Durian flowers blooming season in Life Forest, for those who attending our 【Agricultural Education: From Farm to Table】 program these two weeks, you are lucky to taste our amazing durian flower rendang, tempura, salad or durian flower cook with our unique handmade vegan belacan sambal! yum…yum
Today is the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar , every year during the 5th day of the 5th month, the Chinese worldwide celebrated the Dumpling Festival or also known as Duanwu Festival (端午節)
On this day, people will eating “zong zi” as a tradition. “Zong Zi” is a traditional Chinese food that is glutinous rice with some sort of filling (usually water chestnuts, mushrooms, cooked peanuts, dried shrimp and meat) wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed.
My version of “zong zi”is a combination of our home grown glutinuous and black rice, stuffed with black sesame, simple and yumm…
Glutinous and black rice dumpling
Found many wild Cape gooseberry in our food forest. The fruit is a smooth berry, about the size of a marble, taste like tomato. Ideal for eating raw (salad, jams, or exotic garnish for desserts). The scientific name is called Physalis peruviana. It is called Ciplukan in Indonesia and 毛酸漿 in China.
Durian flowers are edible. They do not taste and smell like durian fruits. They are crunchy with a tinge of fragrance and sweetness. During peak seasons of durian blossoms, this super dish will on our dining table almost every day. We love it because of its unique texture and exotic flavor.
Durian flowers are not plucked. The flowers blossom in the evening/at night, and fall from the tree naturally (except the pistil) in the next morning. Normally we collect the fresh flowers early in the morning to ensure the sweetness and the aroma of the flowers.
Durian blossoms, freshly pick from the farm early in the morning.
Durian blossom crispy tempura.
Eating raw…Thai style Durian blossoms salad.
In Malay – ‘Sambal’ is sauce typically made from a variety of chili and secondary ingredients such as garlic, shallot, sugar, lime juice, or ginger. This is a Thailand flavour style of sambal. This sambal exists in two varieties: raw and cooked. Raw sambal is prepared from fresh chilies paddy pounded together with all the ingredients, add in salt and olive oil when done. In the cooked variety, pounded chilis paddy, shallots, garlic, galangal and lemongrass are stir-fried with chopped tomatoes and kaffir lime leaves, seasons with salt.
Tempeh is made by fermenting cooked soybeans. It is known for its high level of protein which is highly digestible as result of the fermentation process. I have tried several time to make tempeh using own make organic tempeh starter, finally it turned out great. The culture was even and white. Perfect looking tempeh and delicious smelling! (I don’t like the sharp fermented flavour of tempeh bought from the market).
Sugar Cane Flower, also known as Fijian asparagus in Fiji islands, or Telur Tebu in Indonesia. Its scientific name is saccharum edule hasskarl. Sugar cane flower looks like baby corn, it can be eaten raw or cooked.
One of my favourite.
The banana flowers bettered in corn and rice flour and fried. The banana flowers were topped with fresh vegetables and dressed with a beautiful lime dressing that made the salad come alive. Yummy!
life forest broga 