By Request

BETTY SHIMABUKURO

Wednesday, January 9, 2002

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Crackseed recipes offer
plenty to pucker up for

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A whole bunch of sugar and a whole bunch of salt, properly combined, create that independent sweet-sour taste sensation that makes the lips pucker and the taste buds water.

In a word, crackseed.

Bernie Thomas and Norman Rodrigues both wrote looking for recipes for Chinese preserved fruits -- those candies that fall collectively under the moniker of crackseed.

These recipes were adapted from "Oldies But Goodies," published by the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association in 1983 (and for what it's worth, all the recipes were contributed by alumni from the class of 1953).

They include true crackseed -- prunes that are "cracked," or quartered, seeds and all -- as well as other seedless fruits that are flavored the same way. Basically, you cook up a syrup of sugar, salt and lemon juice, then add dried fruit, cool and store.

You should feel free to vary the proportions of salt to sweet to suit your taste, adjust cooking time to get the tenderness you like, pour more or less syrup into your storage jars to get the juiciness you like.

You could even experiment with different types of dried fruit.

For Thomas, Rodrigues and other lovers of this genre, a variety of recipes have run in this column in the past. You can find them on our Web site, www.starbulletin.com. Use the search function and type in sour lemon, prune mui or mango seed.

Prune Crackseed

4 pounds prunes (with seeds)
Juice of 12 lemons, or 6 lemons and 6 limes
5 tablespoons Hawaiian salt
1 pound raw brown sugar
1 tablespoon dark molasses
2 jiggers rum (about 1-1/2 tablespoons)

Crack prunes into quarters.

Combine lemon juice, salt, sugar and molasses in a pan and bring to a boil. Add prunes; reduce heat and simmer until mixture thickens. Cool.

Add rum. Store refrigerated in sterilized jars.

Preserved Apricots

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon molasses
1/4 teaspoon Chinese five spice
2 tablespoons Hawaiian salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
12 ounces dried apricots

Combine all ingredients except apricots in a large pan and bring to a boil. Add apricots and boil 1 minute. Cool. Store refrigerated in sterilized jars, with or without syrup, depending on how juicy you like them.

Star Fruit Mui

2 quarts star fruit, in star-shaped slices
Juice of 3 lemons (about 3/4 cup)
1-1/2 tablespoon salt
6 tablespoons sugar or 9 tablespoons raw sugar
1/8 teaspoon Chinese five spice
2-1/2 tablespoons whiskey

Dry star fruit in the sun for 2 days. Rinse.

Combine remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Add star fruit and simmer about 15 minutes, until shiny and transparent. Cool. Store refrigerated in sterilized jars. Age 2 to 3 days before eating.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Can you help? What Bernie and Rodrigues would really like to make is li hing mui -- dried, salted plums. If anyone has done this at home, please get in touch.

Food Stuffs: Morsels

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.