I love to throw herbs in my cooking. Not only do some herbs enhance the taste, smell and colour of the food, but herbs have also added health benefits to our body. My houseman used to grow flowering shrubs around the house but those shrubs are only enjoyable to the eyes. I prefer a more functioning benefit.
During the New Year season, some herbal plants started to sprout. After months of lethargic winter, I make rice porridge from the pickings of various herbs around the house. These are sweet potato leaves, fennel leaves, spring onions, chives, kesum leaves, coriander leaves and Japanese pennywort or pegaga leaves.
Below is the moringa plant. It is flowering from Feb till April. I'm expecting its long bean to appear but since this blossom is the first, I've to wait and see.
I even add herbs to my pasta dishes to get that extra kick.
These are coriander plants. Trust me, coriander plants are so easy to grow. Just throw in some coriander seeds and leave them to grow.
This is daun limau purut or the Indonesian called it daun jeruk. If you are lucky, you can find it at some garden shops in Okinawa but I doubt if it is sold in shops on the mainland of Japan. I got it as a small plant about 8 years ago. It has grown almost shoulder length now and we've cultivated 2 plants from 4 limes when it has fruited one season. I used daun limau purut generously in Malay cooking or to get the zesty lemony taste, I even drop lots of it in beef dishes.
This is a lemongrass plant. I use the root of lemongrass for Malay dishes like rendang, sambal tumis, serunding or asam pedas. The leaves are dried and added to chamomile or mint to make tea instead of throwing it away.
The above picture is a fennel plant. Yes, fennel. Those seeds are used in curry. I throw some and it grows quickly. As I'm writing now, the fennel plants are flowering in yellow sprays.
This last picture is coriander plant. Normally, I would use the coriander plant before it flowers in my cooking but for this planter, we let it blossoms to collect seeds for future planting and to add to my storage of spices.
We've more herbs other than those listed here. Most of them are various varieties of mint that I use to infuse as tea or as added flavour to my drinks.
Haiku
Chamomile blossom
knock me out solid all night
in heavenly sleep.
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