Papaya

[Monica Bhide]

I love papaya - green and ripe. Do you use it in the Indian kitchen.. do you cook with it? (other than as a tenderizer) Please do share your experiences with this delightful fruit

For my hubbys bday I made a papaya mango soup that was so refreshing..

so come on do share.....

[gingerly]

papaya jam and halva are good- made with ripe fruit. my use of the green is limited to thai style preparations.

[sequim]

Help an ignorant person. Is green papaya different from unripened papaya? I heard this is true of mango, that a green mango is not the same fruit as unripened mango. I've never seen green mangos in my regular grocery stores.

[Pan]

Help an ignorant person. Is green papaya different from unripened papaya?

To me, they're synonymous. But I'd think green mango was also unripe, unless it's what the Malays call kuini. That's not available in the U.S. though, to my knowledge. I've only seen the variety Malays call pauh, which is oval-shaped rather than round and has orange flesh. In Malaysia, pauh is the least tasty of the mango varieties, though still good. Mangga (which I believe is an Indian word and perhaps originally an Indian variety) is best, with kuini a close second. Both are round and much larger than pauh.

[BBhasin]

Have used green raw papaya as a stuffing for pararathas. peel grate andSeason in the usual way. tastes in between a cauliflower and radish paratha.

When I lived in Delhi we had some papaya trees?? in our backyard and sometimes the thanks to birds etc. the raw fruit would fall. we did not know know what to do with it until our maid made parathas for us. They were pretty good.

[v. gautam]

Green papaya chutney 'bengali' style a specialty at some Bengali weddings. paper-thin slices blanched in alkaline solution to transparency, cooked in bengali chutney style, eaten with fried plain papads and a sqeeze of lime at the end of wedding feasts, before the sweets. Delicious, and prepared almost exclusively at wedddings or catered feasts. The only bengali chutney I know of that can also include 'amada', Curcuma amada [amba haldi?]

gautam

Edited June 29, 2004 by v. gautam (log)

[Edward]

Green papaya chutney 'bengali' style a specialty at some Bengali weddings. paper-thin slices blanched in alkaline solution to transparency, cooked in bengali chutney style, eaten with fried plain papads and a sqeeze of lime at the end of wedding feasts, before the sweets. Delicious, and prepared almost exclusively at wedddings or catered feasts. The only bengali chutney I know of that can also include 'amada', Curcuma amada [amba haldi?]

gautam

There is an excellent recipe for this very chatni in Yamuna Devi's book. She wrires that she was taught it as "Tarun Baba Ghosh's Plastic Chatni" because of the transparent look of the papaya slices after being cooked in the acidulated sugar syrup. I love that!

My favorite papaya dish is Bengali-style potato and papaya torkori.

[bong]

Green papaya chutney 'bengali' style a specialty at some Bengali weddings. paper-thin slices blanched in alkaline solution to transparency

We used to call it "plastic" chutney, because it was paper thin and transparent!

[Monica Bhide]

Have used green raw papaya as a stuffing for pararathas. peel grate andSeason in the usual way. tastes in between a cauliflower and radish paratha.

When I lived in Delhi we had some papaya trees?? in our backyard and sometimes the thanks to birds etc. the raw fruit would fall. we did not know know what to do with it until our maid made parathas for us. They were pretty good.

One of these days we will have to make this for eG.

I have add a green papaya salad in India many times although I doubt it is authentic

[Monica Bhide]

papaya jam and halva are good- made with ripe fruit. my use of the green is limited to thai style preparations.

do tell us more about these recipes... how do you make them.. what do they taste like?

[Monica Bhide]

Help an ignorant person. Is green papaya different from unripened papaya? I heard this is true of mango, that a green mango is not the same fruit as unripened mango. I've never seen green mangos in my regular grocery stores.

Trust me when I say that you are not ignorant! When I mentioned green papaya I was referring to an unripe one

[Monica Bhide]

My favorite papaya dish is Bengali-style potato and papaya torkori.

Hey Edward - recipe please? How do you make this dish.. what makes it your favorite?

[sequim]

Help an ignorant person.  Is green papaya different  from unripened papaya?  I heard this is true of mango, that a green mango is not the same fruit as unripened mango.  I've never seen green mangos in my regular grocery stores.

Trust me when I say that you are not ignorant! When I mentioned green papaya I was referring to an unripe one

Thank you Monica. But when I recently read a recipe that called for green mango, the writer stated that green mango was not the same as unripe mango so I don't want to make that mistake again...

[Edward]

My favorite papaya dish is Bengali-style potato and papaya torkori.

Hey Edward - recipe please? How do you make this dish.. what makes it your favorite?

Actually, I have always relied on a certain recipe for this. Later after work I will post a paraphrased version. It is my favorite because it is delicious!!

[andiesenji]

Thank you Monica. But when I recently read a recipe that called for green mango, the writer stated that green mango was not the same as unripe mango so I don't want to make that mistake again...

Green mango is occasionally sold fresh in the Mexican supermarket here in Lancaster (Calif.) but is always available frozen in the same market. I have a bag of the frozen in my freezer. I use it in a chutney and one of the sambals I make to complement Indonesian foods. The ones I have are grown in the Yucatan.

There are also two types of papaya sold in the Vallarta Supermercado, one is the common one seen in most stores known as Hawaiian papaya with bright orange flesh, sometimes with a rose tint, and the other is the much larger "Mexican" papaya which can be well over a foot long, 8 inches in diameter and weight 10 pounds or more. The color of the flesh can range from yellow to pink to orange.

The seeds of both are edible and have a peppery flavor, save them and use them in salads or just as a snack.

Check out the recipes here, not Indian, but the Papaya cream is very, very good.mexican papaya

and here is a photo

mexican papaya

[gingerly]

papaya jam and halva are good- made with ripe fruit. my use of the green is limited to thai style preparations.

do tell us more about these recipes... how do you make them.. what do they taste like?

both these call for the large 'native' variety of papaya that you get in india Monica-(too expensive otherwise!)the jam is simply a fruit pulp cooked with lime juice,sugar, cinnamon sticks and cloves.the result is a lovely amber coloured mush with just enough of a papaya flavour.consumption of these jams in our household was always too high to necessitate any preservative techniques from being used!

the halva is the same but with more sugar and ghee added to the reduced mixture towards the end of cooking.

edit for speling

Edited June 30, 2004 by gingerly (log)

[bague25]

Apart from recipes mentioned above, including the papaya jam (we make it with just papaya pulp, sugar and lime juice), in our family we add raw papaya -it’s grown in our plantations and so we have a ready supply – to fish and meat curries – we just treat it like any other vegetable.

However papayas are NEVER given to pregnant ladies – causes miscarriages!

[Pan]

I actually know a woman who ate extremely unripe papaya for the purpose of aborting a fetus. It caused her to throw up a lot in addition to miscarrying.

Sorry if that was a disagreeable remark in a thread about tasty food...

[gingerly]

The seeds of both are edible and have a peppery flavor, save them and use them in salads or just as a snack.

guess that's why they're used to adulterate black pepper!i know someone who decided papaya was the perfect diet food,what with all those digestive enzymes.one week and countless papayas later,her skin turned a most becoming shade of orange

[Sujatha]

I shall add two more to the list:

1. Green papaya pickle

2. Green papaya curry (fried in onions, tomato and pinch of garam masala - very good!)

[rajsuman]

I had this wonderful raw papaya chutney at Samarkhand in Bangalore. It was more like a Bengali murabba really with thin slices of raw papaya in a light sugar syrup with some salt and panch phoran added. I couldn't wait until I found some raw papaya, so I tried it with raw mango. The result was, I 'tasted' more than half of it before it got to the table.

Suman

[Rushina]

There is a Gujerati "fast Food" available in Bombay. I call it fast food because we pick it up still warm from farsanwallas. It is Called Jelebi Ganthiya. Golden yellow fat jalebis, still warm Crisp Besan Ganthiyas (Chickpea flour batter seasoned with salt and spiced with jeera ajwain chili and haldi is piped into boiling oil) that can be anything from little wafers to big roti sized ones.

These ganthyai come with a Green Papaya chutney that I love. This Chutney is freshly made and the ganthiyas are dipped into it. Spiked with whole green chillies, tempered with mustard, it can be dry or wet but it always has chickpea flour to give it body. I can go through a whole bowl at one sitting (and I usually do, with a couple of ganthiyas for names sake...

I have just picked up a pappaya chutney from Dehra Dun that I am going to open the coming weekend for a Pahari meal I am cooking up for some friends.

Rushina

[Monica Bhide]

There is a Gujerati "fast Food" available in Bombay. I call it fast food because we pick it up still warm from farsanwallas. It is Called Jelebi Ganthiya. Golden yellow fat jalebis, still warm Crisp Besan Ganthiyas (Chickpea flour batter seasoned with salt and spiced with jeera ajwain chili and haldi is piped into boiling oil) that can be anything from little wafers to big roti sized ones.

These ganthyai come with a Green Papaya chutney that I love. This Chutney is freshly made and the ganthiyas are dipped into it. Spiked with whole green chillies, tempered with mustard, it can be dry or wet but it always has chickpea flour to give it body. I can go through a whole bowl at one sitting (and I usually do, with a couple of ganthiyas for names sake...

I have just picked up a pappaya chutney from Dehra Dun that I am going to open the coming weekend for a Pahari meal I am cooking up for some friends.

Rushina

How was the chutney?

[foodietraveler]

Green papaya salad, but I think mom learned it from living in South East Asia.

She makes green papaya paronthas. The papaya is treated as you would radish (mooli) and she salts the flour. So water from papaya does not make stuffing watery.

Green papaya koftas, good for those that need extra fiber mom says. So dadi gets plenty of these every week.

[raghavan iyer]

Rushina - i wonder if we both ate the same on a sunday morning at a stall in Borivili (sp?)...at least i did and have the recipe to prove it - do u?