Month: September 2012

Dried Marinated Salted Lampam

I am always interested in experimenting with new ways of processing food.  Recently, we were doing a minor fish harvest, more to see the reception to our fish and to reduce the population in the fish ponds.  With the natural setting of the pond, the fish have been reproducing and for the overall betterment of the fishes in the pond, it was necessary to reduce the population.  During this exercise, we managed to harvest about 100 lampan with many more left in the pond.  This fish has been flourishing in the pond and to reduce competition for space, this fish was harvested along with the red tilapia.

We sold some of the Lampam at the Sunday market and the remaining I decided to process into dried salted fish.  This fish has many small bones and as with many fish that has a lot of bones, it taste great but eating them could be challenge.  Previously, I had turned them into dried salted fish and when fried till crispy, is very tasty.  This time around, I decided to do a variation of it – you could almost say a gourmet version.  The fish has a lot of fat, like many of the trout family (salmon is one fish that is from the trout family along with rainbow trout and many others) hence when it is fried, it doesn’t become hard but is more malleable.  You will also see the fat turn into oil, staying on the surface of the fish.   It also has a lot of scales, which I prefer to remove as I like to eat them without the scales and it also speeds up the drying time.

With the abundance of herbs to create a marinade, I decided to use lemon grass (serai) and kaffir lime leaves (daun limau perut) along with coarse salt to create the marinade.  The lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves were pounded in a mortar pestle to release the juices and aroma.  Alternatively, you can also blend but this would mean adding water to the ingredients before you can blend it and this can cause the salt to dissolve faster and seep into the fish faster than the lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves, making it more salty and less aromatic.  I like my fish to taste of salt but not overly salty which would necessitate the dried fish to be soaked to remove some of the salt before cooking but which would also cause for the herbal taste to leak out.

The fish is marinated overnight, best to keep it in the refrigerator, and all excess salt and the herbal mix is removed before it is set to dry in the sun.  Depending on weather conditions, it can take 2-3 days to dry.  This is one way to preserve fish without the need for chemical additives or preservatives.  For long storage, it is best to store it in your fridge or chiller.

Taking freshness and health to special events

Recently, I had the opportunity to provide two items to the menu at a friend’s event: fresh ulam (Malaysian version of salad) and misai kucing tea.  For this special event, I wanted to be sure that the ulam tray we provided was different and offered as many varieties as possible – both to provide for choices as well as introducing different ulam that people are not familar and at times, not easy to find. 
In order to serve approximately 800 guests, preparation for this started over 1 month before the event in ensuring that we would have enough produce so care and maintenance to the plants was essential. This would be the first time that we would be doing something like this and I wanted it to be the best that we can do and especially so since it was for a good friend.
 For the event itself, we started doing the harvesting 2 days for ulam that would be blanched and one day before for items that would be served fresh, all in the spirit of fresh from the farm to your dining table.
We prepared 10 trays for this event.  Since the food theme was traditional kampung food, I decided that the way we presented the ulam should be different instead of just regular steel tray or ceramic plates, hence we constructed a bamboo and wood tray.  Each tray consisted of fresh ulam raja, silom, lumai, pucuk jambu, bunga betik, bunga kantan, bunga misai kucing, bebuas, pucuk kadok, ruku, selasih putih, pucuk salam and blanched jantung pisang, pucuk paku, terung bulat, terung telunjuk and 2 kinds of pucuk ubi kayu. 

I spent my time at the event mostly ensuring that the trays we replaced as needed and also to chat with the guests over what was in the tray.  It was gratifying to hear the comments from the guests: “I have never seen such a variety of ulam served at a kenduri, this is great”, “I love this ulam but haven’t been able to have it since it is difficult to find” and “Look at how fresh the ulam is”.

The other item that we provided was the Misai Kucing Tea concentrate which was mixed with hot water on site in a drink dispenser container so that the guests can just fill their cups and drink.  As to properly prepare enough tea to serve many guests takes time, it was necessary to produce the concentrate for ease,  This was also well received and the comments that I obtained was very positive.  One comment that made me feel good is: “This tea taste great, is not bitter and doesn’t taste like misai kucing tea.  It tastes like chrysanthemum tea.”.  Comments like this validate my efforts in producing my tea, ensuring that it is pure misai kucing and using only the leaves and flowers with the soft flower stem.  As a note, once you have prepared the concentrate, you can store it in your refrigerator and add hot or cold water before serving your tea.  You can also add ice, a great alternative to regular iced tea.
So, if you would like to have similar items served at your events, please contact us 🙂