Last night I was an experimentation mode and decided to try something entirely new. Armed with half a durian and inspired by a muffin recipe I'd been eyeing which used jackfruits, I thought I'd give "durian breakfast muffins" a go. I'm so glad I did, because these were simply delicious!
1. In a mixer, I combined 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup durian pulp, 2 eggs, 2/3 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp vanillla extract. The contents were then poured into a muffin pan.
2. This was then placed in the oven at 325F (310F for convection ovens) and baked for a little over 15 mins.
Man alive, did these smell great! Self restraint was in order, however, as I had been drinking while making these. Not wanting to combine alcohol and durian consumption (a terrible mistake I naively made before which made for my most commented-upon blog entry ever, long ago), I held off until this morning. Biting into the durian muffins released a whole rainbow of complex, heaty flavors! After a bite or two, I immediately had a mad craving for banana, which I ate along with my muffin. Sure enough, a quick lookup online confirmed that banana is considered a cooling food. Amazing what our bodies tell us if we listen, isn't it?
By the way, if you're not familiar with the famous durian fruit, the picture above shows some other Flickr user's durian fruit stall picture. I have yet to try a fresh durian -- my muffins were made from frozen durian because it is impossible to buy them in the desert -- but I anxiously await the opportunity. Personally I think the taste of durian is fabulous. Yes, it may be frightfully pungent in smell and yes, if looks could kill it would easily wipe out entire villages, but the durian is a confirmed friend of mine.
Comments
Jonny, the muffin looks great(can u believe I thought I smelled a waft of it just through your description). We have quite good frozen durian here in Oslo as I discovered last year. Now you make me crave for some and bravo for the successful experiment!
Posted by: OsloFoodie | February 12, 2006 08:51 AM
Wow, durian muffins! Never had this before. Although a Malaysian, I hate fresh durian, but I don't mind having lempok (traditional durian cake) or pengat durian (a dessert, can be eaten on its own, with bread or roti canai/prata or sticky/glutinous rice) once in a while.
Some links found on the web of lempok & pengat:
Lempok: http://grocerythai.com/.
Pengat Durian: http://preciousmoments2.blogspot.com/.
Pengat Durian & Pisang (Banana) Recipe: http://kuali.com/recipes/.
Ever tried durian ice-cream? It's my dad's favourite.
I found out that rambutan and attap/palm seeds (used in some Asian desserts) are heaty as well. Once I ate lots of rambutan and a bowl of attap seeds on separate days. Guess what happened the next morning? I lost my voice! Yup, I learnt the hard way that moderation is best.
Attap seeds: www.asiamex.com.
Suddenly, I have a craving for ice-kacang (attap seeds is one of the ingredients).
Posted by: SkyJuice7 | February 12, 2006 06:08 PM
I've seen that at 99 ranch market and wondered what in the world one would do with one! How cool!
Posted by: joe | February 12, 2006 07:29 PM
Jon!
Okay, so get this. After having DIM SUM on my birthday as an early lunch, some friends of ours say, "Hey, wanna come to the Super Cao with us?" I said, "Super Cao?!"
Turns out there's a Super Cao Nguyen market here, which is like a 99 Ranch market, where they had bushels and bushels of durian.
I can't get past the smell to even try to taste it. Does durian taste like it smells?
Anyway -- thought you'd find it interesting that they do have Durian here, in Oklahoma, in the middle of winter. Zoinks!
Posted by: Rose | February 13, 2006 05:40 AM
Oslo: heh, I figured it wouldn't take too long for the scent to drift through my RSS feed to the streets of Oslo. :-) Glad you've got some durian locally! I need to drive about two hours east towards Los Angeles for the closet durian pulp. Whoa is me. :-D
Sky: thanks for the links and warning about rambutan and attap seeds. I'll be cautious!
Joe: your challenge is to integrate durian into some of those fabulous sweets you make. Let me know what you come up with!
Rose: that's just crazy talk. Really? I can imagine people throwing them at one another in Oklahoma, but eating em too? Sheesh. :-D So... you gonna try one now? hehehe
Posted by: Evil Jonny | February 13, 2006 07:26 AM
I'm intrigued! I've never seen or heard of these things.
Posted by: Jeff | February 13, 2006 06:34 PM
I don't understand why is the durians are spotted with different color?
Posted by: fish fish | February 14, 2006 02:20 AM
Well you didn't answer my question! It smells like feet! Does it taste like feet?
Posted by: Rose | February 15, 2006 11:13 AM
Rose: no, it smelled just lovely.
-footfetishjonny
Posted by: Evil Jonny | February 15, 2006 07:33 PM
Wow, that's the most original thing i've seen on the internets in a long, long time. complimenti!
Posted by: john patrick | February 17, 2006 07:05 PM
Wow, that's the most original thing i've seen on the internets in a long, long time. complimenti!
Also, how about a link to your durian + alcohol post? I haven't read it yet!
Posted by: john patrick | February 17, 2006 07:08 PM
actually durian is available anywhere there is a vietnamese or thai population. it's akin to the national fruit! trust me, i grew up with that smell in my house. first it was the frozen variety airlifted here from thailand. and then we started getting the frozen in whole fruit version and now they have the fresh ripe version. and i have to say that having the fresh version tastes totally amazing. first, there is no "water/ice crystals" watering down the taste. second, if you get it riped and never frozen, the fruit actually has a buttery consistency and the taste and smell is 10 times better. jon, it's worth the drive to LA for it. if you happen to get one with a full seed, steaming the seed and eating it is really good, too. my grandma taught me that one.
Posted by: tribecatexan | February 19, 2006 07:07 PM
The colored dots on the durian are to denote where they're from, and possibly their "breed".
D24 used to be (When I was back home in Malaysia) one of the highest quality durian you can get, for strength of aroma and taste, as well as milky golden texture. Now I'm not so sure, I think my mom said they have degraded a bit and are only importing good ones from Thailand.
Posted by: Gwenny | August 5, 2006 03:11 PM