Tropical Cooking with Travel Man: Appetizer/Side Dish #1 - Pickled Papaya

Pickling had been used as an earliest way of food preservation for vegetables. The mixture is usually composed of excess vegetables submerged in brine solution. This will be used later as side-dish or appetizer especially when there's meat dishes to suppress the fat aftertaste.

The first of July saw me picking green papaya to make a pickle out of it. I've been used to different kinds of pickles. Shredded cucumber sweet pickle is usually mixed with mayonnaise and used as sandwich spread. Western pickle (mixture of carrots, cauliflower, celery stalks,potato, cucumber)is good as appetizer due to its salty taste.

Filipino cooks tried modifying it, so I became acquainted with its sweet-sour taste. It's more milder than those pickles in brine solution. You have to wash it first to remove excessive salty taste.

My special sweet-sour solution is 1:2:3 (salt, vinegar and sugar mixture).

Ingredients:

• 3 small green papaya, cleaned and shredded, excess papain removed

• 1 medium-sized carrot, julienned with fancy cuts

• ginger roots, julienned

• 1 whole garlic, shredded

• 1 whole onion, shredded

• 2-3 green and red long pepper, seeded and julienned

• black pepper, coarsely ground

• salt-vinegar-sugar mixture with little amount of water

Procedure:

1. Simmer first the salt and sugar solution with 4 cups of water.

2. Put the shredded green papaya, until half-done.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients.

4. Add the vinegar when done. This should be last to avoid having a hard-to-bite mixture.

5. Cool and refrigerate.

Since I live in a tropical country, Philippines, I am promoting a series of recipes that you can adopt, innovate or apply if you're interested.

I featured tropical cooking thru:

1. Main Dishes
2. Side Dishes
3. Dessert
4. Beverages

Once I cook something in our kitchen, I am able to contribute it here on HubPages.

I even made a food blog for a more intensive appreciation about tropical food. In there, my food journey takes place, especially on the local food sources.