Buah Keluak

This is the most amazing plant. Its fruits are so poisonous and yet they are eaten as delicacies from Southeast Asia to the Pacific islands. I am talking about Pangium edule. Locally we know the fruits of this plant as Buah Keluak whose seeds are used as the significant ingredient in the nonya dish Ayam Buah Keluak (see black cooked seeds in picture above).

We have an old tree in The Garden. It flowers and fruits regularly although sparingly. The fruits are like papayas but hard, roughly textured and brown (see picture above right - fruit surrounded by seeds).

Inside the fruit, embedded in yellow pulp are the large seeds. Each seed has a hard shell. The raw seeds taken from the fruits are highly poisonous. Native people apparently have found ways to detoxify the seeds before consuming them. One way apparently is to boil the seeds without their shells in several changes of water before leaching them in flowing streams or rivers for a few days. Another way is to boil the seeds with the shells intact and then burying the boiled seeds in ash for over 40 days. The seeds we can buy in our markets in Singapore are apparently detoxified by the latter method.

The next time you enjoy a meal of Ayam Buah Keluak, take time to marvel at this amazing plant - so poisonous yet so edible. Fascinating.