Papaya rice

This recipe dawned on me quite recently, when I decided to try a papaya. Both me and my companions decided that, despite the good looks, it does not taste too amazing as a fruit, but I thought it would work great with rice. Therefore a couple of days later I tried  making this dish, using the poor unwanted papaya.

The outcome was approved by my very skeptical housemate, who admitted, she did not believe me that this would taste nice. So if you don't believe me either, the only way to find out if that is really the case is to follow
my recipe and try it yourself!





Ingredients:

1 papaya wedge (of course)
1 medium onion
1/2 plum
1/2 lime with peel
1 tablespoon oil
2-3 tablespoons Mama Sita's Tapa Marinade
1 tablespoon vegetable seasoning (or stock cube)
1 cup easy cook or Japanese rice

You will also need:

non-stick frying pan
small pot

Procedure:

1) Cook the rice in water with the lime. Add only as much water as will cover the rice. If all the water is absorbed and the rice is still not ready, just top up the water and wait until the rice 'drinks it' again.

2) At the same time start preparing the seasoning in a non-stick frying pan. Start by frying the onion on 1 tablespoon oil (add the vegetable seasoning- it contains salt and will make the onion 'glassy').  Chop the fruit in thin slices. Add in chopped fruit while the onion is still white, or yellowish-transparent. Lower the heat. The fruit should release some juice. Add the marinade.

3) When the rice is almost-ready add to the pan with the seasoning and stew for a while.

4) Discard the lime, and it is ready to eat!

Enjoy!

Tips:

The recipe definitely works very well as a side, but if you are a fan of rice, you can eat it on its own.

You can change the fruit/rice ratio depending on how much sweet do you like in sweet-and- savoury dishes.

The first time I tried it I used the easy cook rice (did not have any other), which worked fine, but I think it could work even better with Japanese/Korean rice (sushi rice). I might try that next time and update this post.

I buy the marinade in my local Asian shop. But if you can't find it, I think that the recipe should work alright without it. It is meant for meat, but its ingredients are vegan, and it tastes amazing with everything- especially rice!