A popular mixed fruit salad in a sweet sauce, this fruit rojak is a traditional Malay family favourite and one of Singapore’s most famous hawker dishes.
Yield: 4 Servings
Prep Time: 60 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Difficulty Level: 1/5
Ingredients
- 3 jambu ayer (red or green rose apples)
- 1 firm guava
- ½ pineapple
- 1 sour mango
- 1 pear
- 1 cucumber
- 200 g bangkwang (sweet turnip or jicama)
- 6 bunga siantan (pink ginger flowers)
- 1 yew char kway fritter, re-toasted in a toaster oven till crispy
- 1 coriander plant, cut into short lengths
SAUCE
- 400 g toasted peanuts, pounded till fine (or use ready roasted cocktail peanuts)
- 1 to 2 tbsps tamarind pulp
- 6 tbsps fine sugar
- 4 tbsps hay ko (thick black prawn paste)
- 4 tbsps water
- 1½ tbsps chilli paste (10 dried chillies, softened in boiling water and ground till fine)
- 3 bunga siantan (pink ginger flowers)
- 2 to 4 limau kesturi (calamansi)
Steps
01. Wash all fruits, peel if you like and cut into roughly same-sized wedges. Chill in fridge till needed.
02. Mix tamarind pulp with water. Squeeze out juice. Mix the hay ko with the tamarind water till you get a fine paste. Add sugar and chilli paste to taste.
03. Slice ginger flowers finely, and mix lightly into the hay ko sauce, along with half the finely ground peanuts and the lime juice.
04. Toss the fruits in the sauce and top with the remaining peanuts, coriander leaves and some more of the sliced ginger flowers. Serve immediately.
Photo: Andy Chia