As you may know, I lived in a Bali for a short time. Whilst there I was introduced to several interesting ingredients which I had never heard of due to their subtropical origins, Asam Kranji was one of them.
So what is Asam Kranji?
Asam Kranji is a tropical fruit tree, which produces grape-sized edible fruits with brown hard inedible shells. One thing to note is that it is only ready for harvest once every three years, between January to April.
The fruit has a sweet and sour taste similar to Tamarind - it is however sweeter, drier and more powder-like; its shell is also thicker.
Asam Kranji is usually eaten as a candy like snack; often dried, sugar-coated and spiced with chilli. The dried fruit has a powdery texture and is orange in colour with a tangy flavour. It can also be freshly consumed or soaked into water with the aim to drink the water afterwards. In Indonesia, all kinds of tamarind are known to be used in the herbal drink called“jamu“.
For us, here though, check out the following cocktail courtesy of: PTT Folk
Velvet Lemonade
40ml Velvet Tamarind syrup*
40ml Fresh Lemon juice
Top up Soda water
1. Pour all ingredients in a glass over ice and gently stir. 2. Garnish with your favourite.
*Velvet Tamarind Syrup
400gm Velvet tamarind 200gm Still water 350gm Caster Sugar
1. Bring peeled velvet tamarind to the boil with water for 5 mins. 2. Add sugar and slowly stir until the sugar dissolves. 3. Strain off the seeds and cool down to room temperature, bottle and keep refrigerated.
