On the tree

Some beautiful shots of the trees not far from my shop in MJC. The park cum big roundabout of the town. 

Lovely blooms at this time of the year. Weather has been unpredictable lately. But some morning, it was nice and breezing to enjoy a walk at the park. 

A short post today. Something to fill up and update the blog. Happy weekend, guys!!

 

Durian flowers

Everyone knows durian, the king of fruits. But do you know that its flowers are also edible?? Yes, they can be eaten and they are really taste good!!

Surprisingly only in Sarawak, we eat durian flowers (liu lian hua). It is unheard of to consume durian flowers in other states in Malaysia. Maybe in other countries in Asia, people do consume the flowers but in Sarawak, we treat it as a local delicacy. And like durian fruit, when the season comes, you will see people picking and collecting the flowers at the roadside. Usually you can find it sold by the natives in pasar tani but now the durian flowers in Kuching has been commercialised with people selling on the social media. I was one of those who bought the durian flowers from Facebook. I rarely buy stuff through social media but the craving for durian flowers kicked in last week when few people promoting and selling it online.

This lady that I contacted grows durian tree in her backyard in Stapok area. Since it was on the way when dropped my boy to school, I decided to collect and buy from her. RM7 for 500g. That was reasonable. It has been ages since I tasted it!! I did bought and cooked it back in 2019. I have been eating durian flowers stir fried with belacan and dried prawns, never tasted other recipe. That is how my mum cooked so I just follow suit. You can check out my stir fried durian flowers recipe.

Durian flowers

Okay, back to last week. I was happy to collect it and brought home. My mil also love durian flowers. Together with her, I sorted out the durian flowers. Make sure your hands are dry, otherwise the pollen will stick to your hands. The petals, just directly throw in a bag. The pistils (flowers with pollens), you need to pull the pollens away and then keep the pistils in the bag with the petal. Easy right??

After done with them, we divided them into 2 packs. The next day, my mil took out one pack from the fridge and made stir fried durian flowers with curry powder and dried prawns. This dish was delicious, something I never tasted before. Salty, with a bit of curry flavour to it. No, she didn't overcook it so it still have that crunchiness to it. 

Just soak the durian flowers in water for few minutes after added a teaspoon of salt. Rinse few times. Then, fry some garlic, and ginger. Add a tsp of curry powder and some dried prawns. Stir fried till fragrant before adding the durian flowers. Fry for few minutes till the flower withered. Add a bit of salt and water if prefer. Dish out. 

Wrap the papaya

If you are wondering why we wrapped our papaya, it is to prevent papaya theft!!

We started growing this papaya tree last year after my mil tasted a good, sweet fruit and threw seeds at the back and soon, it grew flowers and then bore fruits!! And it was so fertile, that many fruits keep popping out of the tree. Then, another papaya tree grew along the side. And another small tree as well. So we have three papaya trees at the back now and the first one give us many fruits 

Then along the way, few fruits started to turn yellow. Meaning it will ripe and we can taste it  we didn't get to taste. But somehow the fruit was stolen!! Yes, it was gone. And not once but twice. Apparently there was a papaya thief in my neighbourhood. Not only stole one papaya, but stole two more on 2 Nd time within the span of less than a week!!! Geez!! My mil was so upset she didn't get the chance to pick and taste when she was here last month.

So an aunt (her sister) suggested to wrap the papaya tree to prevent theft. So we did that and true, no more theft after that. And there was once we spotted an old lady walking at our back, apparently peeking at our tree from a distance. We suspected she was the one. And maybe the same person who stole a neighbour's vegetables!! But no proof and since now we protected the fruits from being stolen, there no longer any suspicious person walking at our back yard. It was very rare to see people walking at the back, outside of our gate. Even we also seldom go out, and when we do, we are trimming our lemon tree, papaya tree and curry plants and others. We know the surrounding neighbours, and they also rarely venture out from their back gate.

Another reason for wrapping, it also speed up the ripen process!!! Now we got many ripe fruits when we checked it out after many days of rain earlier this month!!! 

My papaya tree and its big fruits!! Really good plant; big size, sweet and juicy flesh. Now we need to give some away!! Lol. 

That afternoon, we passed one big fruit to a neighbour and I cut and packed one container for Jan to bring to school to share with her English Club members. She is this year club secretary and had a meeting and some errand with few members that Sunday afternoon. 

Tomatoes

These cute tomatoes were bought from the mini mart that I often patronise. Other than pork and chicken, they do sell fruits, vegetables and dried stuff. 

One of the suppliers sold these home-grown tomatoes to the mart. They were super sweet and juicy, so I decided to plant some tomatoes from the seeds.

I took 2 slices of the tomato and put in two small pots of mix soil. Every day, I diligently spray some water on them. Morning and evening. By 5th day, I noticed something sprouting from the soil in one of the pots.  

Day 5

Don't you feel excited and hopeful when you seeing the seedlings growing day by day??

Day 10

I started planting on 28 November last year. Then on Day 21, I could see new set of leaves. These are called True Leaves. The first 2 leaves that come out from the seedling are called Seed Leaves. 

Day 21

Only when the true leaves were getting bigger (Day 28), then I transported the young seedlings to bigger homes. Few individual pots for the seedlings. By then, I could water them more (using watering can) and feed fertiliser on them. And place them directly under the sunlight unlike the first 2 to 3 weeks of germination.

Day 28

Fast forward, on Day 40, few seedlings were growing well and sturdy. Hope that they will start to flower and bear fruits in  few weeks time.

Day 40

That's it for now on my tomato growing project. I will update when they are bigger, start flowering etc. Fingers cross!!

And since the Year of Tiger is just a couple of days away, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Chinese bloggers and readers a "Happy, Prosperous and Wonderful Chinese New Year!!" Gong xi fa cai!!

Cooking with papaya

A neighbour passed us 2 small sized papayas one Sunday morning. She recommended us to cook it with either meat or anchovies. That evening, I decided to cook the smaller one for the very first one. I have never done any cooking with papaya so I was not so adventurous in my first experiment.

Cute and small unripe papaya

Even if I failed or it turned out a disaster, I guess it was fine. I still had another bigger papaya to try next round. No one can blame me since it was my first time. Lol.

Droplets of papaya milk?

Once I sliced it, there was some drips appeared, and my first instinct was "papaya milk?" Sorry, first time seeing and cooking unripe papaya so I was curious.

Inside

Even the seeds were white. Don't think we can grow papaya from such seeds, right? The neighbour mentioned her papayas taste better in cooking. It doesn't taste nice when it ripes!! According to my neighbour....

So that was how my own recipe of cooking raw papaya with whatever I could find in the fridge. Actually, nothing hard about it, few ingredients for this recipe are needed.

Ingredients:

1 small sized raw papaya, skin peeled, flesh cut into cubes

Half portion of carrot, cut into strips

100g minced meat

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 shallot, sliced

Half portion of big onion, sliced

Cooking oil

1 tsp Light soy sauce

1 tsp cooking wine

2 tbsp oyster sauce

Water 

Salt, sugar and pepper to taste

Cornflour

Chopped spring onion for garnish

Methods:

1. Marinate the minced meat for few minutes with soy sauce, salt, pepper and cornflour.

2. Heat up a pan with about 3 tbsp cooking oil. Add in garlic and shallot, saute till fragrant. 

3. Toss in raw papaya. Stir and let it cook for few minutes before add in big onion, carrot and minced meat. Cook for few minutes till meat changes colour.

4. Add some water and let it simmer. Cook for about 5 to 10 minutes to soften the papaya. Season with the sauces, salt, pepper and sugar.

5. Dish out and garnish with spring onion.

The dish was surprisingly pleasant. No, I am not being boastful here (he he he), but the whole dish was sweet and tasty. The raw papaya was sweet and crunchy, although slightly tough. I should add more water and simmer it longer to soften the fruit next time.

In the bag

The last Friday of July. Hubby came home late as he had auditors in the office, busy with them. And then he went to meet up with a colleague from Sri Aman. She bought over some durian and dabai (wild olive). 

Oh my! The durians from Sri Anan sure were good.  Small size, the flesh was yellowish and sweet. 

Hubby immediately cut open one that evening. Initially I did not want it as I don't fancy it because of heatiness. But then I obliged and took 2 seeds. After that, we drank some water from the durian husk. They said it neautralise the heatiness, so we followed this myth. Yet, I poured myself a glass of lukewarm salted water after that. Lol. 

Not only that she gave us a bag of durians, she also passed a container of ready-to-eat wild olive. Not the usual glossy black skin, but purplish, lighter colour. 

When hubby brought home this big paper bag, I thought we were going to enjoy something yummy for supper. Alas, just to keep the dabai, 2 muffins and a drink which he already finished off. 

One chocolate muffin, which Jay took after ate the durian, while this butter chocolate chip muffin was kept for my tea break the day. 

Heated it up for few minutes and it was so soft and warm. Too sweet though but I managed to finish it up. 

Did we keep all the durians? No, passed some to my parents. Cannot finish all by ourselves. That night after I took it, my body immediately reacted. Dry cough, dry throat. That is why I don't fancy or eat it much nowadays. 

Looking at green

As they said, looking at greenery is good for the eyes. So here are some photos I took on one of my morning walks last month.

An enclosed nursery

Dainty yellow flowers

In the wild

Hydrangea grown by a neighbour. This uncle has green fingers

Ruellia purple flower and other dainty flower plants grown by the same uncle

Uncle's flowers are growing so well

Succulents on the wall

Gifts

Last Saturday night, hubby went to meet up with few friends. He came home with gifts from his friends.

One friend gave us this fruit. They called it crystal fruit. I was not so sure what was it but it tasted sweet. First time tasted it. 

It tasted something in between longan and rambutan.  Bigger fruit with big black seed inside like longan but firmer texture like rambutan.  Pretty heaty as I needed to drink lot of fluid after tasted one. I am prone to sore throat so I am pretty sensitive when it comes to heaty food and fruits. 

Skin was hard, so one need to press hard to squeeze the fruit out. 

Another friend gave us his aunt's freshly made changs. One was Nyonya chang which was sweet and fragrant. Natural colouring from butterfly peas. I prefer this chang more than her Hakka chang. 

The Hakka chang was saltier and bigger. I think we have overdose of changs this year. Some we bought and some were gifts. Felt blessed to receive the homemade dumplings from friends. 

Thank you both for the yummy gifts. 

Miscellaneous Picture # 103 : buying and growing

Some random photos I took at my garden. I have not been mending it much, thanks to the raining season for most part of January. Ferns and weeds are growing like crazy but I did took a little bit of time in the morning to clear some last week.

First mini pineapple that I sighted last month. Plan to harvest for the coming CNY

Another 2 baby pineapples, they are redder in colour. Not ready to harvest. 

Lovely blooms. From lily family?

Something green indoor

CNY is next week!!! Hubby did most of the purchases since I am staying mostly at home with the kids. 

Pumpkins

Waxed meats - I am not crazy about them though

Abalone in brown sauce (3 pieces in a can) 

Bak kwa

Thinking of it

It was Day 10 of MCO.

I woke up around 7am. Outside weather was so good. Sunny and breezy. Hubby suggested for a morning walk in our neighbourhood. Day 9 was spent at home the whole day as it was raining none stop that day. 

With such nice weather on Day 10, we went for an hour walk. There was a little stretch of undeveloped houses (next phase) in our area so we had a walk there. We don't go out from our gated neighbourhood so it was fine.

Few weeks ago, we saw a tree with pitcher's plant creeping on it. It was still there but most pitchers had died off. These photos were taken few weeks ago when all were still nice and green. 

Among the tall grasses, we also saw some wild orchids. Pretty, little blooms. We couldn't resist not to take photos of them. 

We bumped into our elderly couple neighbours who also took a walk at the deserted stretch. The couple used to walk even earlier than us. Friendly uncle and aunt. 

After our morning exercise, we walked back to our house. We took our shower and then prepared breakfast for everyone. By then, the kids were up. 

While walking earlier, I thought of making something that I haven't make for a long time. Didn't know why, I was thinking of it out of sudden. Long beans with dried prawns pancakes. 

I grew up eating this pancake. My mun cooked it quite often as my dad loves it so much. Since it has been ages that I had that, I was thinking of making it for breakfast that morning. We had some strands of long beans at home so I better used them up for the pancakes. 

This recipe make 6 medium sized pancakes. 

Ingredients:

3 strands of long beans, chopped

Dried prawns, about 3 tbsp, chopped 

1 to 1.5 cups of wheat flour

1 egg

Water

Salt, pepper and light soy sauce for seasoning

Cooking oil for fying

Methods:

1. This step is optional. I fry the long beans and dried prawns in a heated oil in a pan till fragrant. Dish out. 

2. In a mixing bowl, add in flour, egg, salt, pepper, light soy sauce and some water. Add in the long beans and dried prawns and stir to mix till you reach a consistent batter. Add water bit by bit if too dry.  Mix well. 

3. In a pan, heat up some cooking oil. Under low heat, scoop the batter with a soup ladle into the pan. 

4. Only turn the pancake over when the bottom is well cooked. Quickly with spatula, press the pancake to makevit thinner. Keep on pressing the sides and middle. 

5. Turn over and continue to press the pancake. Fry till both sides are golden brown. 

6. Drain with kitchen paper towel. Continue with the remaining batter. 

Serve with your favourite dipping sauce. My dad likes it with light soy sauce. I could eat it just like that!! 

Enjoy this warm, homey long bean pancake at the comfort of your home!!