pitaya. Self fertilization will not produce fruit.

[Celticevergreen]

Kabocha



Kabocha, commonly called Japanese pumpkin, especially in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, is a Japanese variety of winter squash. It has a naturally sweet flavor, even sweeter than butternut squash. It is similar in texture and flavor to a pumpkin and a sweet potato combined.

Like other squash-family members, it is commonly mixed in side dishes and soups or anywhere pumpkin, potato, or other squash would be. It is a common ingredient in vegetable tempura and can be made into soup.

Kabocha is used in traditional Thai cuisine and Japanese cuisine. The kabocha was introduced to Japan by Portuguese sailors in 1541, who brought it with them from Cambodia.

[Celticevergreen]

Mung Beans

Whole Beans


Bean Sprouts


Mung Beans are commonly used in Chinese cuisine as well as in Japan, Korea, Pakistan, India, Philippines, and Southeast Asia. Both the whole bean and the bean sprout are used in these cuisines.

Mung Beans are very nourishing, while being relatively easy to digest--they do not generally create abdominal gas or bloating, the drawbacks of larger beans.

Mung bean sprouts are the major bean sprouts in most Asian countries. When purchasing mung bean sprouts, look for plumper ones that are not stringy or discoloured. If not using them immediately, place in a plastic bag with a few drops of water, seal and keep in the refrigerator. Stored in this manner, they will last for one or two days.

[Leggy Peggy]

Celticevergreen -- you are amazing. This is wonderful stuff.
I have been trying to 'find' a direct link to the mung beans, but because your two posts were close together, and no one else submitted in between, I'm not succeeding.
Could you please repost 'mung beans' so I can get a url reading. Or tell me if you have any ideas. I bet I could write Customer Support for a tip.
Let me know what works best. Thanks.

[vaxit]

I was looking for kombu, a type of seaweed for a Japanese recipe, at a Chinese grocery store. The owner didn't know what kombu was. I found it at a coop and brought it back to the Chinese market. It turns out the product he had, prophase kelp slices, and kombu are the same. Hope this helps somebody with the same problem.

[Leggy Peggy]

Thanks so much, vaxit! You sure did another good deed by going back to show/tell the shopkeeper. It's amazing how many different names things go by. I bought a book entitled Cooking with Asian Leaves in the UK, and I plan to share some of the array of names here. At the moment, I'm still catching up with things after our year of travel.

[Rinshinomori]

I really like this thread! Lots of great information here.

[Leggy Peggy]

It just dawned on me that I should cross check with Zaar's kitchen dictionary and see whether we need to ask to have ingredients added there, too.
This all started with vaxit's question a few weeks ago. Thumbs up! Yay!

[Celticevergreen]

Kombu



Kombu, edible kelp from the family Laminariaceae, can be found growing in the waters off Japan, Russia, China, Tasmania, South Africa, Canada, and the Scandinavian peninsula. In the culinary world, it can be found fresh, dried, pickled, and frozen in many Asian markets as well as many non-Asian ones also.

Indispensable to Japanese cuisine, Kombu has, within the last 50 years, become cheap and readily available. Kombu seaweed contains glutamic acids which are considered the basis of Umami, a Japanese word popularly referred to as savoriness - one of the five basic tastes.

Wakame seaweed, nori, and hijiki are all kombu products and are low calorie, low fat yet high in fiber and minerals.

vaxit wrote:
I was looking for kombu, a type of seaweed for a Japanese recipe, at a Chinese grocery store. The owner didn't know what kombu was. I found it at a coop and brought it back to the Chinese market. It turns out the product he had, prophase kelp slices, and kombu are the same. Hope this helps somebody with the same problem.

[Leggy Peggy]

Celticevergreen -- You are a minder reader.
I was hoping you'd do Kombu next.