Liquid Enzyme from Fruit Rinds

When deciding to start organic gardening, I've been looking for ways to organically fertilize my future plants. My mom kept telling me that those plants wouldn't thrive without (inorganic) fertilizers. 

From the beginning I had persisted to only count on good amount of compost and mulch as the fertilizer agents for the soil. Compost tea is also a good fertilizer, especially from those of animals manure like cow, goat or chicken dung. I had planned on making my own compost from kitchen's organic scraps, which will be a good source of compost tea too, but I wan't ready. Then, I ran across a blog article by ThePinkieRabbit with information on how to make DIY liquid enzyme, using fruit rinds. I was ecstatic with how easy it was. Coincidently, I had some dragon fruit rinds, so I gave it a go. Then, at the other occassion I made some more out of the pineapple rinds and today I just made a bottle from some papaya rinds. I can't wait to apply these yummy liquid enzyme to the soil of my plants. 

I promise, it's super duper easy! For the recipe and how to make it please refer to the website above with just one click.

Dissolved palm sugar in 1 L tap water

New updates from my rooftop garden

My rooftop garden has gotten bigger in size as the 50 something tomato seedlings survived after being repotted and I've added a mango tree, several flowers and a citrus tree, as well as 3 pineapple crowns which I replanted from the scraps and some ginger, turmeric, galanggal, garlic, onion, and bell pepper. 

Btw, I am so happy to see my tomato seedlings are not only surviving but also growing and branching, though they are not growing into the same size. Some are growing quite fast, but some are slow. I also have given 3 seedlings to my brother's employee for adoption and have also promised to give several others to my tuition student. I am happy if they can thrive and bear fruit in the hands of their new owners. 

These 3 seedlings are bell-peppers from the seed I dried myself. Btw, I'm a little perpelexed to see these orange bell-peppers turned out to be different in forms. Maybe it has accidentally mixed with other seeds. 

Garlic started to sprout

The Citrus Tree which I bought from the market

This is the watermelon radish I replanted from the scraps.

The Cilantro I replanted from the scraps started to grow but then were deterorating and several plants eventually died of rotting roots. Probably the cause was soggy soil because it's been raining a lot lately. I should have planted them indoor though...

I planted some ginger heads from the scraps and the young shoot of this one has grown.

Can anyone of you recognize this seedling? Is it really an orange bell pepper?

Bakwa Sushi

Bakwa is just 'Numero Uno!', that yesterday I made some sushi with it. You won't regret it, trust me! :-)

Bakwa is a cured sweet and salty pork jerky but because I kept it in the freezer; it will be much nicer if it is slightly grilled using a non stick pan to make it a little greasy and flavorful before inserting it into the sushi.

Asian Savory Spaghetti

Asian Savory Spaghetti served in one of my favorite childhood vintage enameled tin plates

Cooking is an 'adventure' for me where I can explore as far as I like to. There's a zillion of recipes to experiment with and so many ingredients and spices to explore. In the end you can always come up  to something that fits your standard and appetite. Your own recipe!

However, I have a big issue. I hate to spend tons of money shopping ingredients just to learn or cook one new recipe and not sure of when I will be using the leftover ingredients! Instead, I like to invent my own recipes with ingredients I have in my fridge! I'm sure some of you can identify with it! :-)

So this morning, again, I am making breakfast for my family. And today I'm going to make an 'East meets with the West' kind of recipe, of course with all the dry and fresh ingredients I have at home and in the fridge! Yay!!

It's a fried spaghetti and I call it "Asian Savory Spaghetti" because I'm using a couple of ingredients that are specifically from Asia and mostly used by the Chinese and Indians: Cumin powder and Bakwa (Chinese Sweet and Salty Pork Jerky). I am glad with the fact that I still have some more Bakwa in my freezer. It's just as good for fried rice and fried noodles as it is slightly fried with a little oil and served with steamed rice! So, let's start cooking!

Ingredients:
1 cup of Sugar Peas Pod, whole
1 cup of red/purple cabbage, shredded
2 cups of mixed-color Paprika/Bell Pepper (green, yellow, orange and red), chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
10 hot red pepper
6 small spring onion
1-2 pieces of Bakwa, cubed
500 mg of Spaghetti
1/2 cup of vegetable oil or olive oil
11/2 Tbs of Cumin Powder
Salt
Water

How to:
1. Boil the spaghetti until all dente, set asside and continue to heat the oil in the skillet. Sauté garlic until brown and fragrant. Stir ini onion.

2. Then, add the hot pepper, Bakwa and Cumin Powder. Stir until the meat is slightly crisp and fragrant.

3). Put the cabbage and bell pepper.

4) Stir until slightly cooked.

5) Because sugar peas pod only takes a while to cook and best when it's still crunchy, make sure you add it after the other veggies are tender.

6) Add in the spaghetti and a little water to help making all the ingredients blended.

7) Sprinkle salt, adjust it to your own taste but make sure it's not over, so it won't overwhelm the taste of other ingredients. Stir until all ingredients are well blend.

8) Done!