Food & Receipts

Delicious recipes using male papaya flowers without the bitterness

Papaya flowers are a valuable remedy, and besides being soaked in alcohol, they can be transformed into a delicious everyday traditional dish.

Administrator

10 December, 2023

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Papaya flowers are very popular in Vietnam. Nowadays in many cities, people hunt for male papaya flowers for making medicine. But in many rural areas, male papaya flowers grow abundantly in gardens, with many blooming flowers. Processing male papaya flowers into a dish creates a fragrant, delicious, and unique flavor. The bitter taste of male papaya flowers is also a flavor that many people love.

Preparation of male papaya flowers to reduce bitterness when cooking

Before using male papaya flowers to cook, discard the stem and keep the petals. Pick the fresh flowers and remove the withered stems to reduce bitterness. Then boil the male papaya flowers in water and rinse with cold water, squeeze to remove excess water. This method helps reduce bitterness of the flowers. In case you like the bitter taste, just rinse without soaking in water.

Delicious dishes made from male papaya flowers

Vegetarian stir-fried male papaya flowers: For vegetarians, you can simply use male papaya flowers without using shrimp or meat for stir-frying. You can stir-fry male papaya flowers with eggplants, purple eggplants, or add some wood ear mushrooms. If you like the bitter taste, you can add male papaya sprouts or papaya leaves.

Saute the minced garlic in cooking oil, add all the ingredients and stir-fry quickly over high heat, season to taste. Add scallion at the end.

Stir-fried male papaya flowers with beef: Thinly slice the beef, marinate with spices, and add a little cornstarch to make the meat tender. Stir-fry the minced garlic until fragrant, then quickly stir-fry the beef so that it is rare and not tough. Then stir-fry the male papaya flowers and mix the two together, season to taste.

Stir-fried male papaya flowers with chicken giblets: Clean the chicken giblets and drain the water. Stir-fry the minced garlic until fragrant, then stir-fry the chicken giblets to make them firm and not gamey. Add the boiled male papaya flowers and stir-fry together, season to taste with pepper.

Steamed fish with male papaya flowers: Shred or thinly slice banana flowers, soak in water to prevent discoloration. Clean the fish and rinse with ginger wine to remove any fishy smell. Season the fish with various spices including pepper, salt, seasoning powder, MSG, dried scallions, and crushed dill leaves with a little cooking oil. Rub the spices on the fish. Then place the fish with banana flowers and male papaya flowers, pork belly in banana leaves or silver paper, steam for about 40 minutes until the fish is cooked, the male papaya flowers are slightly bitter, the banana has a slight pungent taste, and the pork belly is fatty, which helps the steamed fish dish not be fishy and have a rich flavor.