A LONG TEDIOUS PROCESS FOR TASTY MELINJO CRACKERS

 A LONG TEDIOUS PROCESS FOR TASTY MELINJO CRACKERS
    By Norhayati Mohd Akhir
      
    KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 (Bernama) -- Melinjo crackers, a popular starter in the
menu of Jawa Malay community, is also delicious with dishes such as bakso, soto,
nasi ambeng or just eaten as a snack.
    
    As the melinjo tree is easy to grow and hardy, producing melinjo crackers
could be an industry generating decent income even though the process of
extracting the nut is a tedious one and requires specialised skill.
    
    Saliyah Ismail ,70, and her daughter Latifah Yasir, 45, who have been making
melinjo crackers traditionally in Kampung Kanchong Darat, Banting admitted
getting nut of melinjo fruit is not easy.  
    
    Saliyah said the melinjo fruit is first cleaned and dried for a few hours to
ease extracting the nut.
    
    "After removing the skin from the dried fruit, the fruit is then fried with
its shell and then pounded to crack the hard shell for the seed.
    
    
    The seed is then flattened and dried again before it is fried for about five
to 10 minutes to produce the final tasty melinjo cracker.
    
    Even though melinjo cracker production is on a small scale, the
mother-daughter team could rake in almost RM1,000 (US$335) if there were orders.

    
    The melinjo plant looks like a jambu tree and could produce between 80 to
100 kg of melinjo fruits which could be processed into 40 to 50 kg of melinjo
crackers depending on the fruit size.
    
    -- BERNAMA