A Rare Malaysian Cuisine: Remungai Curry

I'm back. For a while :-) It feels so so good to be coming back to my food blog! I really missed it. My wedding is in 2 weeks and I am very tied up in a bunch of last minute errands to run and to ensure I got everything on track. Anyways. Let's talk food!

Before I start, I do apologise for not being able to tell you in detail about this fruit used in this dish. We local Penangnites call this fruit "remungai" whilst I've heard some call it "mungai". It's dark green in colour, looks very much like a very thin long zucchini, and at first sight, may not look anything close to "food". Fruits of a big, shady tree grown in tropical climates.

It may originate from South Indian cuisine. My Malay neighbour makes very, very delicious curry with it, while my mum mix it with dhal and santan (coconut milk) making it a very special Malaysian dish - a blend of Indian and Malay cooking. At least in my personal opinion :-)

My Indian neighbour gave us the remungais and quite often, it is sold in the local markets.
:: Recipe ::
3 long remungais, cut to 3 inch lengths (soak in water for 5mins & drain)
2 large prawns
1 cup dhal (soaked in warm water for 1 hour to soften)
2cm galangal, cut to strips
3 shallots & 2 clove garlic (chopped & fried until dark brown in light oil)
1/2 can coconut cream
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tablespoon spice mixture (aniseed, black mustard seed, fenugreek seed)
salt to taste

Similar to cooking curry, but takes slightly longer time to wait for dhal and remungai to soften.

1. Heat up a little oil and stir fry the spice misture until aromatic. Add water & boil the dhal with turmeric powder and water until soften, then add in galangal.
2. Throw in remungais and let it cook until soften, about 10mins. Then add in the juicy prawns.
3. Add in coconut cream and salt to taste.
4. Just before turning off the heat, pour the fried shallots and garlic and stir.

Best served with warm rice. How do you eat it? :-) The remungais, once pressed, will break into 2-3 long strips. You will see it's tender whitish flesh, which is the part you eat. Just suck on the strips and enjoy the soft flesh of remungai, which tastes sweet. The hard part (outer layer) is thrown away. Don't eat that :-)

Please do share with me if you have recipes on remungai, I would love to learn various ways to cook this!