beautiful isn't it😉

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Hellow Steemit Fellows😉

I got a request from My Hubby @dipoabasch yesterday. He wanted to eat stir-fry gnemon's seed coat😲. So I maje a request to our veggie seller, Kang Jawir, to brings it today. I bought about 250 grams of it. I'll save the recipe for another post 😁 because I find a reason to write about one of my favourite's plants that remind me to my hometown😊 but here is the advance picture of the recipe😁

This is the result😉 just wait up😉

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Let's talk about the Gnetum Gnemon only!

I admitted that this is the first time in my life, I cook the Gnemon seed coat😊. Eventhough I was brought up in a region which also famous as one of the bigger producer of Emping Melinjo or Gnemon Cracker in Indonesia, we only use several parts of the plants and Never the seed coat😂😂😂

That's why when I posted the picture of my recipe on facebook, My Achenese friends look so surprised😂 they don't have a clue that we can use the red coat for alteenative food.

Yeaahh.. we use the young leaves, the strobilus (male and female) in many traditional recipes, the wood for furnitures or simple kitchen utensils.

that's the tree!

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I asked My Hubby to take me out to the neighborhood next to our residential complex because I seen many Gnemon's trees there before.

Can you believe this? The tree's life span is 100 years😨 it can grow up to 25 metres tall. An evergreen tree which starts to bear it fruits after 5-6 years planted.

its other names are Gnemon, melinjo, belinjo, tangkil, kuliat/culiat, bago, bigo, mulieng,peesae or padi oats

This plant is native to Southeast Asia and Western Pacific Ocean. It's a dioecious plant which mean it has 2 genders and no flowers😉. Let me show you the different between female strobilus and male strobili😊

oopps😊 sorry.. this is the young leaves, glossy but quiet soft to cook. While the old leaves will be dark green and unedible

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Sour Veggie Soup aka Sayur Asem is one the most famous food in Indonesia which uses the Gnemon Leaves and the fruits.

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Some people mistakenly thought that the male strobili as flower, but the tree has no flower at all😀 isn't it amazing? Only the female strobilus turn the fruit, fleshy nut covered by hard shell when it matured and soft coat which turn to red when matured and green when it young.

can you spot the male strobili up there?

and yeah.. you are absolutely right! This is the female strobilus😊

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While the male strobili remind as it shape till dried (if none pick them up to sell or cook it up) the female will keep growing and has 9-10% protein/seed. In my hometown, we will cook the young male and female strobilus in Kuah Pliek aka Achenese Special veggie soup with patarana or fermented coconut. I still remember we will hunt for "pingpong ball" in the soup. Pingpong ball is other name we gave for the gnemon's seed just to differ it from another veggie called cempokak aka turkey berry😊.

while in my hometown, the matured fruit only uses for making crackers aka Emping Melinjo aka krupuk mulieng. People used to throw away the red seed coat under the tree as fertilizer.

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But in the place where I live now, they sell the red seed coat and send the seed to cracker's production house.

I bought the red seed coat to stir-fry it and bought the fleshy yummy seed in other form😊

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Some people say the taste of the fleshy nut/seed under the hard black shell is bitter😊 but I said it's perfect😊 tasty.

I need to use hammer to open the shell😊

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The fleshy nut/seed usually taken out from the hard shell and then through some pressing process (some cracker's production house use traditional pressing tools made from wood and human power)

you got gnemon's crackers now, you need to deep fry it before consuming.

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The red seed coat is full of good nutrients which needed by our body such as manganese, zinc, copper and fosfor. Here is the latest research about Gnetum Gnemon especially the seeds stilbenoid in gnemon.

At least there are 5 benefits of the gnemon's red seed coat I found on my google research, to maintain the brain health, to help growth, to regulate body temperature, to maintain healthy skin and to maintain kidney health.

Some people believe that if you overconsuming the crackers, it will be dangerous because you will get gout. Because the seed also consist of high purine. An article I read said that it's not the purine in the seed or crackers but could be from the cooking oil we use to deep fry it and the salt we add after that😁.

but still this is our favourite's crackers😊

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When the fleshy seed might be not too healthy to eat, the red seed coat might be a neutralizer😆.

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• All pictures taken with Samsung N900, at my kitchen and Villa Inti Persada, Pamulang, South Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia.
• information sources wikipedia
• My knowledge and experience😊

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Thanks for Stopping By😉