Category: Farm Recipes

Farm Recipes – Lempok Durian Bread Pudding

Now that I have got this great lempok durian kampong, I decided to experiment.  Most of us have eaten bread puddings with raisins or similar so I decided to experiment with making lempok durian bread pudding. 
This is definitely one of the easiest recipes for me.  What matters is the quality of the ingredients.
Ingredients:

• Sliced bread
• Lempok durian
• Fresh coconut milk
• Water

Dissolve the lempok durian in coconut milk and water over medium heat.  Stir constantly to ensure smooth mixture.  I use equal parts of water and coconut milk.

Heat over to 180F and bake for 45 minutes.

Due to the sweetness of the durian, no sugar was needed for the lempok or in making the pudding.

Happy trying and hope you like it 🙂

Farm Recipes – Sugar-Glazed Striped Gourd

I love striped gourd with its creamy texture and subtle taste.  Most of the time, I tend to prepare it as a savoury dish.    I have roasted sliced gourd coated with a bit of salt and olive oil, diced them and used them in a vegetable soup, added it to dalca and just had them boiled in salted water.
The current plants have produced a substantial number of gourds so I started thinking of how it can be prepared.  Thus, recently I decided to try preparing it as a sweet tea-time dish, calling my dish Sugar-Glazed Striped Gourd.  To my delight, I loved it and so did my testers.
It is very easy to prepare and takes under 30 minutes to prepare.  The sugar glaze is prepared with a bit of blended margarine hence it adds that creamy taste to the glaze and less sugar is used and does not dry out.  I love adding cinnamon to it as it not only adds to the taste but also gives a nice aroma to the dish.

• 1 striped gourd
• 2 tablespoons of margarine or butter-blended margarine
• 1 tablespoon of sugar – preferable raw or brown sugar
• Salt (not required if using salted margarine)
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder (optional)
• 3 tablespoons of water

Farm Recipes – Rastali Banana bread (Kek Pisang Rastali)

Pisang Rastali

Once the Rastali Banana is ripe, it gets soft after a few days.  So, since I had some ripe Rastali banana, I decided to experiment making banana bread that was easy to make and didn’t take a long time nor use complex ingredients.  After all, I do not think cooking should be complicated, use as little time as possible (we all have busy schedules), easy to find ingredients and as nutritious as possible without having to think of it as a “Health Food”.
With the abundance of bananas at the farm, I decided that I needed to come up with alternative ways of eating them other than raw or as banana fritters (pisang goreng).  Moreover, I wanted to test how this particular banana tastes when it is transformed to a bread – flavor, sweetness and moistness.
The beauty of Rastali is it has a natural sweetness to it so you can use less sugar.  Since the fruit was produced as naturally as possible, I decided to use ingredients that will add to the nutritional value and are as less processed as possible.
The bread turned out well, springy and soft and slightly moist giving it a light taste with a lovely banana flavour.  It takes about 30 minutes of preparation time, without using any electrical gadgets so you do not need to go out and buy a mixer or own a food processor.  The utensils that I needed were 1 mixing bowl, 1 large bowl (to mash the bananas), 1 whisk, 1 fork or masher (like those you use to make mash potatoes) and 1 spatula.

Ingredients:
8 cups of mashed Rastali banana
6 cups of self-raising flour
2 cups of corn oil or olive oil
2 cups of brown sugar or raw sugar (trying to get the most out of sugar)
8 eggs
2 cups of milk – I prefer to use low fat milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
2 teaspoons of cinnamon – preferably fresh grated.  I used Sabah cinnamon sticks.
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method:
Using a whisk, mix the eggs, corn oil and sugar until it has blended well and slightly foamy on the top.  Add it to the mashed bananas.  Stir in the vanilla essence. cinnamon and salt.  Add milk to the mixture.  Fold in the flour and pour into 2 cake pans or 1 large pan.  Bake at 175F for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is done (I use a toothpick and stick it in bread.  If it comes out cleanly, it is done).

Next experiment, is Pengat Pisang Udang or the closest I can describe it in English, is a soupy banana pudding(?).

Farm Recipes – Lemon Basil (Kemangi) Pasta

More often than not, we have pasta Italian-style or “Malaysian-Italian” style with the addition of chilli or sometimes, spices.  With our tropical weather, I like a lighter version of pasta – without cream or butter.  There are many herbs and vegetables on the farm and I decided to try something different today so I experimented with this dish.  With the Kemangi, it gives the dish a slightly lemony flavour balancing the “heaviness” from the pasta and parmesan cheese.  I must say I really enjoyed it and if you are on a diet, watching your cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, and other stuff, try this (by the way, I am not the “measuring” kind of cook so bear with me):

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti, Fetuccine or Linguine pasta
• 1 fresh, Terung Bulat (oval Aubergine)
• 2-3 stems of fresh Kemangi (Lemon Basil)
• 4-5 young leaves of fresh Daun Salam (Indian Bayleaf)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• salt
• fine grated Parmesan cheese
• chilli flakes (for those who like it a bit “hot”)

Method:
Boil pasta to al dente and drain the water.  Dice aubergine, slice Kemangi and Daun Salam, chop or crush garlic.  In heated olive oil, toss garlic and aubergine until soft. Add pasta.  Turn off heat and add Kemangi and Daun Salam.  Toss them around and salt to taste.  Serve with Parmesan cheese.  Add chilli flakes if you wish.

Based on the ingredients, here’s what you feed your body :

1. From Kemangi, you get magnesium and beta-carotene – good for the heart, diabetes, stress
2. From the garlic, natural antibiotic and good for the heart and those nasty bacteria
3. From Daun Salam, good for diabetes, high blood pressure, reducing cholesterol
4. From purple Terung Bulat, vitamin A, C, Calcium,etc. – good for the cholesterol, bones, etc.
5. Pasta – carbohydrates to fuel your body
6. Olive oil – you all know how great this oil is for you

Of course, to get the best nutrition value, get chemical-pesticide free produce.  If you try this recipe, let me know what you think and if you did variations, please share.