With its abundance of wild birds and rainforests, Malaysia is the perfect place for a honeymoon vacation. With the best of the local culture and history, you can enjoy all that nature has to offer, while still making your stay comfortable and relaxing.
Dates, or Melaleuca as it is called locally, is a fruit grown in tropical and subtropical climates across the world. If you are interested in making your own date fruit jam from your own garden, there are many recipes for you to choose from. Here are some of the top five recipes from Malaysia:
The first recipe, which is the easiest and cheapest, is just made by picking off the hard outer skin and the seeds of the melaleuca. All you need is a small container such as a plastic bowl, a spoon, and a little water. Place a melaleuca on a dish and cover with water. Once the melaleuca has soaked for about fifteen minutes, drain and rinse.
The second recipe uses dried dates. These dates may have already been ripe. Before you take these dates, however, cut them into pieces. This is important because you want to make sure that the dates themselves don’t have too much water and that they aren’t mushy when they are ready. If they are mushy, then the date jam will also be mushy.
The third recipe for date jam uses fresh, ripe fruits such as apricots, peaches, pears, and even bananas. This recipe calls for cooking these fruits using boiling water. Then, the fruit is placed in a bowl, covered with water, and allowed to sit overnight to dry.
Fourth, the fifth recipe uses dried fruits. Again, they are dried in a way that allows you to eat the fruits that you’ve just made without actually eating the actual fruit. These fruits include figs, dried pineapple, dried apricots, dried guava, dried coconut, and dried bananas. All of these fruits can be eaten raw or eaten as an after dinner snack, but they also make very good date jams.
The final recipe for date jam from Malaysia is the easiest and the most expensive. You must first peel all of the skins of the dates. Once all the skins are gone, the fruits can be peeled and cut into chunks. Put all of the chunks into a container such as a small canning jar and then add a couple of tablespoons of water.
Let this mixture sit overnight then place in the refrigerator for the next two days. After two days, you will have a thick and sticky date jam. You will have to refrigerate it for an additional day to allow it to harden.
When the date jam hardens, remove it from the refrigerator and then transfer it into a glass jar. Seal the jar tightly with a piece of wax paper so that the date jam doesn’t break. This is important because you do not want your date jam to spill over and ruin your jam jar.
Once you have this date jam in your jar, you are ready to serve. Just add one teaspoon of honey, one tablespoon of orange zest, and one tablespoon of fresh lime juice to each jar. You can even drizzle on some sultry syrup if you like.
Date Jam from Malaysia can be made and enjoyed just about any time of the year. In fact, this recipe is even great in the summer months. Just pop a few in your freezer and freeze. When it’s time to serve, place some ice cubes in the palm of your hand and serve up.
In short, date jam from Malaysia can be eaten anytime of the year. The key is to use ripe, fresh fruits and avoid dehydrated fruits. This will help ensure that you get the best quality date jam.