Eating Well – Page 9 – Suria Helang Lui

01 Sep 2012

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, SHL Project

Kampung Chicken Project

During the last couple of months, I have had several requests for village chicken or ayam kampung. I have a small number by comparison to the poultry producers so I was not able to cater to the requests. The chickens that I have are also producing a good number of eggs so over the Ramadan and Syawal period, I decided to leave the chicken eggs and see how many will hatch as well as learning more about the natural cycle of the chickens. Hence, Project Ayam Kampung was born with the goal to produce ayam kampung and telor ayam kampung.

During this period over 100 eggs were produced and we left them for the hens to hatch them. It takes about 3-4 weeks of incubation before they are hatched. We have identified which eggs are being “hatched” and their mother hens.

Many have suggested that I should buy more chicks to add to the population. However, being rather careful with introduction of new chicks or chickens of which I have no idea as to their health and not wanting to introduce the risk of illness to my stock, I prefer to stick to letting my hens produce the next generation.

The eggs have begun to hatch and we are starting to collect the new eggs now to provide a better picture of how many eggs will be hatch from the primary batch. Apart from letting the chickens scrounge for food, they are also feed crushed corn, broken rice and also grated coconut, I have noticed that weekly feeding of the grated coconut has increased the egg production. I guess there is some truth behind the advise given by some old-timers that feeding the chickens with grated coconut can increase the egg production. Someday, I will have to delve into the whys.

It is very satisfying and calming to watch the mother hen herd its chicks as they scrounge the ground for insects and new grass for food. Another reason why I opt for natural farming, I want to reduce the introduction of harmful chemicals to our system. With the egss hatching, it is also good timing as we are in the period of maintenance of the farm so the weeding and tilling of the ground is underway. This uncovers many food source for them and with the soil already loosened, it makes it easy for them to scratch the ground and for me, it also serves a secondary purpose of breaking the soil. They also add more natural fertilizer to my soil. There are so many things to consider at the farm, balancing the growth cycle of the various produce, timing of tasks to maximize the benefits and inter-dependency of activities. I have to keep track of all this and everything is a project that requires tasks and timelines – another useful usage of the legacy of my corporate days.

The progress of this chicks are being monitored. With many new chicks, I frequently scan the sky during the day for the eagles that have made this area their hunting ground. Alhamdulillah, so far the chicks have remained safe,

The next step is the trick of balancing eggs for sale versus producing chickens. I love the eggs and there is a definite difference in looks and taste. The egg yolk is a golden yellow and has less egg white compared to the regular store-bought chicken eggs. SubhanAllah, I now eat farm-produced chicken eggs. With the chiller at the farm, the eggs are stored there but it usually is stored for more than 3-4 days before being consumed. After all, what is the purpose of producing fresh produce if it is stored for long periods?

My dad is not one who gushes over things so when he who says it is the best chicken egg that he has tasted, it is the best compliment that I have received. I try to send a few each week and feel very happy that I can provide this for them, a small gesture to all the love, caring and support that they have showered me over my life.

24 Aug 2012

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, Kerinci Expedition

Baby Potatoes

When I went to Kerinci, I was amazed at the amount of agricultural produce available and one of the items that I loved the most was the baby potatoes. These potatoes are small and I often see it here in the grocery stores as imported items from Australia mainly. Of course the price is ……
You can cook them in many ways and you do not need to peel the skin, just give them a good scrub and prepare them as you wish. Since I saw that it can be planted there, I thought why not at the farm. The climate is similar – once you go over the hills to the other side, the mornings are much cooler, lots of good rain and much cleaner air.

While I was there, I bought a 2 kg of it and ate half of it, of course not all by myself, leaving half for planting. It is easy to start them – I just placed them on the ground and covered it with a layer of soil and waited. It took about a week before I started to see the shoots. In Kerinci, the soil that it was planted in was richly organic hence I prepared beds with lots of organic content – mainly from my compost.

I just transplanted a row and since this is my first attempt, am logging the progress. I am trying to simulate the same soil conditions as in Kerinci although I am not able to achieve the high humus content that the soil looks almost black. It is important for it to have the right water content – not dry and not wet – and for good drainage. Since I have opted to keep as farw away from chemical herbicides, preparation of the beds too a day, first removing the grass and weeds, the turning over the gound, mixing the soil with compost and finally, I was ready to make the beds. As the chickens and geese have the run of the farm, I had to add bamboo stakes to fence all around it to prevent them from raking the beds and also the geese from eating the shoots.
There are so many was to prepare these potatoes. Personnally, I like it “fried” in olive oil with chopped garlic and cilantro and this can be eaten in place of rice, mashed potatoes, etc. with grilled fish, steaks or chicken, making it a really healthy AND delicious meal. For the Asian flavors, these potatoes can be placed in soups and curries. Whichever way you cook it, you have the option of eating it with its skins, no need to peel them, just give them a good wash and they are ready to be cooked.
The nutrition facts vary slightly but the table below gives me an idea of its nutrition. So, if you watch the oil and fat that you add when you cook, it will be a low-fat option. If you bake it, guess what – it is cholesterol and saturated fat free!

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 200g

Amount per Serving Calories 93

Calories from Fat 1.8%

Total Fat 0.2g
Saturated Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 244mg
Total Carbohydrate 21g
Dietary Fiber 2g
Sugars 1g
Protein 3g

19 Aug 2012

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, SHL Products, SHL Project

Prime, tasty keli (catfish)

Prior to owning the farm and getting into producing fresh water fish, I didn’t like fresh water fish and stayed away from Keli like the plague. The keli that I had tasted has a muddy taste as well as had a smell. Even now when I go to supermarkets, I can detect whenever there is “gutted” keli – there is a distinct odor! However, I kept hearing how some people raved over keli so I decided to experiment and raise my own keli. After gutting and cleaning over 100 keli recently, I can definitely say that I didn’t come out smelly :). It seems to be a popular fish especially crispy fried keli and smoked keli in coconut milk with bird’s eye chillies (masak lemak keli dengan cili padi).
After my initial proof-of-concept, several key components were clear to me:

Good, clean, uncontaminated water source
Quality feed with scheduled feeding times
Flowing water to ensure removal of fish wastes and prevent waste build-ups

We are blessed with having a good, clean source from upriver where the water has not been contaminated that you can even drink directly from it. You can even go swimming with the keli though I do not recommend it just in case you get a feel of the sting from them. We also do not use chemical herbicides or pesticides to ensure that these chemicals do not end up in the fish ponds from the water drainage.
During the first month, I feed the frys with high protein starter/growth fish pellets to ensure proper growth. Once the average size of the fish was approximately 6 inches long, I started feeding them what is called “grower feed”. We also included fresh greens such as young tapioca leaves, keladi leaves as well as tebrau shoots. Once a week, they would also get the inner pseudostem of banana plants or ubud pisang. The inner pseudostem serves a dual purpose: as an additional element to the feed and also as a water cleanser. The keli also feed on other types of small fishes that came in with the water flow. We do not feed it with any carcasses or chicken innards.As far as possible we try to emulate what fishes eat naturally.
With approximately 10,000 keli, it was important for us to ensure that there is no waste buildup in the ponds hence the constant inflow and outflow of the water helped managed the water quality level as well as waste removal.
As the fish do not all grow at the same rate, similar to other life forms, it was important to perform grading of the fish by size. This also helps reduce the canibalization of the smaller fish by the larger fish as well as help us in grouping the fish ready for sale. This task is performed every three weeks.
Moving forward, we have learnt that we will need to add “cages” to help in the grading efforts as well as ensuring higher productivity.
From the farm, we sell fresh keli and have started the sales process. At the moment, the sales is done once a month but we are putting into place a fortnightly schedule and ultimately, a weekly schedule.
As at the farm, we also grow lemongrass along with other herbs and condiments, I decided to experiment in making smoked keli with lemongrass infusion. It takes about 4-6 hours of slowly smoking to produce the smoked keli. I love the taste of it with its slightly lemony taste and tried it in rice porridge, similar to how you would add salted fish or other”bits”. It gives a different delicious flavor to the porridge. This will be a near-future product of SHL and will be made available at the SP Sunday morning market as well as by special order. I am happy that we have received good reviews on the taste of our keli and we hope with further improvements made, insyAllah, we can continue to produce tasty, quality keli.
If you would like more information on purchasing our keli, you can contact us via e-mail at suriahelanglui@yahoo.com or call 019-2089062.

14 Aug 2012

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, Healthy Options, SHL Project

Free-Range Kampung Chicken

Over the past year, I have been testing out growing Ayam Kampung or Village Chicken. During that period, I was monitoring the feed and growth as well as the general health of the chicken along with its predators. I was also building my prime stock – the starter for all my chickens. We also sold the eggs produced as there was too many for us to consume and it was well-received. The chickens that we raise are strictly ayam kampung and also mixed-bred with ayam hutan. The eggs produced have a golden yellow yolk and are smaller in size in comparison to the regular eggs.
I tried a few types of “homes” for them and finally settled on one, an enclosure with partial roof as well as laying boxes for the hens. We also placed “standing” rails where the chickens put place themselves during the night time. It appeared that they preferred to be above ground when they rest at night. It was really interesting to watch them look for their spots as darkness fell. As these chickens can fly, albeit not at a very high height, the fencing around the enclosure is about 12 feet high and to prevent them from getting up to the roof of their house, we placed the zinc vertically.
The hens seems to be happy with their laying boxes although I cannot understand why sometimes they want to share the boxes when there are empty boxes. Alhamdulillah, they seem to lay every day and over this period of Ramadhan and Aidil Fitri, I have decided to let them hatch their eggs. At last count there are over 50 eggs and it would be interesting to see how many hatch. This will my starting point for seriously rearing chickens.

It seems that these types of chickens are popular and not easy to find, and when you do find it, it is more expensive. It makes sense as you require a larger area as well natural source of food for them supplemented with store-bought feed. The growth period is also slower as compared to cage-reared chicken that spends its days in the cages.
The chickens are let out during the day, to forage for insects and worms as well as the greens such as grass. We also fed them with the extra ripe bananas and papayas as well as grated coconut that we had extracted the milk from. So they also served as our organic disposal “machines”. Every evening around 6pm, we feed them crushed corn and they seem to have this down to a tea. Should I be walking around during this time, they will follow me until I feed them their corn.
The chickens I raise are strictly for food and not for fights. So, I am selective as to who I sell it to. If all goes according to plans, then we will be able to offer for sale free-range ayam kampung in the near future.

18 Jul 2012

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, Edible Landscape

Lumai or leunca or Black Nightshade

I was first introduced to this leave when I attended MAHA 2010 and at one of the stalls they had sayur lemak lumai. Later, I found out that they were growing at the farm. This plant belongs to the terung or solanaceae family although the fruit is not eaten especially the unripe fruit and the leaves are eaten either raw or cooked. In Indonesia, it is also known as Ranti.

This plant produces tiny white flowers which turns into a dark purplish black berry which contains many tiny seeds. These seeds can be used to propagate new plants by squeezing out the seeds and putting it into soil, lightly covering the seeds. However, once you have seeded it, this plants do fare well when moved and transplanted to a different location. It prefers a semi-shade location and flourishes in moist but not soggy ground.

The young leaves can be consumed raw as ulam or cooked such as in coconut milk creating sayur lemak pucuk lumai or in water creating sayur air pucuk lumai. To the cooked vegetable you can add shrimps, dried or fresh, or anchovies. Add this to your vegetable selection to increase your repertoire 🙂

18 Jul 2012

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, Edible Landscape

Terung Telunjuk

Before I started farming, I was only familar with a few varieties of solanum or terung. Now I find that there are many species of the Solanaceae Solanum including this particular species Solanum spp. The fruit is almost oblong in shape with the upper portion being green and the lower portion having a mixture of white and green. When the fruit matures, it turns into a golden yellow. The terung telunjuk can be eaten raw or blanched ulam. For 100g of fruit, the amount of nutrients are : water 91.2 g, protein 1.7 g, fat 0.1 g, carbohydrate 5.6 g, fibre1.0 g, calcium 25 miligram (mg), phosphorous20 mg, iron 0.6 mg, carotene90 ug, vitamin A 15 ug, vitamin B1 0.07 mg, vitamin B2 0.05 mg, niacin 0.7 mg and vitamin C 18.4 mg.

The plants are propogated from dried seeds of mature fruit. It takes 3-5 days for the seeds to germinate. The leaves are similar to other aubergine leaves with its velvety and sponge-like texture and distinctive shape. To keep plants healthy, it is best to remove the brown leaves to prevent mold or mildew. It grows like a shrub and can be pruned to encourage a fuller-looking shrub as well as to control the height growth.

It produces medium-sized purple flowers with a yellow center so it makes a nice addition to your landscaping. The time from flower to fruit can take about 1 week and it is harvested prior to the fruit turning yellow. To keep plants producing lots of fruits, fertilizer should be applied about once a week once it starts to flower. At the farm, we use a organic compost and fertilizer to keep the plants healthy. Once it starts to flower, it will continuously flower with the quantity of flowers dependent on the health and nutrients available to the plant.

When eaten raw, the fruit has a spongy flesh with small seeds which you can eat. So if you love ulam or eating raw vegetables, try this. On the other hand, you can also cook it with sambal belacan and anchovies (ikan bilis) or add it to your dalca or curries.

15 Jul 2012

0 Comments By admin Eating Well

Baby Kailan

One of the vegetables that I love is the baby Kailan or English name: Kale (biological name Brassica Olecerea) which is sweeter and tastier in my opinion than the other types of Kailan. It is highly nutritious with powerful anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. It is also very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin and reasonably rich in calcium. Following my maxim, that I only plant the vegetables that I enjoy, this is one of the vegetables that I continuously plant. This vegetable can be cooked in so many ways – kalian with salted fish, kalian with garlic, put in fried rice and fried vermicelli, stir-fried with bean curd and anchovies – the list is limited by one’s imagination.

Putting the greenhouse to good use, I plant a few rows of this vegetable, in stages, trying to keep a constant supply. To start with, I have my “tools of the trade” – my reliable cangkul, my small spade, my bucket of compost, and of course my weeding basket. To me, soil preparation is key. Creating a bed free of weeds and high in organic content, this will help ensure that the plants can thrive and the moisture content is good. I enjoy running my fingers through the soil, breaking it up and removing any stones or remaining weeds. I create beds of about 1 ft. wide and seed two columns.

It takes 2-3 days for the seeds to sprout. It is essential keep the soil moist but not soggy so that the plants can assimilate the necessary nutrient for its growth. Having good soil also invites weeds so weeding is one of my favorite activities – a time for me to reflect and plan, relaxing times – in surrounding rich with oxygen content. Once a week, I will turn the top soil and sprinkle my organic fertilizer or more compost or a mixture of both.

I water as necessary, sometimes once a day sometimes twice a day – depending on the weather and the moisture in the soil. In this instance, I am lucky that my water supply is from a natural, uncontaminated source so no “funny” things will be introduced to the plant. My aim is to grow these vegetables as naturally as possible hence one of the reason why I do not do hydrophonics vegetables even though I have a good water supply.

The vegetables are ready to be harvested about 4 weeks after seeding. The harvesting needs to be done carefully as the stems are easy to break. The leaves can get to be quite large measuring about 10cm long and width of about 6 cm so I wonder, why are they called baby kalian? I harvest them either early morning while the morning dew is still present or in the early evening. It helps them from wilting.

For my own consumption, I will harvest just before cooking – after all why not take advantage of being able to have FRESH vegetables. There is no bitter taste to this variety and I like to have it simply, quick stir-fry with garlic. So, to all lovers of leafy vegetables, try this variety of kalian as opposed to the other and you may be surprised by the taste J.

19 Jun 2012

0 Comments By admin Banana, Eating Well

Bananas – Pisang Lemak Manis

This is one of the more popular bananas eaten raw. This banana is similar to pisang emas with the main difference being the size and color of the outer skin and the inner flesh of the banana itself. At the farm, the plant grows to about 5-6m and each tandan can produce 8-10 sikat when cared for properly, especially in the early stages, prior to the production of the inflorescence. Each plant produces several “baby” plants and selective removal of these baby plants contributes to the health and well-being of the remaining plants.

I like to harvest this banana when is it mature and just before the skin starts turning yellow as opposed to letting it ripen on the plant. At this stage, the banana skin is a yellowish-green. Often when it is left to ripen on the plant, it can “overgrow” causing the it to “burst” out of its skin. Additionally, I can avoid my war with the birds. The whole tandan can be hung in the house and watch the skin turn yellow. I find it amazing to watch this transformation.

The taste is sweet and creamy with a relatively firm and smooth texture. The inner part of the banana is a nice almost golden yellow. It has a relatively thin skin and falls off the stem easily when ripe so handle carefully. Conversely, the inflorescence is bitter. This banana is also a good choice to be mashed and turned into baby food.

When this banana is over-ripe, it can be used to make delicious cucur kodok. It also makes a delicious banana muffin or cake.

This banana is a good way to end a meal as it is purported to help with digestion. With its smaller size, it takes only 3-4 bites to eat a banana so next time you want a healthy, tasty dessert, try a pisang emas.

08 Jun 2012

0 Comments By admin Banana, Eating Well

Bananas – Pisang Embun

A favorite used in traditional medicine to cool a fever, this green-skinned banana if often eaten raw, it has a nice aroma to it when at its prime ripeness. This banana is also sometimes called pisang dingin or cool banana. Each sikat can weigh over 2kg making it one of the larger size of bananas. The outer skin remains green even when ripe so do not wait for it to turn yellow as more often than not, it will turn brown meaning that it is now spoilt. The plant can grow to over 10m with the pseudostem diameter over 30cm, making it an armful.
The inner pseudostem is also often used in traditional medicine to treat muscle aches and sprains.

Pisang Embun (L) &
Pisang Nangka (r)

Sometimes, people mistake this banana for pisang nangka as both remain green when ripe. However, they have distinctive different taste. Unlike pisang nangka which is also sometimes used to make pisang goreng, this banana does not fare well when fried – it turns into a soggy mash, leaving a banana fritter which does not have a crispy batter. The shape is also different. Pisang Embun has softer edges versus pisang nangka and the ends of the banana is also different. The flesh of pisang embun is creamy white. There are two types of this banana that I know of, one which has a nice aroma when ripe and the other without. I prefer the one with the aroma as it tends to taste sweeter. However, due to the size, it can serve as a breakfast meal in itself – a great way to start the day and easy on the stomach and digestive system, which just “woke up”.

Apart from it usage in traditional medicin to cool fevers, due to its high fiber content, it is also used to improve the digestive system and treating people who have difficulty with their bowel movement.
So, if you are wondering what banana to have for breakfast, I suggest pisang embun.

18 Apr 2012

0 Comments By admin Eating Well

Brassica Vegetable

Now that my greenhouse is ready, I am embarking on planting leafy vegetables without the use of chemical herbicides or pesticides. My latest experiment is in planting sawi (choy sum) and kailan, both of the Brassica family. I love both this vegetables hence my choice of what I would like to start my vegetable project in the greenhouse was a no-brainer. The sawi has a vivid green leaves whilst the kailan has a slightly bluish-tint to the green leaves. The stems also differ with the sawi stems being a lighter, milky green whilst the kailan has a dark green stem.

I started with seeding in beds and it took about 5 days for the little plants to start appearing. Before seeding, I had prepared these beds carefully, breaking the soil and adding organic compost. I love the feel of the rich and organic soil.

Choosing to grow these vegetables as naturally as possible meant that a lot more effort was required. Freequent manual weeding was required to ensure that the vegetables didn’t have to compete with the weeds for nutrients and water. I also checked the leaves for any bugs – especially those leaf-eating ones and manually removed them. Daily watering was required, sometimes two times a day, depending on the moisture in the soil. Being blessed with having a clean water source, without any man-added chemicals, I was further assured of limiting polutants to my vegetables.

I have planted the vegetables in stages to ensure relatively constant supply, especially for my family and own consumption, with the remaining sold at my Sunday morning stall.
These leafy vegetables are best harvested either very early in the morning, just after Suboh, or late in the afternoon/early evening – just before Maghrib. This ensures that the vegetables remain fresh longer. Once harvested, I keep the roots moist to maintain its freshness until I cook it or take to market.

Both the sawi and kailan are rich in nutrients including iron, calcium, vitamin C, Bs and trace elements and minerals. It is best cooked lightly or can be eaten raw for maximum nutritious values. It can be an addition to salads. There are many benefits of these tasty vegetables:

The cholesterol-lowering ability of these steamed greens is in their ability to bind bile acids in the digestive tract. When bile acid binding takes place, it is easier for the bile acids to be excreted from the body. Since bile acids are made from cholesterol, the net impact of this bile acid binding is a lowering of the body’s cholesterol level. It’s worth noting that steamed mustard greens (and all steamed forms of the cruciferous vegetables) show much greater bile acid binding ability than raw mustard greens.
With its glucosinolates which are phytonutrients that provide us with unique health benefits because they can be converted into isothiocyanates (ITCs) that have cancer-preventive properties.
The cancer protection we get from these greens may be largely related to two special glucosinolates found in this cruciferous vegetable: sinigrin and gluconasturtiian. Sinigrin can be converted into allyl-isothiocyanate (AITC) and gluconasturtiian can be converted into phenethyl-isothiocyanate (PEITC). Both AITC and PEITC have well-documented cancer-preventive and anti-inflammatory properties.

A simple but healthy vegetable dish would be stir-fried sawi with garlic where you can use olive oil or good vegetable oil and fry the garlic until soft before adding the stems of the sawi. Once the cut stems are soft, just add the leafy portion of the sawi and salt to taste, and toss for about a minute and it is ready.

For the kailan, my favorite is kailan with salted fish. I use the SHL salted fish. First I would fry the cut salted fish until crispy. Then I would use the same oil, albeit in reduced portion, to fry chopped red or yellow onions and garlic. When they are soft, I add the stems of the kailan, cook until soft and then add the cooked salted fish along with the leaves of the kailan. No additional salt required.

There are so many ways to consume this vegetable – can be added to your nasi goreng, mi goreng, mi rebus – it is limited by your imagination. So with its great taste and healthy benefits, try it – you may enjoy it 🙂

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Category: Eating Well