By Cynthia Nelson
Hi Everyone, A few weeks ago a regular reader of my column and blog asked me what a sour is, and the question made me pause. I know how to make sour, I know how we use sour but how does one explain what a sour is?
Some of the answers I was tempted to blurt out were: “a sour is something we eat with things like cassava balls, phulourie, biganee, egg balls, black pudding, channa and so on”; “A sour is something we make with tamarind, mango or souree”; “A sour is something sour”.
While a sour is all those things, it is best categorized as cooked chutney. The word chutney is derived from the Hindi word, chatni meaning to crush. And this is exactly part of the process in making a sour, the main ingredient and souring agent is cooked soft until is can be crushed with hot pepper and salt to taste and served as a condiment.
The more I thought about sour the more one particular fruit came to mind. Its proper name is Averrhoa Bilimbi. Jamaicans call it Bumbling Plum. We in Guyana are a practical people so we call it Souree, I guess because it is just do darn, well, sour!
A few weeks ago at the annual Agricultural Festival here in Barbados, I bought a bottle of pepper and souree mixture labelled “Sourie Chutney”. I was so excited I couldn’t wait to get home and try it. I had not had souree in years! The taste did not fail; the pepper was hot as ever and the souree, sour and delicious. The bottle is almost finished as I have been eating it daily.
I contemplated calling the number on the label to ask them where I could get some souree as I wanted to make my own sour, achar and pepper sauce with Souree but then I got a tip from an acquaintance who has a friend whose tree always seems to be in bloom. Early Monday morning I arrived excited about this discovery. The tree was laden, from the top to the bottom, all the way down to the roots hung big clusters of plump shiny green Souree. I felt like hugging the tree because it brought back such fond memories of my childhood, it was as if I was a kid again. Growing up we would slice the souree and eat them with hot pepper and salt all the while sucking in our cheeks and squeezing our eyes shut as the sour juice filled our mouths.
I raced home with my bags of souree and got to slicing and mixing some salt and pepper together; gently pressing one slice into the pepper-salt mixture I put it into my mouth. I bit down and the sour juice at once sprung from the fruit and just as I was about to squeeze my eyes in reaction, the salt diluted the juice and I tasted the fruitiness of the juice and then the heat came washing it all away. I ate a couple more slices and then gave up. I had satisfied the kid in me.
We use Souree primarily to make achar and sour; it is also added to curries and can be used as the souring substitute for tamarind and green mangoes.
The Souree tree thrives in hot climates such as ours here in the Caribbean and requires a lot of water. While doing research for the column I’ve found out that in Malaysia, it is made into a very sweet jam. That sounds interesting doesn’t it? Apparently the leaves have medicinal properties; In the Philippines, the leaves are ground into a paste and spread on itches, swelling or skin eruptions. I guess that the high acidity makes it an effective healing agent. Speaking about its acidity, Souree is very rich in vitamin C. Can you imagine how useful that would be against a cough or cold?
I also made some drink with the souree, it was tart and refreshing, I added a little more sugar than I normally would when making drinks but this definitely needed it. I think the next time I am going to use less fruit and more water so that it is not so potent. It would be interesting using the juice in place of lime or lemon juice in certain cocktails and the next time I make drink with it, I’m going to add a hint of salt and a little hot pepper and serve it with ice. It’s going to be good, can you imagine? You’ll have the coolness from the ice, the heat from the pepper, the sour of the juice, the sweet of the sugar and a subtle hint of salt. That’s five different taste sensations hitting you in one sip.
It is refreshing and revealing rediscovering certain things and finding inventive and creative ways of using them while staying true to their essence.
Cynthia
tasteslikehome@gmail.com
www.tasteslikehome.org
