Star fruit season in the garden

Snakehead fish cooked with star fruit has a refreshing sour taste.

Once upon a time, next to my house there was a star fruit tree. I don’t know when my neighbor Mrs. Cong planted the tree, but the fruit hung all over the fence.

And I don't know if it was because life was difficult, spices were not as rich as now with braised vegetables, coriander grown in large quantities, available at the market, so star fruit always appeared in my mother's cooking.
From cooking soup, braising fish, mixing salad... star fruit is indispensable. So much so that, in my memory, star fruit slices keep flying through every dreamy sky, under the summer sun or the winter rain.

In the summer, star fruit followed mother into every meal, refreshing and cooling. Every day father caught a snakehead fish, there would be a pot of fish soup with star fruit. Mother cleaned the snakehead fish, cut it into pieces, marinated it in fish sauce and familiar spices in the kitchen corner.

Mom told me to reduce the fishy smell of the freshwater fish, I had to remove all the veins, rub it with salt and lemon. Pick a few star fruit in a basket, pick some basil, and add a green banana to make the soup flavorful.

Mom put the pot on the stove, heated peanut oil with crushed shallots for fragrance, put the fish in to stir-fry briefly, add boiling water to make the fish firm and chewy. Keep the heat medium, when the fish boils again, season with a little salt, sour star fruit, green banana, and spices to taste. Before removing the pot from the stove, add some basil leaves, break off a crispy green chili to make it fragrant, then ladle it into a bowl. In the summer, a bowl of snakehead fish soup with star fruit is also easy to eat with rice.

In the past, my mother often seasoned her soup with coarse salt, but surprisingly, it was not too salty but still sweet. In the garden, my father always planted a small cinnamon tree, the leaves were not big and lush, but were crispy but fragrant. My mother seasoned every soup with coriander and a few cinnamon leaves.

Bitter melon soup, squash soup, fish soup... definitely need basil leaves. Until now, every time I go to the vegetable store to buy squash, instead of adding onions and cilantro, I choose basil leaves. Many vegetable sellers complain about the strange smell of coriander. Squash and basil leaf soup, you should try it, maybe the story of my father planting a cinnamon tree in his garden is true.

Star fruit is associated with dishes cooked by my mother.

These days, the winter rains have begun to fall across the street. The small star fruit trees in the garden are also bustling with the wind. I remember the day my father cast his net in the deep field. The rainwater was white, my father was bent over untangling the net in the cold October.

The fish in the rainy season are fatty, like perch, crucian carp... Crucian carp cooked with Vietnamese coriander is boring, so my mother braised it with star fruit instead. My mother said that crucian carp is very clean in the rainy season, just leave it whole, wash it with salt water and braise it; the intestines of the crucian carp have a medicinal effect that helps you sleep well, it may taste bitter at first but when you get used to it, it will be very delicious.

After cleaning the fish, Mom put it in the pot, marinated it with fish sauce, pepper, chili powder, and MSG. She washed and sliced ​​the star fruit and placed it on top. Mom also did not forget to go to the garden to dig up fresh turmeric, wash it, pound it, and marinate it in the pot to make the fish attractive and fragrant.

The pot of fish was marinated well, put on the stove, added a little boiling water to cover and simmered. The smoke in the winter kitchen was so pungent that it stung my eyes. Mom scooped some rice husks and poured them around the stove to keep the firewood warm longer. Crucian carp braised with star fruit had a very special taste, fatty, fragrant, and soft bones. Cut the fish into pieces and eat with hot rice, the winter melted on the tip of the tongue.

In addition to soup and stews, on the days when she sold vegetables from the garden, my mother bought some beef mixed with star fruit salad. I can’t remember the taste of beef, but the sliced ​​star fruit squeezed to remove the sour juice, the crushed roasted peanuts, Vietnamese coriander, basil leaves, and the sweet and sour chili fish sauce still linger in my memory.

The star fruit tree nestled in the small garden of the city, seemed to pull me back to my childhood days. On the rush days going to work, the star fruit flowers peeking out from the leaf axils made me pause. My mother's hair was covered in frost, unable to cook delicious meals for her children. Only the star fruit tree still regularly bloomed and bore fruit, leaving behind memories: " It rained on Saturday afternoon and I came home late/ The star fruit tree on the high hill had all its flowers " (Pham Cong Thien)...

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/mua-khe-rung-trong-vuon-3145124.html