Black plum (Syzygium cumini) or Jaam is tropical summer fruit and another very mass favorite, close to heart fruits of Bangladesh. It is tangy, sweet, slightly bitter and full of surprising taste. Most interesting about jaam is after you eat half a dozen, your tongue gets stained to bright purple! This brings the memory of childhood, group of kids after eating bunch of jaam, showing off who’s tongue got the most brightest purple colour!

Anyway, it is hard to get jaam in Denmark. I don’t even remember when I had it last time, probably 10-12 years ago! So I was super excited to get this in one of the Bangladeshi owned shop in Denmark. But it was more sweet to enjoy this together with bunch of friends. As we say in Bangladesh, good things always gets better when shared.

Jaam can be eaten as it is, but we Bangladeshis like to make hot bhorta (salsa) with tangy-sweet fruits! For this jaam salsa, you need roasted dried chili, salt, mustard oil and pinch of sugar. You can also add green chili instead of dried once, but I prefer dry chili as it gives more flavor.

First step would be to wash jaam with cold water, then taking them in a bowl and squish them with hands. You can not use blender or any smashing device as jaam has soft stone inside and if they break down, the salsa won’t taste good. So the goal is to softly squish them so that the stone inside is intact but the flesh is softened.

As you can see the bright beautiful color of jaam after squishing them. At this step, we added little salt, sugar and crushed dried chili and mixed everything lightly again.

At last step, add mustard oil and again give everything a mix again. Don’t squeeze too hard otherwise the salsa would be too runny.

This is how the jaam salsa looks like! It was indeed a beautiful evening to spend with you guys – Munia and Shanta, making Jaam bhorta, taking pictures, laughing together and reminiscing our childhood! It wouldn’t be the same if I were to make and eat jaam bhort alone! Thank you again ❤

Recipe: Jaam bhorta/Black plum Salsa

Black plum or Jaam -250g Salt – 1/4 tsp Sugar – 1pinch Dried red chili or green chili – 3 piece Mustard oil – 1table spoon

1. Wash jaam and take them in a bowl. lightly mash them with hand. 2. Add sugar, salt, chili as per taste and give it a good stir. 3. Finally add mustard oil and mix it well. Enjoy Jaam bhorta or Jaam salsa!