Rose geranium

Feeling stress or depressed? This plant has chemical properties that will enhance your mood to relax and stimulate your emotion to feel good again. Our rose geranium plants starts to bloom end of winter through spring if we frequently prune spent blooms.

A very drought tolerant plant.

Grows very well in pots.

Plants dislike wet feet.

Must grow in very well-drained soil.

Good companion for certain fruit tree.

Easy to grow new plants by cuttings.

Propagate new plants at the end of summer.

Rose geranium oil uses:
Aromatheraphy, anti-depressant, anti-septic, mosquito repellent, get rid of ticks, anti-inflammatory and used to control bleeding.
(Caution: Not suitable for pregnant woman, seek doctor advise)
Other application includes (from wikipidea):
Natural insect repellent, Cake ingredients (flowers and leaves), Jam and jellies ingredient (flowers and leaves), Ice creams and Sorbets ingredients (flower and leaves), Salad ingredients (flowers), Dietery supplement (Methylhexaneamine), Sugar flavoring (leaves).
A page on the website that have many interesting recipe to use your rose geranium for cooking-link.

When touching the plant, the scent of it is so strong that it lingers on your hand for a while. At the moment, rose geranium is an ornamental plant at our garden. Hope one day, I will try some of the useful benefits of this plants or use it in cooking.

Have a nice weekend!

Flowers on Saturday

Afghanistan Carrot Blossoming

This is the first time I have seen carrot flowers. 

I found the development stages of carrot flowers fascinating.

Before it forms the bud structure, it looks like a creature with many tentacles.

The initial development of bud structure.

The carrot bud in a romantic mood at dusk.

Cheerful and rosy in the morning.

Unfolding dainty new blooms.

Older blooms that have been kiss by pollinators.

Seeds developing under blooms.

Waiting excitedly for Afghanistan carrot seeds to develop so we can collect them later when they are ready.

Have a nice weekend!

Visit Ewa for more flowers on Saturday.

Ranunculus Florentine

Ranunculus smile brightly at us in this month of September during the day, and sleep at night.

I am glad that I tried growing ranunculas this year, the garden look so happy. 

Rayyan also enjoy looking at them very much.

We were surprised that ranunculus bulb look like this when it arrived in the mail box.

Yellow-coloured ranunculus, the first colour to bloom in our garden.

Different shade of red-coloured petals and layers.

Development from the first set of leaves until bloom. Ranunculus grow well in pot too. We mixed planting with jonquil in the same pot. Jonquil has long finished it season and now in its replacement in this pot is ranunculus turned to shine.

Ranunculus make such a good cut flower. Ilhan brought some for his kindy teacher.

Ranunculus remind me so much of poppy.

Spring fever in the garden this time of the year.

However, I have been knock down by virus at least a couple of time this Spring September.

It has been a Silent September in Kebun Malay-Kadazan Girls Blog.

I feel much better and was cheer up by all the comments.

Mmmm...better in spirit but I just got another cold (second transfection).

It will take me sometime to visit and reply.

Thank you.

Edible Flower~Bellis Perennis

This is the second year we planted bellis perennis which is also commonly known as English Daisy. However, I just recently known that this flower is edible. Not only that, it does have some medical uses. It was traditionally use to heal fresh wounds. In ancient Rome, the surgeons who accompanied Roman legions into battle would order their slaves to pick sacks full of daisies in order to extract their juice. Bandages were soaked in this juice and would then be used to bind sword and spear cuts (source from wikipedia). I guess in this modern world, the mixer will do a perfect job on extracting healing properties from its juice. It is also used for other remedies (for further read on its other application here a link on more information). In Europe, this plant can be invasive and is considered as weeds.In certain regions can be grown all year round. If you are in the garden and got a small cut maybe English Daisy will be handy to have around. So far, English Daisy has not made in our garden WEED LIST as yet. We saved some seeds last year. We sowed seeds starting from end summer to autumn. It usually starts to bloom in our garden starting end winter through spring. This plants dislike our extreme hot dry summer I think growing in full sun. However, it does well in partial shade during summer.

Bellis perennis seedlings.

The first time I came to know bellis perennis was last year at a Sunday market in a six cell punnet tray because I wanted something pretty as a border for our edibles. From our experience, snail and slug really like to munch on its leaves. Was I working unconsciously with my six sense when I was choosing flowers? Not just a pretty face but edible and on top of that has medical values. Bellis perennis can be a distraction for that always busy fluttering white cabbage butterfly. Bellis perennis grows well with lettuces but I am not sure yet with onions though. Bellis perennis is a good container plant.

Bellis perennis as a border and growing next to garlic in our garden at the moment. I hope garlic don't mind to have bellis perennis as company. At the back row near the fence are supposed to be violet sicilian cauliflower but I am in shock. It does not look any close to violet colour at all more like broccoli. So is that cauliflower or broccoli? I was so hoping to harvest a purple cauliflower this year.

This is a good combination that always grow well for us~ Broccoli with bellis perennis. Well, if bellis perennis has been already considered as weed as least this will suppressed other weeds. Moreover, I have less water evaporation to worry about as the soil is not exposed when densely planted.

It was an educational week for us in regarding bellis perennis. Embarassing after 2 years on growing them, just recently I knew it is edible and has medicinal values.

Linking with Ewa flowers on Saturday.

Have a nice weekend!

Perennial Polyanthus

The bright colours of polyanthus bloom has always reliably decorated our garden in winter each year. Since our polyanthus plants has been well-established in our garden at the moment, it bloom much earlier than previous year. This year polyanthus has started to bloom early July. Polyanthus grows very well in shade.

Visit Ewa for more Flowers on Saturday.

This year to add more brilliant colours in winter, last early April I tried to propagate new polyanthus plants by division from several old plants from last year that look a bit bushy. For example, this is one of the plants that I chose to give us more plants.

Made several division from that plant.

All of it survive, grow and are flowering at the moment.

Although it blooms later than well-established plants in our garden.

Have a nice weekend!

Winter Sunflowers

It is very cold this year according to Adelaide usual average weather standard. Usually in the month of June, we have some Asian greens and lettuces to harvest from end summer or fall sowing. But not this year, the growth are so slow and some were stunted. I have not even harvested one lettuce plant. Asian greens that were harvested was half their normal size. So the end summer-sowed sunflowers are cheering us up by giving many sunny blooms in this winter month! This sunflowers are making bees happy too. We still have many bees buzzing in our small garden. In the front yard our tree dahlias are making them happy and at the back bees happy with sunflowers.

Visit Ewa for Flowers on Saturday.

Evening sun sunflower sprouted from compost and blooming in the middle of the sweet corn patch.

Have a nice weekend with your love ones.

GTTC:Stir-Fried Baby Kailan with salted dried mackeral

Previous week harvest were white winter coloured-harvest theme. However, last week there is a dramatic change of colour theme harvest.  Last week we got more purple produce harvest. Last week we harvested our most probably last batch of Lebanese eggplants which we deep-fried coated with tempura flour. We also harvested some Giant Purple Mustard, beans, carrots, snow peas, chilies, yellow cherry tomatoes, chinese celery and volunteer nicola potatoes. This year the weather is unusually cooler so I must have sowed our kailan (Chinese broccoli) late than it is supposed to be. So our kailan has shown the sign of bolting and we harvested them as baby kailan. Every Monday, Daphne host Harvest Monday where gardeners all around the world shows what they have harvested each week.

We usually like to stir-fry baby kailan with salted dried mackeral. This is a popular dish in Malaysia and has a place in every restaurant menu. Linking with Wendy's Garden To Table Challenge.

Stir-Fried Baby Kailan with salted dried mackeral

Ingredient:

Kailan/Baby Kailan (separated the hard stem and leaves)

Minced Garlic

Small cut pieces of salted dried mackeral (fried)

Cooking oil

Fish sauce

Oyster Sauce

Chili (optional)

Heat oil in wok. Saute Garlic. Add in kailan hard stem, chili and fried salted dried mackeral. When the stem is half tender, add in the leaves and stir-fry. Put in a bit of fish sauce and oyster sauce and stir well. Enjoy.

Other recipe and ideas to prepare kailan visit this fab blog:

Baby Kailan Ikan Masin ~CikManggis Kitchen

Black Pepper Salmon with Baby Gai Lan ~ Joyce Kitchen

Stir-Fried Radish Cake

I have been craving for some stir-fried radish cake this month. I only have eaten it once and fell in love with it. I did not grew up with this dish although I am a Malaysian and it is a common hawker food. When we were working in Senai (Johor state), we frequently visit pasar malam (night market) to buy dinner. It was cheaper to buy food rather than cooking for only two people. One pasar malam day, walking on the bustling streets with rows of food hawker stalls lining up beside the street and trying to decide which to have for dinner, I saw people crowding on one of this food hawker stall. This heavily pregnant woman with her first child got curious and walk closer to see what kind of food that hawker stall is selling. The hawker is Chinese and most of his waiting customer were Chinese but they were one Malay couple waiting too. So I asked what food it is to the closest customer waiting beside me. She thought I was Chinese at first glance which is a common mistake that I am used too, they told me that the dish is made of radish and egg.    So with some persuasion to convince dear husband, we tasted stir-fried radish cake for the first time 4 years ago. That stir-fried radish cake made such an impact that we still remember the day we first taste it. So now skip the memory lane. We had so much daikon this year that I had to come up different ways to prepare it so members of our small dining table won't complain that much. On top of that, all of us are not a big fan of daikon yet. Last week, I posted recipe for Steamed Radish cake. Here is another way to enjoy the prepared steamed radish cake ~ stir-fried radish cake.

Stir-fried Radish Cake (recipe adapted from Terry Tan's The Thai Table cooking book)

Ingredients:

200gram steamed radish cake (previous post linked)

2 tablespoon cooking oil

2 Eggs lightly beaten

2 tablespoon sweet soy sauce

Your favourite chili sauce to taste

One spring onion finely chopped

Slice the steamed radish cake into bite size pieces. 

Heat oil in a wok.

Stir-fry radish cake and eggs for about 3 minutes (you can also add chicken, prawn or other vegetables).

Add sweet soy sauce and chili sauce.

Mix well and remove from heat.

Garnish with chopped spring onions.

Don't you love to cook food that don't use many ingredients and taste so good.

I can't live without a wok in our kitchen. If you happen to visit Malaysia and have the opportunity to visit pasar malam or any hawker stall do try this tasty dish. If you can't do any travelling this year. Then you can make this dish. As we like this dish, daikon has confirmed its place in each of spring and fall season planting plan. In true appreciation for this dish, all the members of our little dining table has agreed.

Wendy is hosting Garden To Table Challenge.

Japanese Radish Cake

I was worried at first with so many daikon seedlings that Lenay sowed while we were away for Rayyan surgery almost 3 months ago sprouted. Germination was 100%. I don't think we can possibly harvest them all. I was only planning a row of daikon but Lenay made 3 rows. She and Ilhan must be very bored while we were away. Now I have stop complaining because it has help fill in the gap until other winter vegetables are starting ready to be harvested end of winter or early spring. What is wonderful about daikon compare with other radish variety is that it does not need to be harvest quick because it does not become woody quickly. Moreover, it grow so big very fast. If you have a pet and worried about them trampling on daikon seedlings, don't worry, they are almost stomp-proof. We grow daikon at the back of our fence on a reserve land and one day a driver who wanted to test his car during dusk drove through those young daikon seedlings which just sprouted true leaf. Those seedling look pretty bad and I thought they won't survived as some were totally squash out. I don't say those word out aloud because Lenay is having tears in her eyes since it is her project patch. She planted and hill up the ones that were uprooted. Surprisingly they did grow pretty good (photo as evidence).

I have only started growing plants on this area last August so the soil is still very hard. Since I can see white roots on top of the soil, I reckon those daikon is already having a very hard time to push into the soil for bigger and longer root growth. I pull several out last weekend and it was not an easy thing to do. We have to be careful or the roots breaks in the soil and you have to dig out the rest part of the root which is not easy since the soil is very hard. Avoid pulling the top but hold on to the roots and try to turn them right and left gently to pull them up. Some of the daikon has reach their limit to try breaking the soil to grow some roots and start to become forky. Daikon can grow at least 40~50cm long and like potato, it is a good soil-breaker. Because of that, I have already planned to grow garlic on this row of daikon after I finished harvesting this long white root.

Fresh home-grown vegetables are the best thing but eating daikon many times a week will probably make you wish for other stuff as well. So last weekend project was about searching and trying new recipe with radish other than soup or stir-fry daikon with anchovies which what has been prepared in our kitchen since the daikon harvest started in our garden. If you have a glutton of radish and run out of ideas to prepare it, here is a recipe that I tried from Terry Tan's The Thai Table cooking book ~ Steamed Radish Cake (Khanom Chai Tau). I am not a very good student for following step-by-step instruction in cooking but it is not difficult to prepare.

Steamed Radish Cake (Khanom Chai Tau)

Makes one 200gram cake

Ingredients:

Daikon 900gram , peeled and grated

Rice flour 400gram

Tapioca flour or Corn flour (cornstarch) 55 gram

Water 125ml

Salt 2tsp

Cooking oil 2Tbsp

Vegetable Stock cube 1, crushed

Place grated radish in a blender and blend until fine. Set aside.

Combine both types of flour and sift into a mixing bowl. Gradually add water and mix well. Mixture should be thick and moist. Add salt, oil, stock cube and radish. Mix until well blended.

Transfer mixture to a non-stock, medium-sized pot. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes, or until cake is firm. Remove from pot and steam over high heat for 30 minutes. Radish cake is ready when an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool before use.

A very healthy vegetarian cake.

Note: Some people needs to get used of the strong daikon flavour before having this. When I asked my husband what does it taste like? Taste like you are eating daikon...hmmm...I would probably used 2 vegetable stock cube next time. This is our first taste of Steamed Japanese Radish cake and I think it goes well eating it together with sambal ikan bilis (chili anchovies). Looks like kuih bingka when its cooked.

Wendy is hosting Garden To Table Challenge.

White Wednesday at Faded Charm.
It is the first day of winter here and it is such a fine sunny day today, although cold if you go outside.
Hazel is celebrating our first winter day this year with Winter Wednesday.

Last Autumn 2011 Harvest

I can't believe it in less than 30 hours will be officially winter season here in Adelaide. Not only that we are also almost middle of the year when I felt that we just entered year 2011. On the other hand, it is interesting that the opposite hemisphere have longer day hours to enjoy and don't need to wear jacket soon. Visit Daphne's Dandelion to see varieties of harvest from different part of gardens around the world is enjoying. We harvested our first giant purple mustard grown from Harry seeds that we inter-planted with broccoli. As the giant purple mustard grow much faster than slow-growing broccoli, it gets overcrowded on the patch so we harvested some of it. We had some sweet corns, tomatoes, volunteer potatoes and different variety of capsicum to harvest last week. Interestingly, one of the sweet corns plant had kernels on the tassel and it tasted very sweet brings back childhood memory when my aunt brought back young stalk of rice for a treat.

Yellow cherry tomatoes, pencil size leeks and red capsicum fried together with rice noodles for Sunday breakfast.

Red hot chilli harvest.

Pak Choi and funny looking root vegetables.

Bitter gourd plant is still producing some male and female flowers at the moment. But with the cold weather, the fruit won't grow that much even it is well pollinated. Will this be our last bitter gourd harvest for this year? Not sure we still have ping pong ball size of bitter gourd on the plants. More and more daikon, snow peas and chili to harvest next month.

How do you prepare your radish in the kitchen?

Pumpkin Rice and Pumpkin Soup

Although I harvested a pumpkin last weekend, I still have not use it. I am trying to finish up pumpkins that I got from our local fruit and veggie swap earlier this month. It was cold and raining heavily yesterday so I had some time in my hand to search for pumpkin recipes that I can make with things that I have in my fridge and pantry. It has been such a long time that I have not spent much time in the kitchen experimenting, all thanks to the rain yesterday.

Our weekend harvest were sweet corns, chilies, beans, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, baby beetroot, snow peas, first harvest of snowball turnips and might be the last okra burgundy for this year. See what other gardeners from all over the worlds are harvesting this week in Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.

With all those chilies and tomato harvest, we had sambal belacan everyday. Hope it keeps the flu bug away from this cold weather.

I have to say that I don't grow up eating pumpkin that much. I rarely saw pumpkin in my mama kitchen. I know she probably used a lot of pumpkin for puree and feeding me when I was a baby like I do with my sons. But other than that it is very rare that we have any dishes with pumpkin on it or I was not fond of pumpkin during my childhood and teens. I gave some pumpkin to my vegetarian friend and she said she used them for pumpkin soup. She says her mom used to make pumpkin rice. So I decided to have a go of making pumpkin rice when I remember that A Nyonya' s Kitchen...for all seasons blog shared her pumpkin rice recipe, end last month. This is not vegetarian dish but Ilhan likes to eat chicken nowadays so perhaps I can coax him to have a taste and he won't have a big fuss. Petite nyonya used dried scallops, shitake mushrooms and teriyaki sauce but I don't include this because it was not available in our pantry. Furthermore, we used 2 cups of rice instead of 3/4cup rice .This is because instead of small bowl diced chicken meat, someone use big bowl. I skipped the 'small" when I was reading the ingredients. We add in sliced capsicum, turnips and snow peas into this dish. I like this dish it was easy and did not take much time prepare because the rice cooker will help with the cooking afterwards.

I have always wanted to make western style vegetable soups but I always don't have some of the ingredients in our kitchen when I have the time. For example, for a South-East Asia kitchen any kind of cream, sour or full or light is not a common thing that I would have in the fridge except if I have been planning ahead for some certain dish, this include natural yogurt for cooking too. Sometime I buy them on impulse, maybe this weekend thinking I can try new dish...most of the time it got expired. While waiting for Ilhan selecting his books at the local library, I saw one of Masterchef judge new book~ Gary Mehigan's Comfort Food. I borrowed it for Lenay because she likes to watch Masterchef. I took a peek when we are back at home, Gary's pumpkin soup recipe ingredient are things that we have in the kitchen. So my mission for Sunday dinner preparation was making pumpkin soup.

Gary's pumpkin soup is for 4servings (I only made for 2 serving half of the ingredient below. But it was still too much and we even freeze half of the cooked soup).

Ingredients:

~1X1.6 kg jap pumpkin, peeled, seeded, cut into manageable chunk for grating (I used 3 different type of pumpkin because I am trying to finish off the pumpkin we got from the swap JAP, butternut and that giant pumpkin. Moreover I cut it into small chunks and did not grate.)

~125 g unsalted butter, chopped.

~50ml vegetable oil

~1 teaspoon table salt

~1 litre milk

~Freshly ground black pepper, crusty bread or garlic toasts to serve.

Heat butter and oil over medium heat. Add the pumpkin and sprinkle with salt. Cook the pumpkin, covered, gently over low heat for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until it is soft. Stir in the milk and bring to boil.

Blend the pumpkin mixture in a food processor or blender until creamy and smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

My first home-made pumpkin soup. I am participating Wendy's Garden to Table Challenge.

Another few days, it will be officially winter here. Do you think two of our pumpkins down here will make it until they are mature enough to harvest?

I don't like or hate pumpkin. I don't know much about cooking pumpkin. So I need some motivation and learn more about pumpkin. I know it is a very healthy and nutritious food. Any advice on pumpkin?