Asam Jawa

Asam jawa merupakan buah yang boleh di makan yang dipetik dari pokok Asam Jawa. Nama botaninya Tamarindus indica.
Asam jawa mempunyai kelonsong yang mengandungi beberapa biji asam jawa didalamnya. Kelonsongnya yang keras akan dipecahkan dan isinya akan diasingkan dari biji benih yang terdapat didalamnya.
Asam jawa merupakan sejenis ramuan masakan yang terkenal dikalangan masyarakat Melayu. Biasanya asam jawa akan dilarutkan ke dalam air dan hanya airnya digunakan dalam masakan. Hampasnya pada kebiasaannya dibuang.
Selain digunakan dalam masakan, asam jawa juga boleh dimakan begitu sahaja ataupun dengan ditambah dengan gula. Selain itu asam jawa juga digunakan secara tradisional bagi mengubat batuk dan perit tekak.

Daun Kesum/ Vietnamese Mint

Pokok Kesum merupakan tumbuhan yang banyak terdapat di ASEAN. Nama saintifiknya Polygonum minus
Terdapat bahagian pokok Kesum yang boleh diambil untuk dijadikan makanan. Daun Kesum sering diambil dan dijadikan bahan masakan yang sungguh menyelerakan.

To grow your own daun kesum is a great way to start a herb garden. Daun kesum is an essential ingredient for making laksa. Without daun kesum, there is no way your laksa can be complete. At some places in Malaysia, daun kesum is refered to as "daun laksa" or laksa leaves. The English name for it is most probably Vietnamese mint but I am not really sure because the real Vietnamese mint is maybe slightly different but still belongs to the same family. Daun kesum is a member of the mint family. It is a very easy to grow herb.
The leaves are elongated, with soft stalk, each segment of the stalk has the potential to grow into another bunch of mint leaves because roots sprout from the stalk itself.
You can grow your own daun kesum from any laksa stalks you sometimes get as garnish when you bought laksa from a hakwer's stall.
Living in an apartment on the fourth floor, I do not have enough space for having a garden, but I can grow daun kesum easily from a plastic container (like used ice-cream tub) filled with some damp earth.
The leaves are green and will turn yellow and then brown when they start withering. The stalks will grow and grow if you let them but usually I trim the tips to let them branch out.
Other than laksa, the leaves can be used as an additional herb when you make nasi ulam, nasi kerabu and when you make asam pedas or other fish dishes. It can be sliced thinly as garnishing, eaten raw or added in sour spicy soup like laksa.
The smell of this minty herb is strong and unmistakable. Therefore, it is good to be used in a fish dish with gravy to counterbalance the fishy smell.
To start planting the herb is very simple indeed.
Get a few stalks of fresh daun kesum from the wet market or if your friend has a herb garden, ask for some stalks from her.
Place the stalks in a jam jar or glass filled with 1 cm of water. Let them sit for a few days until a substantial length of roots can be seen growing at the bottom of the jar.
Transfer your stalks into a container filled with damp earth. Cover about 2.5cm of the stalks in the dirt. Make sure the bottom of the container has some small holes to let excess water to flow out. See, it is easy to grow your own daun kesum.
The herb needs very little maintenance except for enough water to ensure the earth it is planted in is always damp. Oh yes, also plenty of sunlight. You can place the herb pot at the window sill or if you have a balcony, place it there. It grows well in your backyard too.
Fertilizer made of compost is good for the leaves. Old wives have this tip to nourish your herbs: use the bloody water that remained after washing and gutting your fish to spray on the leaves and earth, it is supposed to be full of nutrients for plant. Do this treatment every two weeks or so.
Daun kesum grows very fast. Given good care and enough water, within a week you can already have a bunch filling up your ice-cream tub already.

Daun Kari / Curry Leaves

Istilah "curry" dalam bahasa Inggeris mungkin berasal daripada perkataan bahasa Tamil yang merujuk kepada mana-mana satu hidangan sampingan yang dimakan bersama-sama dengan nasi. [1] Selain itu, daun kari yang dikenali dalam bahasa Tamil sebagai 'karuvapillai' (secara harfiahnya bermaksud "daun hitam") digunakan dalam berbagai-bagai hidangan umum di India Selatan yang diperbuat daripada sayur-sayuran atau daging dan biasanya, dimakan dengan nasi.

For the "Curry Plant", see Helichrysum italicum. Kadipatta or Sweet Neem leaf

The small flowers are white and fragrant.
The Curry Tree or Kadipatta or Sweet Neem leaf.(Murraya koenigii; syn. Bergera koenigii, Chalcas koenigii) is a tropical to sub-tropical tree in the family Rutaceae, which is native to India. at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.
It is a small tree, growing 4-6 m tall, with a trunk up to 40 cm diameter. The leaves are pinnate, with 11-21 leaflets, each leaflet 2-4 cm long and 1-2 cm broad. The flowers are small white, and fragrant. The small black, shiny berries are edible, but their seeds are poisonous.
The species name commemorates the botanist Johann Gerhard Koenig.

Its leaves are highly aromatic and are used as a herb. Their form is small and narrow and they somewhat resemble the leaves of the Neem tree; therefore they are also referred to as Kari Baavu (translated to Black Neem) in the Kannada language and Karivepaku in Telugu, again translating to the same meaning. In Tamil and Malayalam it is known as Karuveppilai, ilai meaning leaves and veppilai meaning Neem leaf. Other names include Kari Patta (Hindi), Bhursunga Patra (Oriya), Kadhi Limb (Marathi), Kadhi Limdo (Gujarati) and Karapincha (Sinhalese).
They are commonly used as seasoning in Indian and Sri Lankan cooking, much like bay leaves and especially in curries with fish or coconut milk. In their fresh form, they have a short shelf life though they may be stored in a freezer for quite some time. They are also available dried, though the aroma is inferior.
Various biological activities of Murraya koenigii include antidiabetic , antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, anti-hypercholesterolemic etc.,

Daun Pandan / Pandan Leaves / ScrewPine

Pokok Pandan merupakan sejenis pokok yang banyak kegunaannya bagi orang-orang Melayu. Ia digunakan sebagai pewangi makanan dan dalam upacara tertentu seperti sebagai bunga rampai dalam istiadat perkahwinan Melayu.

Pandanus amaryllifolius is a tropical plant in the screwpine genus which is known commonly as pandan and used widely in Southeast Asian cooking. It is an erect green plant with fan-shaped sprays of long, narrow, bladelike leaves and woody aerial roots. The plant is sterile, flowers only very rarely, and is propagated by cuttings.
The plant is rare in the wild but cultivated widely for use as a flavoring in cooking. The leaves are used fresh or wilted, and are commercially available in frozen form in Asian grocery stores in nations where the plant does not grow. They have a nutty, botanical fragrance which enhances the flavor of Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, and Indonesian foods, especially rice dishes and cakes. The leaves are sometimes steeped in coconut milk, which is then added to the dish. They may be tied in a bunch and cooked with the food. They also may be woven into a basket which is used as a pot for cooking rice. Pandan chicken, or gai ob bai toey, is a Thai dish with chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and fried. The leaves are also used as a flavoring for desserts such as pandan cake and sweet beverages.
In Indonesian it is called pandan wangi and in Vietnamese it is called lá dứa. The leaves of the plant have a repellent effect on cockroaches.[1]
The characteristic aroma of pandan is caused by the aroma compound 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline which also gives white bread, jasmine rice and basmati rice, and bread flowers (Vallais glabra) their typical smell

Bunga Kantan / Ginger Flower / Torch Ginger

Pokok Bunga Kantan atau juga dikenali sebagai bunga siantan merupakan sejenis pokok saka herba.
Bunga pokok ini yang berwarna merah muda banyak digunakan sebagai gubahan hiasan manakala tunas bunga ini dijadikan bahan memasak dalam masakan Melayu seperti laksa dan nasi kerabu. Dibungkus seperti sayuran dan tak sesuai diletakkan dalam plastik.
Diambil daripada "http://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunga_kantan"

Ginger Flower
Etlingera elatior, syn. Nicolaia elatior, formerly Phaeomeria speciosa
Also known as torch ginger. The showy pink flowers of a tall perennial look almost too pretty to eat but their flavour is an essential ingredient in some dishes. Difficult to procure outside Asia at present, they will probably soon be grown and sold the way other Asian herbs are in large Western cities.
Vietnamese mint has a remarkably similar fragrance and pungency and may be substituted. Some of the popular laksa soups feature a sprinkling of finely shredded ginger bud, while others use laksa leaf. The Malaysian name for ginger flower is bunga kantan or bunga siantan. In Thailand, young shoots and flowers are served raw with nam prik.
Other Languages:Malaysia: bunga kantanThailand: kaalaa

Kunyit / Turmeric

Kunyit (Curcuma longa) merupakan sejenis rempah yang banyak digunakan dalam kari dan masakan lain Asia Selatan. Kunyit juga digunakan untuk memberi warna kuning pada masakan.Selain kegunaan kepada masakan, kunyit juga terkenal di kalangan masyarakat Melayu dan India dengan khasiatnya sebagai ubat pembersih dalaman badan dan mencantikkan kulit. Di samping itu daun serta bunga kunyit bagi sesetengah masyarakat Melayu memang digemari sebagai ulam.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae which is native to tropical South Asia. It needs temperatures between 20 and 30 deg. C. and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive. Plants are gathered annually for their rhizomes, and re-seeded from some of those rhizomes in the following season.
It is also often misspelled (or pronounced) as tumeric. It is also known as kunyit (Indonesian and Malay) or haldi or pasupu in some Asian countries[2]. In medieval Europe, turmeric became known as Indian Saffron, since it is widely used as an alternative to far more expensive saffron spice.

Its rhizomes are boiled for several hours and then dried in hot ovens, after which they are ground into a deep orange-yellow powder commonly used as a spice in curries and other South Asian cuisine, for dyeing, and to impart color to mustard condiments. Its active ingredient is curcumin and it has an earthy, bitter, peppery flavor and has a mustardy smell.
Sangli, a town in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra, is the largest and most important trading centre for turmeric in Asia or perhaps in the entire world.[3]

In non-Indian recipes, turmeric is sometimes used as a coloring agent. It has found application in canned beverages, baked products, dairy products, ice cream, yogurt, yellow cakes orange juice, biscuits, popcorn-color, sweets, cake icings, cereals, sauces, gelatins, etc. It is a significant ingredient in most commercial curry powders.

Turmeric (coded as E100 when used as a food additive) is used to protect food products from sunlight. The oleoresin is used for oil-containing products. The curcumin/polysorbate solution or curcumin powder dissolved in alcohol is used for water containing products. Over-coloring, such as in pickles, relishes and mustard, is sometimes used to compensate for fading.
In combination with annatto (E160b), turmeric has been used to color cheeses, yogurt, dry mixes, salad dressings, winter butter and margarine. Turmeric is also used to give a yellow color to some prepared mustards, canned chicken broths and other foods (often as a much cheaper replacement for saffron).
Turmeric is widely used as a spice in Indian and other South Asian cooking. Momos (Nepali meat dumplings), a traditional dish in South Asia, are spiced with turmeric.

Bawang Merah / Red Onion

Bawang merah (bahasa Inggeris: Shallot) dikelaskan dalam famili Alliaceae dalam order Asparagales. Nama saintifiknya adalah Allium cepa var. aggregatum. Bawang merah adalah lebih kecil dan lebih manis dari bawang besar. Bawang merah merupakan sejenis tanaman semusim, memiliki umbi yang berlapis (bulb), berakar serabut, dengan daun berbentuk silinder berongga. Umbi bawang merah terbentuk daripada pangkal daun yang bersatu dan membentuk batang yang berubah bentuk dan fungsinya, membesar dan akhirnya membentuk umbi berlapis. Umbi bawang merah terbentuk dari lapisan-lapisan daun yang membesar dan bersatu. Umbi bawang merah bukanlan ubi sebenarnya seperti ubi kentang ataupun ubi keledek.

Kegunaan Masakan

Bawang merah sebagai salah satu sayuran yang merupakan bahan penting untuk masakan baik untuk masakan rumah tangga, dan juga sebagai bahan dalam industri permakanan. Pengeluaran bawang merah pada masa ini tidak mampu memenuhi permintaan yang ada terutama pada saat menjelang hari-hari perayaan seperti hari raya. Oleh itu usaha untuk meningkatkan lagi penanaman bawang merah perlu dipertingkatkan lagi. Bawang merah membiak dengan mengeluarkan tunas pada umbi, atau dikenali sebagai beranak. Anak-anak bawang merah boleh mencapai berbelas setiap pokok.

Bawang Putih / Garlic

Bawang putih digunakan sebagai bumbu yang digunakan hampir di setiap makanan dan masakan Malaysia. Sebelum dipakai sebagai ramuan, bawang putih dihancurkan dengan ditekan dengan sisi pisau (dikeprek) sebelum dihiris halus dan ditumis dengan sedikit minyak goreng. Bawang putih boleh juga ditumbuk dengan pelbagai jenis bahan ramuan yang lain.
Bawang putih mempunyai khasiat sebagai antibiotik alami di dalam tubuh manusia. Bawang ini telah dikenal pasti dapat memecahkan kolesterol yang menyekat perjalanan darah pada salur darah dan kolesterol ini dikenal pasti sebagai punca kepada penyakit darah tinggi.Ia juga membantu menyegarkan pernafasan sekalipun tempat yang banyak karbon monoksida (asap kenderaan).
Sayuran ini juga dapat menghindarkan seseorang daripada diserang kanser kerana kandungan mineralnya membantutkan ketumbuhan tumor dalam tubuh badan.Selain itu bagi mereka yang mempunyai masalah jerawat, kuman tersebut dapat dibunuh dengan menumbuk bawang putih serta menepekkannya di bahagian yang berjerawat.

Allium sativum L., commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion family Alliaceae. Its close relatives include the onion, the shallot, and the leek. Garlic has been used throughout recorded history for both culinary and medicinal purposes. It has a characteristic pungent, spicy flavor that mellows and sweetens considerably with cooking.[1]. A bulb of garlic, the most commonly used part of the plant, is divided into numerous fleshy sections called cloves. The cloves are used as seed, for consumption (raw or cooked), and for medicinal purposes. The leaves, stems (scape) and flowers (bulbils) on the head (spathe) are also edible and most often consumed while immature and still tender. The papery, protective layers of 'skin' over various parts of the plant and the roots attached to the bulb are the only parts not considered palatable.

Garlic is widely used around the world for its pungent flavor, as a seasoning or condiment. It is a fundamental component in many or most dishes of various regions including Eastern Asia, South Asia, South-East Asia, the Middle-East, Northern Africa, Southern Europe, and parts of South and Central America. The flavour varies in intensity and aroma with cooking methods. It is often paired with onion, tomato, or ginger. The parchment-like skin is much like the skin of an onion, and is typically removed before using in raw or cooked form. An alternative is to cut the top off the bulb, coat cloves of garlic by dribbling olive oil (or other oil based seasoning) over them and roast them in the oven. The garlic softens and can be extracted from the cloves by squeezing the (root) end of the bulb or individually by squeezing one end of the clove.
Oils are often flavored with garlic cloves. Commercially prepared oils are widely available, but when preparing garlic-infused oil at home, there is a risk of botulism if the product is not stored properly. To reduce this risk, the oil should be refrigerated and used within one week. Manufacturers add acids and/or other chemicals to eliminate the risk of botulism in their products.[5]
In some cuisine, the young bulbs are pickled for 3–6 weeks in a mixture of sugar, salt and spices. In Eastern Europe the shoots are pickled and eaten as an appetizer.
Immature scapes are tender and edible. They are also known as 'garlic spears', 'stems', or 'tops'. Scapes generally have a milder taste than cloves. They are often used in stir frying or prepared like asparagus. Garlic leaves are a popular vegetable in many parts of Asia. The leaves are cut, cleaned and then stir-fried with eggs, meat, or vegetables.
Mixing garlic with eggs and olive oil produces aioli. Garlic, oil, and a chunky base produce skordalia. Blending garlic, almond, oil and soaked bread produces ajoblanco.
About 1/4 teaspoon of dried powdered garlic is equivalent to one fresh clove.

Halia / Ginger

Pokok Halia merupakan sejenis tumbuhan yang dikenali sebagai sayur-sayuran dan ditanam sebagai makanan. Halia banyak dijual di pasar-pasar termasuk pasar tani dan pasar sayur.
Halia dalam perubatan
Penyelidikan yang dibuat oleh penyelidik Universiti Michigan yang diterbitkan di American Association of Cancer Research menunjukkan bahawa halia mampu membunuh sel barah.

Culinary Uses
Pickled ginger
Young ginger rhizomes are juicy and fleshy with a very mild taste. They are often pickled in vinegar or sherry as a snack or just cooked as an ingredient in many dishes. They can also be stewed in boiling water to make ginger tea, to which honey is often added as a sweetener; sliced orange or lemon fruit may also be added. Mature ginger roots are fibrous and nearly dry. The juice from old ginger roots is extremely potent and is often used as a spice in Indian Recipes , Chinese cuisine to flavor dishes such as seafood or mutton & Vegetarian Recipes. Powdered dry ginger root (ginger powder) is typically used to add spiciness to gingerbread and other recipes. Fresh ginger can be successfully substituted for ground ginger and should be done at a ratio of 6 parts fresh for 1 part ground.
Ginger is also made into candy and used as a flavoring for cookies, crackers and cake, and is the main flavor in ginger ale-- a sweet, carbonated, non-alcoholic beverage, as well as the similar, but somewhat spicier beverage ginger beer.

Lengkuas / Kaempferia Galanga

Pokok Lengkuas merupakan sejenis rizom dengan kegunaan masakan dan perubatan, dan banyak digunakan di Asia Tenggara. Rupanya hampir sama dengan halia.

Kaempferia galanga

Galangal, Thai Ka (ข่า), Malay lengkuas, Mandarin[clarify](Traditional: 南薑/Simplified: 南姜, also termed as: T:高良薑/S:高良姜), Cantonese lam keong (藍薑, also known as blue ginger), or in Vietnamese, Riềng. It is a rhizome with culinary and medicinal uses, best known in the west for its appearance in Thai cuisine and other Southeast Asian cuisine. Though it resembles (and is related to) ginger in appearance, it tastes little like ginger. In its raw form, galangal has a soapy, earthy aroma and a pine-like flavor with a faint hint of citrus. It is available as a powder from vendors of Asian spices and is also available whole, cut or powdered from vendors of herbs. A mixture of galangal and lime juice is used as a tonic in parts of Southeast Asia. It is said to have the effect of an aphrodisiac, and act as a stimulant. Galangal is also known as laos (its Indonesian name), galanggal, and somewhat confusingly galingale, which is also the name for several plants of the unrelated Cyperus genus of sedges (also with aromatic rhizomes).
The word galangal, or its variant galanga is used as a common name for all members of the genus Alpinia, and in common usage can refer to four plants, all in the Zingiberaceae (ginger family):
Alpinia galanga or greater galangal
Alpinia officinarum or lesser galangal
Kaempferia galanga, also called lesser galangal or sand ginger
Boesenbergia pandurata, also called Chinese ginger or fingerroot
Alpinia galanga is also known as Chewing John, Little John Chew and galanga root. It is used in folk medicine and in voodoo charms (see John the Conqueror for related lore).
Lesser Galangal (Alpinia officinarum)
Galangal oil is also used in various oils for anointing.

Limau Purut / Kaffir Lime

Limau purut, the Malay name for Kaffir Lime, or its scientific name Citrus hystrix of the Rutaceae family, is well known for its medicinal properties, not only by the Malays in the old days but also by modern scientific researchers.

In Pahang, besides its usage in adding flavor to traditional Malay dishes and cuisines, like the rendang, and tomyam, it is sometimes used as herbal medicine to treat normal skin disorders.
It is not actually used for treatment of chronic skin disorders like psoriasis or eczema, but only for ordinary skin irritations that normally require basic general medications.

The Limau Purut Tree
The leaves of this fruit are oblong or egg-shaped, and seemed to be a combination and linking of two leaves, like wings.
The top side of the leaf is dark green and shiny, while the bottom side of the leaf is lighter or yellowish green in color.
The leaf will give a fresh lime (or lemon-like) fragrance when squashed with the fingers. And in traditional Malay dishes, the leaves are added to give the dish the unique taste of lime.
The flower of this fruit is star-shaped, and reddish white or yellowish in color.
The fruit is smaller than an ordinary apple or orange, and round and pear-like in shape with uneven skin, having sort of big pimples or "mini-volcanoes" on the skin!
Ugly skin, not handsome or pretty at all, but, aww, it doesn't matter. It's what inside that counts, right?

Well, so much for now on the limau purut, the herbal plant with medicinal and health properties, and used by the Malays in Pahang for many purposes.
It is generally used, as mentioned above, in some recipes of traditional Malay food and dishes, as a cleaning agent for metal parts, as herbal remedies for hair and skin disorders, and many more.
Limau purut or kaffir lime is a very useful fruit indeed and used quite extensively especially in the rural areas of Malaysia.

http://www.pahang-delights.com/limau-purut.html

Serai / LemonGrass

Pokok Serai adalah pokok herba malar hijau yang digunakan dalam masakan Asia (terutamanya masakan Thailand), Kemboja dan Vietnam) dan Caribbean. Pokok ini mempunyai perasa lemon dan boleh dikeringkan untuk menjadi tepung atau digunakan segar. Digunakan dalam teh, sup, dan masakan kari, pokok ini juga sesuai untuk ayam, ikan, dan makanan laut.
Terdapat melebihi 50 spesies Cymbopogon. Serai India Timur (Cymbopogon flexuosus) adalah tempatan di India, Sri Lanka, Burma, dan Thailand sementara Serai India Barat (Cymbopogon citratus) dipercayai berasal dari Malaysia. Sementara kedua-dua boleh digunakan, C. citratus lebih sesuai untuk memasak. Di India C. citratus digunakan untuk herba perubatan dan wangi-wangian.
Spesies lain digunakan dalam industri minyak wangi adalah Cymbopogon martini (disuling menjadi minyak palmarosa) dan Rumput Citronella (Cymbopogon winterianus Jowitt) dari mana minyak citronella didapati. Lilin atau gaharu diperbuat dengan minyak citronella pekat boleh digunakan sebagai penghalau nyamuk.