Hello Orange Season, welcome back! I have been seeing orange lately, not in a bad way of course, no I am talking about the change of seasons and the time when orange colored vegetables and fruits appear more frequently in the market. It might be Europe, the Americas or India, every september you ‘ll notice more warmer colored produce. While the old wives summer (also known as Indian Summer), autumn and even Halloween approach closer in some parts of the world, while a “few” of us in the Indian subcontinent quietly experience the last rains. This time of the year in Goa always promises fresh pumpkins, massive orange cucumbers, cantaloups and Papayas. Since I prefer to use fresh produce I thought it was the right time to share a great fruity sauce, a sweet and sour papaya dip.
Papaya is quite a weird fruit in some ways don’t you think? It’s not really sweet and a bit tasteless, also the texture can be odd for somebody who has never had much a chance to try the fruit. The first time I came across a papaya was in the Caribbeans on our family trip back in 1998. At the time Papaya was considered quite an exotic fruit in central Europe, it was practically not available. So when my parents bought a ripe orange papaya in a charming market on the island Guadeloupe, cut open and gave us to try, I was disappointed. Honestly, I didn’t like the flavor and I am still not much a fan.
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Yet we have Papaya trees producing fruits at times and then of course I keep the health benefits in mind, so I do eat papaya. Therefore I needed to come up with some recipes to use the fruit properly! My first thought was a sauce and I chose to add in some fresh lemon juice. I had some freshly made Ginger Garlic Paste waiting to be used too so I thought it would go well with the mashed papaya. I was right! Then I decided to keep it a bit sweet as well and added some Jaggery (cane sugar). All this with a dash of Salt and Pepper, sounds good right?
The sauce was originally served with baked spiced potato wedges when I got the idea of serving it with spicy baked chicken legs. They were meant to be together! If you keep the sauce cold before enjoying it with the chicken, it takes some of the chili heat and compliments the coconut flavors in the chicken. Yet I noticed that by keeping it cold the papaya turns a bit jelly and less liquid, so because of that you might choose to enjoy the sweet and sour papaya dip in room temperature, although we didn’t care about the jelly consistency and just dug in.
- 160 grams Papaya
- ½ Tablespoon Ginger Garlic Paste or blend 1 medium sized Garlic and ½ inch fresh Ginger
- Juice of 1½ Lemon
- 1 Tablespoon Jaggery (Sugar Cane Sugar) or Honey
- Pinch Salt
- Pinch Pepper
- 2 Tablespoons of Water
- Half or quarter your Papaya depending of it's size, discard the seeds and fine whitish skin and cut off the Papaya peel. Cut the fruit into small chunks. We need about 160 gram of the fruit, use the rest of the Papaya for something else.
- Add the papaya to a mixer jar and add the rest of the ingredients as well (Ginger garlic paste, lemon juice, jaggery, salt and pepper, water). Blend to a smooth paste.
- Store in a cool and dry place or serve with baked chicken or fries.
What has been your experience with Papaya? Do you like the fruit or rather not?
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Beautiful colored dip there! I am not very fond of papayas either but I love what you have done with it in this dip. Would love to give it a shot…thanks for sharing 🙂
Well, I am not that papaya either but that dip is a winner! Hope you ll enjoy it as much as we do.
I could eat this dip with a just a spoon. I love the flavors you have going on here. 🙂
lol you are too cute Ramona. =D
This sounds so simple!! I would definitely like to try my hand at making this!
It is for sure super simple and so flavorful at the same time.
I like papaya OK, but there are many other fruits I’d eat before it. However, this dip looks sensational! Super combo of flavors. Plus it’s simple, and one can never have too many dips! Good stuff – thanks.
Many people feel the same way, papaya is just not that sexy and other fruits are more appealing. We always have some papaya growing so I had to come up with something to use them properly. So true too, one can never have too many dips. ^.^
You made papaya taste pretty darn delicious, an awesome idea.
I happen to like papaya,not love but my little one can eat the whole fruit all by himself. My older one will run up, if the fruit is anywhere near him..funny..
lol yeah, some like it some don’t. Have to say it’s quite a particular fruit. thank you ash!
That colour and flavour of this dip looks utterly delicious 😀
Spooning time!
Cheers
CCU
=D
My dear Papa used to take papaya enzymes for gout! And eat fresh slices with a squeeze of lemon when visiting Saipan…I like the lovely fruit fresh. Quite certain I’d swoon once I dipped into your sweet ‘n sour concoction =)
Aww… =)
I think so I had heard that papaya helps against gout but completely forgot about it. Thank you!
It’s really pretty and it grows well here but “bleh” for taste as far as I’m concerned. 🙂 John says I’ve never had a good one. We’ll see.
I would like your dip though… plenty of flavour there.
lolol You know what my husband is telling me the same thing that I have never had a good one. The boys might have a point. I remember tasting a home grown papaya form a neighbor once, it was delicious.
Hi Helene, what an original usage for papaya… I never know what to do with the stuff, so subsequently don’t really buy it (even though the appearance of them when cut open is GORGEOUS!). This looks so cool, and a great addition to the cornflake chicken too… thanks for sharing!
I know what you mean, they do look very pretty when cut open. Hope you ll enjoy the recipe as much as we do. =)
I am afraid I can’t stand this particular fruit. But I buy when in season because it makes for the BEST fruit face mask, lol!!! However, if you were to present this dip to my parents, they would adore you forever, big papaya lovers that they are.
Ha got you! =P I am not surprised to hear that, papaya is the best face fruit mask ever. I should do that again soon, it has been a while.
I am soooooooo gonna borrow your orange season phrase now. What a fab way to eat papaya.
lol for sure!