Making Jams

A good way to use up fruits of the season is by making jams and preserves. In Malaysia where I live, although our seasonal fruits like durian, mangosteen, mangoes, rambutans, langsat are not suitable for any of these, some can be made into delicious ice-creams. So for me I usually buy the fruits like plums and apples from the supermarket to make jam but strawberries are available nearly all year round in Cameron Highlands, a highland town just 45 minutes up a scenic route from where I live. So whenever we visit Cameron Highlands I will make sure I buy more than I need for my jam coz then I would have some leftover to be frozen for later use. Pineapple is available year round in Malaysia and makes a really delicious jam that is not only good with bread but also to make jam tarts. Of course the three fruit marmalade using grapefruit, oranges and lemons is the best bet coz these three fruits are available easily any time of the year.

The advantage of making your own jam is that not only do you get more fruits in the jam but you can adjust the sugar level to taste coz some of us are more health conscious that others so some of us like it less sweet. Moreover I like to make my jam a little runny coz it goes really well with plain home-made yoghurt. So to start with I will teach you how to make strawberry jam :

Frozen strawberries and a potted strawberry plant in my garden

Strawberry Jam

Ingredients :

About a kilo of strawberry jam
About 1/2 kilo sugar (to taste)
Approx 3 cups of water
Jars for storing jam


Method :

Remove leaves from strawberry and wash them. Put in a heavy based pot with the water and let it boil. When it starts to boil, turn down the heat and let it simmer and stew while stirring periodically so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. At this juncture, it is also advisable to use a skimming spoon to lift off the scum and foam that will form at the top of the pot. Let it simmer till the fruits are soft and mushy, then add in the sugar and turn up the heat to let the strawberries come to a rolling boil. At this stage, it is crucial that you keep stirring until you notice the jam leaving the side of the pot. Now, just take a plate and a drop a little jam onto it and let it cool. After a few minutes just take the plate and slant it over to see if the jam rolls off. If it does, then it could be too runny so cook a little longer but if it runs very slowly down the plate then it should be just nice. But if you prefer a firmer jam, then cook it a little longer.

Make sure jars are sterilised by boiling in hot water, dry it with a cloth and leave in a heated oven to dry completely or can just dry in the sun.

When jam is ready, fill jam jars to the brim and cap immediately when hot.

After it has cooled, it can be kept in the fridge. Will keep well for at least a month

Custom made Crystal Jewellery

I have a little business selling my handmade crystal jewelry online and also at jewelry parties which I organize. My fascination was initially with crystals and their energies and it's healing qualities. The more I read, the more I wanted to know about crystals. I bought beautiful crystal beads and chips and I saw the potential in turning them into beautiful necklaces, bracelets and ear-rings. I researched on how to make jewelry from the net and in our local library and started with the little things that I had : my pliers, a few strands of crystal beads and some strings. The first necklace I ever made was with the amethyst chips and when friends saw it they liked it and I gave it away for free. After giving away several necklaces, bracelets and ear-rings I decided that I needed to get back the cost that I put in at the least and my little jewelry business was conceived. This was in September 2006 and since then I have lost count of the number of pieces I have sold. Besides just selling my pieces, I also conduct jewelry making classes for a minimal fee. Since I am into many kinds of craft, sometimes when the mothers are taking their jewelry classes, I will conduct other craft classes for children. I really enjoy these classes and my students get such a thrill when they see the finished product done by their own hands.

Do visit my website :http://www.trinketstation.com

Keeping Green Vegetables Fresh

French Beans and Air-drying chives

Here are some useful tips to keep greens fresh in the fridge for a few days and sometimes even up to a week. We sometimes feel that we should buy just a little more than necessary so we don't have to do our shopping everyday but then find that they are wilted and yellow by the time we really need them. You can actually do several things when you get back from the market/supermarket :

Firstly make sure that all the veggies are dry and not too much moisture is trapped in the plastic bags.

• For spring onions cut the roots off and clean them, then cut the length into two and leave them in a mug so that the water drains dry. Leave for a about an hour on the kitchen table and then put them into plastic container. When you need them, you can then cut them up the way the recipe calls for. Will keep for nearly a week in the fridge

• The same can be done for the celery and keeps for about the same time.

• Chilly padi or bird's eye chillies keeps really well in a bottle in the fridge

• For cabbage always tear off outer leaves to use first coz once you cut up the whole cabbage, it starts to get yellow and brown and there will be wastage as you will have to cut off the edges.

• For Brocolli and cauliflower, it is best to keep them dry and not wash them. Cut them up
  into florets and keep them in plastic container with cover and keep in the fridge.

• Butterhead which is a hydroponically grown vegetable, keeps really well in the fridge. Just use the outer leaves and keep the rest back in the bag that it's packed in and keeps fresh for up to a week at least. Really good eaten raw in salads or blanched and drizzled with a little garlic oil and soya sauce.
  

• String Beans or French Beans is easy to keep fresh too. Just cut the tip and string it, wash and keep whole in plastic container with lid till ready to use then can cut to length required

Planting Herbs in my little garden

Rosemary Plant


Young Basil plants

I am an avid gardener but so far I have been concentrating mostly on plants that beautify my garden space. However, a few weeks ago I decided to devote a little of my gardening time, skills and space to plant some useful herbs which will be handy when I cook instead of having to head to the wet market or the supermarket just to get the herbs.

The little rosemary plants on the top pic are struggling to grow but I am giving them a lot of TLC to help them thrive. Then I have the daun kesom which is used in assam curry dishes like assam laksa. . How encouraging !!! The daun kesom that you see in my post on the assam fish curry was picked fresh from my garden. Isn't that sweet. Nurtured by my own hand. I collected some sweet basil seeds from a neighbour's garden and sowed them and they have begun to show promise. I am trying to plant the basil into little pots so that I can give my two sons a pot each. Since they love pasta, this will be a welcome addition to the other plants growing in their balcony. Imagine just plucking a few leaves off the balcony garden and throwing it into the pasta. Yum yum !!

A scenic drive to Camerons Highlands

Last Sunday morning was hot and humid in the Kinta valley so my hubby and I decided to take a drive up Cameron Highlands via Simpang Pulai. From Ipoh, where we live it takes us just about 15 minutes to reach the foothills at Simpang Pulai. The climb is really gradual and you won't even notice that it's climbing until you look down and see how high up it has climbed.

The scenery though still very beautiful has been spoilt by the many "scars" on the mountainside due to rock blasting. Was really sad and annoyed to see the destruction on nature, done so blatantly and with no guilt and all for the sake of money . We arrived Kg Raja about 40 minutes from Simpang Pulai and headed straight to the garden centres. The air was crisp and much fresher than down in Ipoh city and the many green veggies was a feast to the eyes. Although it's still cool and nice in Cameron Highlands , hopefully something will be done asap to stop too much so called "development". It's becoming a concrete jungle. I can still remember the Cameron Highlands of my youth and I mourn the demise of that beautiful Highlands that I knew not so very long ago.

There are some really distasteful looking apartments that seemed out of place in such a nice and scenic setting. My only hope is that the authorities will do something to protect the scenic beauty of Cameron Highlands and preserve it as a tourist attraction.

Oprah's New Online Class ........ It's Free

Today is the first day of Oprah Winfrey's and Ekhart Tolle's online class on the latter's book A New Earth. Go to Oprah.com and sign up. It's more a spiritual and self improvement sort of class and I think will be helpful to many of us. It's free so I guess no harm joining up as we have nothing to lose but everything to gain. Happy learning and this is the website : www.oprah.com

Save Toll Charges on the Old Trunk Roads

On Saturday, my husband and I took a slow leisurely drive to Kuala Lumpur. We travel to Kuala Lumpur often enough to visit our sons, always taking the highway which will cost us something between RM 24.00 to RM27.00 on toll charges, depending from where we enter and exit the highway. So a trip to KL inclusive of petrol will cost us at least RM100.00.

This past weekend we decided to try the old trunk roads as friends and family have told us that the roads are much improved and most importantly, free of toll charges. We left Ipoh at 7.45 am and took the highway till Tapah and exited to the old road and paid a toll of RM5.60. We were pleasantly surprised by the ease of driving on the old roads and the bonus was the beautiful scenery and the nostalgia as we passed the towns like Sungkai, Bidor and so on. It has been years since I have been on these trunk roads and certain stretches was dual carriageway too. We drove all the way through Rawang until Jalan Kuching to my son's apartment which is just off Jalan Kuching. Can't imagine that we paid a toll of only RM5.60 as compared to RM24 - RM27 on the highways. Although the speed limit was only 90 kmh and it was raining most of the way, it took us just short of 3 hours to arrive Kuala Lumpur as compared to 2 hours on the highway but was worth the little extra time taken because the toll saved was significant enough. My hubby says on our next trip we should be able to go all the way and not pay a single sen toll.
I am game............why not if we can save money and we arrive anyway.


Rainy morning