Craving for sambal belacan

Been a week since I had the craving for sambal belacan and I finally went out to get the red chilli's. Think the belacan I bought is not so tasty. And I forgot to toast it first.

The recipe:

5 finger length chilli (I think I used 12) - deseed
3 chilli padi (i harvested 4 tiny ones from the garden - deseed if desired
30 g belacan - I did taste, toasted in dry pan
1 tsp sugar (to use more if chilli increases)
3/4 calamansi juice (to use more if chilli increases)
1/3 salt - I didnt use any coz the belacan was already salty.

1. Blend chilli and belacan in blender. Can pound if you want to.
2. Transfer to bowl and add sugar, lime juice and salt to taste. Stir to mix well.

I actually cooked it for a while on the pan coz I didnt like the taste of raw chilli's.

The uncooked one can be kept in the fridge for a week. Not sure how long the cooked one can last. It's now stored in a glass jar and will be kept in the fridge once it cools down. Maybe will try it with kangkung soon.

Bugs attacking my tomato and chilli plant - home solution to counter them (test stage)

My tomato and chilli plant has recently been infested by some kind of bugs. Tried googling them up but the descriptions does not seem like what I have in my little garden. On the underside of the leaves, there are some white moss like stuff and underneath them are specks of little black dots. So far they do not move but the leaves are starting to whittle away and curl up. And when you touch the leaves, small white bugs flies off.

 White moss stuff and black specs (after I wipes the moss off) underneath tomato leaves.

Found this home made pest control formula on the net. Trying the oil formula out. It killed one small chilli plant and my rationale was that it was so weaken by the white moss, it didnt survive the rough handling (I tried to wipe the stuff off) and the soaking with the oil formula. The other chilli trees seems to be doing fine. After the initia spray (about 6 days ago), the white stuff is returning so I sprayed another round today including parts of the tomato tree that I could reach. Think I need to spray every 2-3 days for 2 weeks for it to work.

The recipe below (taken from http://www.paystolivegreen.com/2008/12/make-your-own-homeade-pesticides-and-repellants/)

Oil Mixture

• 1 cup cooking oil ( i.e. canola or vegetable )
• 1 tablespoon liquid dishwashing soap
• Use 2 ½ teaspoons of this mixture in 1 cup of water

Spray on the surface and underside of leaves to coat insects in various stages of development.

This mixture is especially good with eggs and immature bugs. Be careful on the type of liquid soap you choose. I had good luck with dishwashing soap with no additional additives like anti-bacterial ingredients. I accidentally used it with on that had them in it and it almost killed a plant of mine.

This is how the oil mixture looks like before mixing with water.

Soap Mixture

• A few teaspoons of liquid dishwashing soap
• 1 gallon of water

Spray on the surface and underside of infested foliage. The soap acts to paralyze insects, which prevents them from feeding. The pests eventually die of starvation. For heavy infestations spray every 2 to 3 days for 2 weeks.

This is a very generic mixture that can fight off most any insects. Make sure to use a light liquid soap here as well to ensure not to kill your plants.

There is another site with bug repellant recipes that I would like to try out in the near future as well. http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-make-natural-garden-pesticides-169168

OMG! It's been ages since I have been here. Could not even remember how to log on and use this space ;p

Anyways, lots of things have been happening and the one that suits this sphere the most, gardening and cooking! And maybe some tips of doggy care for anyone who cares to read this. Most of all, I am using this space just as a sounding board for my thoughts.

Cooked some Joo Hoo Char today for dinner and the days to come. I read online that the dish matures and starts to taste better with constant reheating and re-storing. As I am the 'mother of left over food that has been left in the fridge for eons', it's right up my alley : )

The recipe is basically very simple but I think I added too much water and sugar.

The recipe below is courtesy of http://www.justasdelish.com/ and http://nyonyafood.rasamalaysia.com. I mashed them both together but they are very similar.

Ingredients

• 5 cloves Garlic – minced
• 3 Shallots – sliced
• 50gm Pork – sliced (I omit for my dish)
• 200gm Jicama / Sengkuang – shred finely
• 1 Carrot – shredded finely
• 3 leaves of Cabbage – shred finely
• 8gm Dried Cuttlefish – shred finely and soaked for 5 minutes
• 5 small Dried Shittake Mushrooms – soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and thinly sliced
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. In a wok, heat oil. Saute garlic and shallot until lightly brown and fragrant.
2. Add pork, cuttlefish, and mushrooms. Cook until they soften.
3. Add jicama, carrot and cabbage and fry until cooked. Add 100ml water and switch fire to low, cover wok to slow cook for about 20 minutes until water has been almost absorbed and jicama is soft. (the longer you braise it, the more flavourful the dish will be).
4. Season with salt to taste.
5. Serve wrapped in fresh lettuce leaves with a side of sambal for a bit of zing.

http://nyonyafood.rasamalaysia.com 

Jiu Hu Char (Fried Jicama/Yambean with Shredded Cuttlefish)

Ingredients:

3 tbsp cooking oil
200g pork belly
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
60g shredded dried cuttlefish (rinsed)
400g jicama/yambean
80g carrot
150g cabbage
1 onion
3 dried shitake mushrooms (soaked in warm water)
1-1/2tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
A dash of pepper

Method:

1. Peel the skin of jicama/yambean and carrot. Slice and cut yambean, carrot, cabbage, mushrooms and onion finely into thin strips/threads.
2. Boil the pork belly until it’s cooked. Cut the meat into fine strips and set aside.
3. Heat up wok, pour in cooking oil and add in garlic. Stir-fry the garlic until aromatic, add in the dried cuttlefish and continue to stir.
4. Add in the vegetables and meat. Stir-fry until the vegetables are soft.
5. Add salt, sugar and pepper to taste.
6. Dish out and serve immediately with fresh lettuce leaves, tee cheo (sweet sauce) and chili sauce.

The end result? A tad too soggy and seems to be missing something. I hope it's not Ajinomoto. Maybe some belacan sambal would do the trick but that takes too much time to make. My last attempt had me standing beside the stove for hrs trying to save the sambal as I used too much belancan. My word of advice, not all belacan taste the same and same turns out to be saltier than the rest. So use only a little and add on if needed.