GARLIC FOR RECIPES INGREDIENT

NEVER FORGET GARLIC IN YOUR COOKING

Let’s speak about garlic or “Bawang Putih” in Indonesian. As well as red onion, I never forget using garlic in my cooking. This kind of onion is commonly used as spice in the household kitchen or in the famous restaurants. The clove of garlic is covered by a layer skin as soft as a tissue. It is pungent and has a unique smell, we will recognize it easily when someone is frying some garlic as a cooking ingredient.

Physically, garlic is kind of a plant with white roots which shape is tuber layer, identical with red onion. It is usually planted in the mountains area field which obtain sufficient sunlight. Garlic contains of sulfur compounds that may become an effective antibiotic.

I love using so many garlic in my food recipes. Especially when I am cooking fried chicken or fishes, because garlic could make my foods more savory and delicious.

Red Onions or Shallots for My Food Recipes

NEVER LEAVE RED ONIONS FOR YOUR DISH INGREDIENT

Red Onion or Shallots or in Indonesian we call it “Bawang Merah” is one kind of spice which shaped like tuber crops. This is very important for my dish, because most Indonesian foods especially for my cooking, I never miss shallots to put in the dish. We can say that red onion is the mean spice as one of the flavor in the foods.

We usually use red onion as the mean seasoning in the kitchen to make our foods more delicious. red onion is not only used as cooking spice but it’s really full of benefits. Red onion can be strong anti-oxidant and as a bacteria killer and it could also reduce our intestinal disorders. Some people use red onion to help their children as a fever reliever, nausea, catch a cold. They only pound several red onion and mixing it with coconut oil and put it on the children body, like on the stomach if the children catch cold or on forehead if the children have a fever.

Commonly, red onion lives in the highlands which have a fairly good fertility. There are several different variety of shallots, in Indonesia shallots size is smaller and more rounded with the reddish color. Red onion has characteristics : clumps plant, bulbous layers and pungent. Red Onion is an annual crops which has no stem and it has long green leaves, tube-shaped and pointy toes. In my home town my mother usually use red onion leaves for her cooking but it’s hard to find it in where I live now (Yogyakarta).

I think red onion taste is sweeter than white onion. Fried red onions are very delicious, we can put it in our dish or directly eat it together with warm rice. But be careful if you peel up the red onions, stay away from your eyes or you will cry since red onions can produce steam which will poignant your eyes.

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TAMARIND FOR MY DISH SPICE

 TAMARIND FOR MY COOKING

 

“Asam Jawa “ is tamarind from Java Island. I usually use it in my cooking as a spice in Sayur Asam (Vegetables mixed with another spices and tamarind, just wait for the recipe ^^), stir-fry dish and it also could become a beverage. Javanese Tamarind contains of vitamin A, B and C which very useful for our body. Javanese Tamarind is kind of fruit which has sourness, and commonly used in Indonesian food as a sour taste. If you have ever been eating mpek mpek (kind of food from Sumatra island) you’ll find “cuko” as a sour sauce. The sour taste comes from Tamarind. Hmmm it’s really delicious. This is also my favorite recipe.

Physically, Tamarind tree is big and tall. It always have green leaves because this tree doesn’t run into fallen leaf. The height of this tree is around 30 meters and its stem diameter around 2 meters. The stem skin is grayish brown grey, rough texture, split and grooved vertically. Tamarind fruit has brown color and a hard rind. Usually, we only use its flesh which is soft and has brown color also. Just brewed in the hot water or just put it directly in you cuisine.

Javanese Tamarind has some advantages for our health. It could help us to expedite defecate, treat our cough and improve our circulatory. For a woman, Javanese Tamarind could reduce menstrual pain, eliminate the whitish, for diet program that may help a woman to be more slim, and to prevent us from fall out hair.

We can store Javanese Tamarind easily by getting it in a plastic bag and store it in your refrigerator

The Unique Aroma in Galangal for My Recipes

GALANGAL AND ITS UNIQUE AROMA FOR FOODS

Galangal or “Lengkuas” (in Indonesian) is a rhizome root crops. This is also one of spice that I usually use in my cooking. I use Galangal when I am cooking Javanese curry, rendang, gulai or oseng oseng (vegetables mixed with some ingredients including galangal and stirred with slightly oil. And I like galangal in my fried chicken recipe ingredients. Makes my fried chicken more crunchy ^_^ I’ll the recipe next time.

Galangal has a tree trunk consists of midrib-structure leaf. The shape of its leaves are elliptic. Its flower appear in the peak of the plant. Galangal rhizome tuber is creeping, fleshy, glossy skin, coarse fibrous, and has a unique aroma.

The part of galangal that can be used as a spice foods is its rhizome. Not only Indonesian people who generally use this herb plant for cooking but also giving a food flavor for another Asia country such as Laos, China, Malaysia, India and Thailand. This spice contains essential oil functioning as anti-microbial and anti-bacterial. The essential oil in galangal could become natural preservative in our cooking.

For our health, galangal has so many benefits. The essential oil contained in galangal has important function in traditional medicine. It could cure and treat several diseases for instance: catch cold, nausea, pain reliever, cough and to increasing the appetite. And this plant also often use to treat skin diseases caused by fungi.

In my foods recipe, galangal is giving delicious aroma. I always use galangal in my stir-fry cooking or in my cooking that use coconut milk. Just peeled and crushed it and put it in your dish, hmmm yummy ^^

KENCUR FOR MY RECIPE INGREDIENT

 "KENCUR" OR GREATER GALINGALE FOR MY SPICE FOOD

Greater Galingale or “Kencur” in Indonesian, is a root crop resembling ginger used as spice and medicine. “Kencur” is a plant with soft stem without wood or only have a very minimum wood texture. It grows in the low and medium land with temperature between 26^oC until 30^oC.

We can plant “Kencur” in our garden or only in the potted plants. Beside planted in the yard or garden, as a life pharmacy it is very beautiful if we could make it as an ornamental plant.

“Kencur” usually used as a spice in Indonesian foods, such as urap (vegetables mixed with grated coconut and other spices), lotek (vegetables mixed with mashed nuts, chilies and other spices), etc. It could give fresh flavor and has characteristic flavor but only use it slightly do not add too much “kencur” in your dish because it will spoil the taste on your dish. While as a medicine plant, “kencur” known as a medicine for several diseases like influenza, catch cold, headache, cough, etc and the last it is also very famous as one of “Jamu” (traditional medicine) ingredient.

Ginger for My Recipe Ingredients

 GINGER FOR FOODS

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is herbal plant which often used by South East Asia People specially for Indonesian people. Ginger is a native plant from China and India. Ginger root is widely used as culinary purposes and medicinal materials.

I usually use Ginger (in Indonesian we call it as “Jahe”) as one of my recipe ingredient. It can use when I want to make Javanese curry, opor, rendang or fish gulai. When we put ginger in our dish, our cuisine flavor will be more smelly odor and it could reduce the rancidity in the fishes.

This body warmer plant has 3 types that based on its shape, size and rhizome color, to wit small white ginger, big white ginger and red ginger. Ginger which comes from Southeast Asia, commonly is planted in tropical climate and it is known as root tubers plant that has spicy taste and pungent. This plant produces white and red flower buds pack that will be broke in the winter. Because of its beauty and its ability to adapt to hot climates, this plant is often used for landscaping. The stem which is under the soil surface, is forming the gangs which are thick, and colored like the soil. whereas the above ground, grow about 12 inches on the surface and it has green leaves and thin-boned, and the flowers are white or yellowish-green.

Ginger has so many benefit such as : as one of Indonesian ingredients in many kind recipes. Ginger also can be used as beverage like ginger tea or just mix it with hot water and sugar (I called it “Wedang Jahe”), we can also mix it with coffee. As I know ginger also used in the western recipe like ginger cake/biscuit and ginger ice cream, but I haven’t tried it yet.

The ginger storage methods are very important, we can dot by packing the ginger in the cloth or towel and put it inside the plastic bag. Ginger may hold for three weeks in the refrigerator and three months in the freezer.

Ginger is believed could give some benefits for our health. Ginger could reduce arthritic joint pain, degrade cholesterol and thin the blood. Ginger is also useful to cure when some one gets stomach crams, diarrhea, morning sickness for pregnant woman and seasick.