03 March, 2010

Going wild over illipe nuts


Let the illipe butter melts its flavour and enriches your rice with its highly regarded oil. Rice is never the same again.

I have a ravenous liking for illipe-buttered rice. How does it taste? For those not familiar I'll just like to describe the illipe nut taste as near to the cashew nuts. 
I have read recently that the illipe oil that is derived from the nuts is used as base for cosmetics (lipstick), skin moisturizing products and a substitute for cocoa butter in the making of chocolates. Whenever there is chance I'll try my best to keep stock of the illipe butter cake. They have a reputation of lasting for years at room temperature without losing its unique taste or flavour. My love for them was acquired from my grandmothers ( from both my father and mother's side) and that's as far as I could remember. Back then it was easily available but today I think it's a miracle if you can stumble upon one cake in town. Like any other indigenous trees in Sarawak , those with exportable value have seen their last hours under the unstoppable blades of bulldozers that carve new homogeneous oil palm plantations across the length and breadth of Sarawak. The fate of the engkabang tree is the saddest story of Sarawak's "development" story. Thus whenever I see an engkabang tree or its fruits I'll jump to joy and try to enjoy it in the two ways described here, that is as a salad and butter for rice.

Remove the thick skin and then soak them in water for 2-3 days.

After soaking, the fruits are boiled and reboiled repeatedly for about 4 times to remove its bitterness. After the last boiling, take a bite and if it tastes like cashew nuts, Yep! that's just right.

The boiled nuts are soft to eat. Take them with a pinch of fermented durian called "tempoyak" locally. For me, I'll can devour any amount of the sliced nuts. Well, it's part of the family tradition!!

The illipe butter in cake form standing tall on a plate of boiled illipe nuts and "tempoyak".


The above is the last step towards happiness. Having the illipe salad next to the fermented durian (Tempoyak) is indeed mouth watering. Add some slices of red chilli and a tiny pinch of sugar to the tempoyak and Oh, life is worth living. Have a joyful meal of illipe -buttered rice with
your favourite fish and that's how marvellous simple living is.

16 comments:

  1. looks like a marvelous and yummy treat.
    would love to try that sometime.
    i think we have a similar version of this, but, the process and the taste aren't be exactly the same.^0^

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  2. hi mood! ^0^
    just gave you an award, feel free to post it if you want, just drop by my blog, tnx!

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  3. From your photos and the way you described it, I can't wait to have a taste of it. It sounds just like the kind of food I like. And how do you make illipe butter?

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  4. Mmm, these pictures make me very hungry. I love when you show food photography as it is so very different from what we eat here in Scandinavia. I truly prefer your meals though.;) I love rice and I think I would love this nut butter.;))
    I hope all is well dear friend.;)
    xoxoxoxo
    Zuzana

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  5. Dear Mahmud,
    I remember enjoying rice with illipenut butter long time ago. I really missed it.
    I have tried in every Sarawak town to find it, but so far failed.
    I appreciate if you could get some for me and call me once it is available.
    hp no. 0198862765

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  6. Preparing the illipenut butter is not an easy job! The seasons is over now, we have to wait for 4 - 5 years to see it again! It is such a wonderful and amazing natural resource in Sarawak. We trade a lot of illipenut last time, but now getting lesser and lesser. Not sure how many young generation know what is illipenut!

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  7. Anyone knw where got sell and how can i ship some illipe nut to singapore?

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  8. Thanks for give me this information really this product is very effective.
    illipe oil

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  9. Improves Digestion -pure ghee is known to be one the most easily digestible dairy fat. It helps in proper digestion.

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  10. Traditionally, south India was known for using cold pressed oil. Bullocks were led around the 'chekku oil near me', turning the wooden crusher to extract oil.checku oilis originally manufactured in traditional way by extracting oil from seeds using wood crusher, made of East Indian Walnut (known as Vaagai Maram in Tamil) which is pressed with a very heavy stone that is wheeled by bullocks.

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  11. “When oil is refined, it loses a lot of nutrients but cold pressing it in a marachekku oil in chennai ensures that you retain all of it,” says the 35-year-old who works in a software firm. Coconut oil is so gentle on digestive and enzymatic systems, coconut oil cold pressalso tends to enhance the absorption of other nutrients including minerals like magnesium and calcium.

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  12. Cold Pressed Sesame Oil can be called as beauty chekku oil in english. Health benefits, body strength and skin and hair could be made better by this oil."chekku gingelly oil priceImproves our body's ability to absorb magnesium & calcium which helps in strengthening bone.Helps in faster healing of wounds and burns.Organic ennai are produced in remarkable diversity by plants, animals, and other organisms through natural metabolic processes. Lipid is the scientific term for the fatty acids, steroids and similar chemicals.

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  13. This type of chekku ennai in chennai pressed in room temperature will not be heated during the extraction process and thus retains the nutrition benefits & original taste / flavour.Gingelly oil is another name for sesame oil. It's also known as til marachekku oil near me . It's commonly used in cooking, just like vegetable oil and olive oil.You have to ensure that the oil you get from the mara chekku oilous diseases and the raw material used has been thoroughly cleaned.

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  14. illupa oillongifolia is an Indian tropical tree found largely in the central and north Indian plains and forests.

    i like kadalai urundai or kadalai mittai very much either the chikki type or the kadala mittai(urundai)…I can munch it on and on Mittu prefers the chikki than this ...

    Groundnut chikki is nothing but casted with dry groundnuts with a drip of hot jaggery syrup this groundnut candy will be a crunchiest treat for your taste buds and heart. Unlike the one you could find everywhere this sweet snack has a telling taste which you could never find amongst the commonly available.

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  15. illuppai oil longifolia is an Indian tropical tree found largely in the central and north Indian plains and forests. you can try with this oil next time

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