Cooking with papaya

A neighbour passed us 2 small sized papayas one Sunday morning. She recommended us to cook it with either meat or anchovies. That evening, I decided to cook the smaller one for the very first one. I have never done any cooking with papaya so I was not so adventurous in my first experiment.

Cute and small unripe papaya

Even if I failed or it turned out a disaster, I guess it was fine. I still had another bigger papaya to try next round. No one can blame me since it was my first time. Lol.

Droplets of papaya milk?

Once I sliced it, there was some drips appeared, and my first instinct was "papaya milk?" Sorry, first time seeing and cooking unripe papaya so I was curious.

Inside

Even the seeds were white. Don't think we can grow papaya from such seeds, right? The neighbour mentioned her papayas taste better in cooking. It doesn't taste nice when it ripes!! According to my neighbour....

So that was how my own recipe of cooking raw papaya with whatever I could find in the fridge. Actually, nothing hard about it, few ingredients for this recipe are needed.

Ingredients:

1 small sized raw papaya, skin peeled, flesh cut into cubes

Half portion of carrot, cut into strips

100g minced meat

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 shallot, sliced

Half portion of big onion, sliced

Cooking oil

1 tsp Light soy sauce

1 tsp cooking wine

2 tbsp oyster sauce

Water 

Salt, sugar and pepper to taste

Cornflour

Chopped spring onion for garnish

Methods:

1. Marinate the minced meat for few minutes with soy sauce, salt, pepper and cornflour.

2. Heat up a pan with about 3 tbsp cooking oil. Add in garlic and shallot, saute till fragrant. 

3. Toss in raw papaya. Stir and let it cook for few minutes before add in big onion, carrot and minced meat. Cook for few minutes till meat changes colour.

4. Add some water and let it simmer. Cook for about 5 to 10 minutes to soften the papaya. Season with the sauces, salt, pepper and sugar.

5. Dish out and garnish with spring onion.

The dish was surprisingly pleasant. No, I am not being boastful here (he he he), but the whole dish was sweet and tasty. The raw papaya was sweet and crunchy, although slightly tough. I should add more water and simmer it longer to soften the fruit next time.