Kamias / Iba / Belimbing
Kamias or Iba (Averrhoa bilimbi) in Visayan is yet another throwback to childhood backyard snacking. I used to get these firm sour fruit (closely related to balimbing or star fruit, you can see why, right?) from our mature tree out back and eat them with lots of rock salt. On a good day (where there was nothing else to snack on…) I could eat 8-10 large fruit…you can tell I really liked sour and salty things. Seems the Indonesians use the fruit in a medicinal manner to induce profuse sweating…yup, I can see that working well. At any rate, Karen has a great post on this fruit and you can hop from there to another good post on kamias on The Scent of Green Bananas… so since there is so much written on it, I won’t dwell… However, I will extol the virtues of eating this fruit raw with some salt, it’s probably wicked enough to clear your mouth of 70% of the bacteria that normally resides there… kamias also makes a brilliant sinigang (up next) and oddly, some pretty good candy or preserves, I am told. When in season, it is available in droves and some folks like to dry them so that they can use them to flavor dishes later in the year when they are no longer available fresh. Oh, and I forgot, they make a terrific relish or sawsawan chopped up and mixed with bagoong and served with fried fish…delicious!
i used to make dried sweetened kamias -they taste and look somewhat like prunes…they’re good for snacking, and make a nice addition to tropical trail mix, or to muffins, or as a substiture for dates in date-walnut bars. the fresh fruit makes a very refreshing shake, prepared the same way as the plum and grape shakes. getting the right balance of tartness and sweetness is the key, plus lots of ice.
June 17th, 2006Green fig jam reminds me of preserved camias although the candied camias that I remember had a sharper tang and kept the natural shape and colour of the fresh fruit intact. Soaking the fruits that have been pricked with needle in a lime solution (apog) ensures that they do not disintigrate when cooked. Restoring the green colour though was already quite an arcane process even in the remote time of my youth. A copper coin is tossed into the wood stove and retrieved a few days later and dropped into the cooking syrup. It was in my chemistry class that I found out that what mother was doing was producing a miniscule about of verdigris, the stuff on bronze that we admire as patina, and highly toxic. We did not know that and what we did not know did not hurt and I guess what did not kill made us stronger. But the sweet camias was delicious and lovely to look at.
June 17th, 2006Hi mr. market man. I also like sour-salty foods. And we also had a kamias tree. I remember sisters and I eating raw kamias with salt to pass a lazy afternoon. My lola naman would cook kamias with fresh alamang instead of the fermented bagoong for sawsawan. Yummy! I also like burong kamias but i rarely find this nowadays.
June 17th, 2006Hi MM. My mom used to make candied kamias that almost tasted like dates. Friends and family would be so surprised to learn that what they were eating was actually kamias. It was so good but making it involved a long & tedious process so my mom doesn’t do it anymore.
June 18th, 2006Hi MM, mouth is drooling. I remember my dad (may he rest in peace) growing kamias in our back yard. Brings back memories. Thanks.
June 18th, 2006Hey MM…you finally got me to write. Instead of suka, my family from Pampanga would boil the kamias, mash it, add a little water and bagoong. It’s perfect with fried or inihaw na hito…yum. Kamias makes my mouth pucker up because of it’s tartness. Can’t think of any other way of eating raw kamias except with rock salt.
June 18th, 2006Kamias and macopa were some of the fruits grown in my great-grandmother’s place. When we were kids, we would seldom eat either, preferring to use them instead as missiles in fruit fights.It’s not so nice getting hit by a ripe kamias or a worm filled macopa, so pardon my aversion to both fruits.We also had a chico tree, but that sandy tasting fruit was too solid, and getting hit by these would be too painful, so those were off limits. Kamias really does bring back fond memories, but not of the epicurean kind.Hehe.
June 18th, 2006WE had one tree in my backyard when I was young. I’m not sure if its still there. I miss it. I would dip it with salt of bagoong.
June 18th, 2006Millet, how do you make dried sweetened kamias? I saw tons by the roadside once being dried but I had no idea how, when, why for what they were then used… Apicio, any idea if burying copper pennies near the roots of hydrangeas really changes their color??? Masc, sauteeing the kamias with bagoong or alamang is a nice way to soften it a bit and cut the sourness…yes, a fantastic combination. Sylvia, do you still have the tedious recipe? Care to share? Jean, you’re welcome! Beeh, we used to eat it raw or somewhat sauteed but boiling it and mashing it as a condiment for fried hito sounds delicious! Jul, funny you should mention the fruit fights…I think there are millions of folks out there who once did exactly that… when the fruit are soft, almost yellow and incredibly juicy they are the perfect weapon… Noemi, I hope it is still there!
June 19th, 2006I had my first camias shake at Cafe Bola, and I enjoyed how the tart fruit mixed with the honey or sugar mixture, plus the bits of fiber from the fruit. I’ve seen it on other menus now and have added it to my favorite fruit juices. I don’t know if any other country has as many tart fruits that make great juices (green mango, calamansi, etc).
June 19th, 2006you should try the kamias shake from Cafe Bola, namimiss ko na yon!
June 20th, 2006I wonder what is the correct spelling for “kamias”. “Balimbing” is another kind of fruit which I have known to be the star fruit. The scientific name is “Averrhoa carambola”.
June 20th, 2006Ivy, yes, I did try Gaita’s kamias shake at Cafe Bola, it was very good. Ric, Kamias and Iba are the two more common terms for the fruit in the Philippines, “Belimbing” is the Malay/Indonesian word for our kamias. “Balimbing” is the Filipino word for “star fruit” with the scientific name as you mention it. So actually, our use of “Balimbing” (and its other connotation a “turncoat”) is the one that seems a bit odd in the regional scheme of things…
June 20th, 2006Marketman you have to try adding kamias to beef. . . we have a dish in ilocos similar to sinigang (is called sinanglaw i think) with small quite thin slices of beef sauteed in ginger and onion then simmered in broth with kamias and patis. . .
June 22nd, 2006Wilson, that sounds good. Maybe the acidity of the kamias helps soften the beef? Or maybe it’s kinda like adding lemon or kalamansi to bistek tagalog?
June 22nd, 2006funny that there is no kinilaw that uses kamias? or am i just missing out on something? MM, making the kamias “prunes” is a tedious process, but apicio is right - you start by pricking each fruit all over with a needle, and then rolling it with a rolling pin. that’s to get most of the juices out. then you sun-dry them in one layer, and press out some more of the juices. this is guaranteed to bleach your aluminum cookie sheets, so that to this day, i have pans with pale kamias shapes all over the surface. two days of drying is usually enough. you want then still moist and not all wrinkly-dry.then you make a simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water), boil down till a bit thickened, add the kamias and boil for about three minutes. leave the fruit overnight in the syrup. the next day, drain the fruit (you can use the syrup again for another batch of kamias) and dry in a single layer in the sun or in the oven over very low heat. i usually packed these in jars with a bit of the syrup. when we had too many of these, i would chop up some and add to plain vanilla muffins, carrot cake or use in place of dates for pecan- or walnut-date bars.
July 7th, 2006thanks so much for millet’s tip on making candied kamias!
July 24th, 2006just try it in ur favorite dish!…..
September 5th, 2006Well, “belimbing” in Indonesia refers to two types of fruit - kamias and the starfruit. In order to specify the “kamias” type, the complete name is belimbing wuluh. Apparently it’s a favored souring agent in Javanese cuisine, but alas, these are getting rare nowadays in Java.
January 17th, 2007i am planning to make my research about the kamias fruit because i love eating kamias in our backyard when i was still young :)
April 6th, 2007Mature fruit may be picked, waashed with boiled water, air-dried, packed in a jar with seasalt added.Chilli optional. Keep in fridge for a fortnight. Use as a relish for fish.Or a smidgin mixed with boiled rice…yum!!
April 16th, 2007eat it with bagoong.
May 3rd, 2007can i know the things that are related in camias like the parts and fuctions.
August 3rd, 2007can i know the products that are already made by kamias???
August 10th, 2007Hi everyone! I’m Carol Veneracion from Bulacan Sweets and Delicacies Center. We sell candied fruits which includes Camias. We make our own candied fruits which are made from real fruit pieces. Our candied fruits also include santol, langka, guava, papaya and pineapple. We use the traditional method of candy making of Bulacan. You can visit us at our main branch in Retiro or our other outlets located in Tropical Hut, QC, SM North Edsa, SM Las Pinas and Landmark. If you have any inquiries, you can email me at mclvene@yahoo.com or call me at 4117599.
August 14th, 2007how much sugar content do kamias has..???
August 22nd, 2007Thanks to everyone I now have the idea on what to do with all of this camias that we have in our backyard thank you and god bless
September 19th, 2007I live in Hawaii and I’d like to know where I can buy ‘apog’ lime to be used in making candied balimbing.
Question: what is the source of apog. I understand it comes from charred (burnt, like charcoal )sea shells or oyster shells, ground to a fine powdery consistency.
pls advise via email.
November 13th, 2007i was just wondering if kamias leaves can be used for beverage…someone told my mother that it is good for diabetes…is that ’someone’ making sense?
November 21st, 2007gerard, sorry, I do not know if the leaves can be used to infuse a drink. Roger O, yes, apo or Lye I think in English is from passing water through ashes, if I am not mistaken, you can buy it at wet markets…
November 21st, 2007can i know the recipe of the kamias jam?
December 15th, 2007cute, sorry, I have never made kamias jam.
December 15th, 2007is there a potential that camias can be a cough syrup?
please answer..
January 7th, 2008Hello! everybody, can someone send a detailed procedure of kamias prune making, please. thanks and God Bless
here is my e-mail= tiriki94@yahoo.com
February 22nd, 2008can i know a detailed procedure for kamias prune?thanks
February 25th, 2008give us some studies of kamias..
March 1st, 2008d0na… do your own homework instead of asking others to do it for you…
March 1st, 2008hello. i have a question! is there already a tree that bears sweet kamias? and how is this done? :) thanks you
March 4th, 2008hey, is kamias a citrus fruit? please do reply… >,,
March 25th, 2008kamias as food preservative is effective
June 3rd, 2008wher is cafe bola? thanks! :)
June 16th, 2008Can I have the recipe of iba prune making
June 17th, 2008virginia, sorry, I have never made iba prunes. jv, there is a cafe bola at Greenbelt 3 I think…
June 17th, 2008hello to all. I am a mother of a grader and we are trying the camias fruit as bleach. Do you have any recipes for this? thank you. please email me at lianespejo@yahoo.com
July 9th, 2008