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CRISPY DURIAN ROLLS

I grow up loving durians. When I was a kid, we used to go back to Malaysia to visit my grandparents during the June school holidays. Coincidentally, June is also the durian season, so my grandfather would always bring back a huge gunny sack of durians on one of the days we were back. All of us (the grandchildren) would then sit around my grandfather, eagerly waiting for him to crack open the King of Fruit. Sometimes we wolf down the durians so fast that my grandfather couldn’t open the durians fast enough! As durians are very heaty, we would then mix tap water with a little salt on the durian husks and drink from there to cool ourselves down. Those were the days!

Durian is a large fruit with strong odour and a thorn-covered husk. Some people regard the smell of durian to be pungent, overpowering, revolting, sewage-like, or even like rotten food, but not to me! I love the smell of durians, and though usually I want my fruits to be sweet, but for durians, I love it best when they are bitter – the more bitter they are, the more I love them!

I’ve always preferred eating durian on its own – not in cakes, not in pancakes, not in mousses and not in ice creams – just 100% plain durian on its own. So for Aspiring Bakers, I wanted to bake something that will not dilute the flavours of durian, and I decided on this when my friend showed me the recipe on Yahoo! Makansutra.

No baking or mixer is need for this recipe – hooray! The durian flesh is wrapped in a thin rice paper, coat in flour-egg wash-breadcrumbs mixture, then pan-fried until golden brown. No cream or flour is added into the durian so the taste of durian is not diluted and I love the combination of the crispy breadcrumb-crusted roll, creamy durian flesh and the light touch of sweetness from the dusting of icing sugar. YUM!

I will advise against eating too many at once though, as durian is very heaty and frying it only intensifies the heatiness of the overall snack!

Here’s how to make them!

STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS
1) Grab a rice paper.	2) Soak in warm water to soften.
3) Scoop some durian purée on top.	4) Fold up the sides.
5) Then roll it up!	6) Dip into some corn flour.
7) Then egg wash (I used only egg white).	8) Finally in panko.
9) Pan-fry in a little oil.