OYONG : PART 7

These two recipes using oyong from my own kitchen...

Sop Ayam Oyong Soun - Chicken soup with Loofah and vermicelli 

Ingredients:

• 2 pc medium Oyong
• 1 pack vermicelli (50 gr)
• 1 cup of chopped chicken 
• 3 cloves garlic
• 10 ground white pepper (or 1/2 teaspon of pepper powder)
• 1 teaspoon of salt 
• a pinch of sugar 
• 1 liter chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons of chopped celery
• 1 tablespoon of fried onion
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Cleans the ridge and skin of the loofah using knife, and wash it on the flowing water, then cut it into the thin slices.

Pound the ground white pepper and garlic.

Heat the cooking oil on the pot, then stir fry the pounded spices until it has good aroma.

Put in the chicken, continue to stir frying until the color have turned.

Add the chicken stock soon, let it boiled.

Put in the loofah and vermicelli, stir it frequently for about 3 minutes, add salt and a bit of sugar.

Take the the pot from the stove then spread the chopped celery and fried onion on the soup.

The chicken soup is ready to be served.

Tumis oyong - Loofah stir fried

Ingredients:

• 3 pc medium Oyong
• 3 cloves garlic
• 5 red onion
• 5 red hot pepper
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• a pinch of sugar
• 50 ml chicken stock
• 1 table spoon cooking oil

Cleans the oyong and wash it on the flowing water, then cut it into the thin slices.

Chopped the garlic, red onion and red hot pepper into small slices.

Heat the cooking oil and then stir fry the garlic and onion until it has good aroma.

Put in the red hot pepper then the loofah, continue to stir frying until the color have turned.

Add the chicken stock soon.

Stir it frequently for about 5 minutes, add salt and a pinch of sugar.

The dish is ready to be served.

Thank you for following this monthly series.
I hope it will be useful...
Have a great day and wonderful weekend.
See you on the next monthly series with other topics.

OYONG : PART 6

Oyong is well known as vegetables, but it has a lot of benefits.

This plant is commercially grown for its unripe fruits as a vegetables.

The fresh young fruit has a lot of benefit for our health.

Oyong is quite lower is saturated fats as well as calories.

This vegetable is really abundant with dietary fiber, vitamin C, riboflavin, zinc, thiamin, iron and magnesium.

The young fruit fruit is used as blood purifier.

It cleans our blood from pollutant and also boost the liver health.

It also good as natural laxative, cause highly effective alleviation toward the constipation problem.

Juice from this fruit also well known as traditional cure for jaundice.

Oyong is great for diabetics.

the existence of insulin just like peptide within this vegetable that provide to reduce the sugar level in the blood along with the urine.

Its also restrict the blood insulin level to the reasonable quantity.

Aiding weight loss is one of interesting benefit of this vegetable, caused by it's rich on dietary fiber, vitamin and mineral.

The other benefits of this vegetables are as anti inflammatory and antibiotic, fortifying the immune system, as skin care and good for stomach.

This vegetable is very popular in Asia.

Mature fruits are used as natural cleansing sponges.

When the fruit is fully ripened it is very fibrous.

The fully developed fruit is the source of the loofah scrubbing sponge.

The sponge is used in bathroom as a natural body scrub, or on the kitchen as dishwasher sponge.

The fruit section is used as sponge after being processed to remove all part except the fiber.

If the oyong is allowed to fully ripen and then dry out on the vine, the flesh will disappear and leave only the fibrous skeleton and seeds.

So the seeds can be easily shaken out.

These are traditional function of this sponge, but now we can find so many accessories and also furniture that made from this sponge.

You can see so many interesting idea from this sponge here.

Next I will share you about my recipes from this vegetable.

Thank you for following and have a wonderful week.

OYONG : PART 5

Actually, oyong is a very easy growing plant.

If the plant is obtained adequate nutrition, the plant will grow so fast.

The black flat seed is taken from dry ripen fruit.

The seed will germinate 7-10 days after sowing.

If we soak the seed on the warm water for about a night, it will be germinated faster, about 5-6 days.

Soil that rich of organic material and has medium humidity will stimulate best growth.

The growth will so fast during the rainy season, but the best yield is usually on the dry season.

Sometimes we can find lots of black ants on this vine, but they won't be make serious problem.

People says that these ants help the pollination.

Not all of the pollination get success.
Sometimes deficiency of nutrition or organic material make the vine looks so poor.
The leaves and stem will smaller, and the fruit set won't be developed.
Just stuck and turns yellowish.

Look my poor vine...
Actually lots of fruit sets there, but no one grow into long big fruit.
So, after I added more compost and give regular watering, the vine turned so fresh and the fruit became formed normally.

Sometime bugs make some holes on the leaves, but they don't make serious problem on the plant growth.
But little green caterpillars always make serious problem on the leaves.

Fruit flies always make serious problem, so when the rainy season has come, I have to wrapped the fruits to keep them safe from these bugs.

We need long plastic wrap to keep them protected.

If the media and the weather are suitable, this vine will produce fresh fruit for about 3-4 months continously until the vine is dried and died.

Next we will talk about the benefits of oyong.

Thanks for following this series.

OYONG : PART 4

Oyong is grown for its fruit.

The fruit is usually harvested in the medium stage of maturity.
Not too young or too old.

On the medium stage of maturity the size it big enough, but the texture is still tender.
The mature fruit will be rich of coarse fiber.
The texture will be so coarse and fibrous, and the taste is a little bit bitter.
The size of the fruit is depend on the variety and maturity.
It's about 30-60 cm on length, and the diameter is about 5 cm.

The fruit is usually ready to be picked 8 -10 days after pollination, even more.
To get the long and straight fruit, traditional farmer usually give a little load on the end of the fruit using a rope.
The load is usually a little stone that wrapped in plastic bag and the bag is tied using a rope.
The gravitation effect is really work, make the fruit is so long and straight. 

But I'm just a lazy gardener, I let the fruit grows naturally.
So the shape is so various.
Long, short, medium, straight, curve, curvaceous and many more...

Whatever, the straight fruit makes us easier to clean when it prepared to be cooked.

Next we will talk about the plant maintenance.

OYONG : PART 3

Oyong's flower has bright yellow color.
So vivid...

The first flower is usually show up on the 30 days after sowing.
This plant has both of male and female flowers.
The male flower is more dominant.
I have noticed that male flowers dominated about 80-90% of total flowers on each plant.
We can see the ovule or little 'fruit candidate' on the female flower.

The flowers start blooming  on the afternoon, and will furl in the morning.

We can find soft sweet fragrance around this vine in the afternoon.

If the pollination is success, so the petal will furl and turn brownish.

And the 'little fruit' will be turn dark green and bigger, also a little bit glossy.

Next we will talk about the fruit.

Enjoy the series, and have a great week...

OYONG : PART 2

Oyongs leaf is almost similar to cucumber leaf.

The color is deep green.

Its surface is covered by transparent coarse hairs.

The leaves is sometimes used for food coloring.

The tender young leaves is sometimes cooked as soup or other traditional dishes.

The vine grows like crazy during the rainy season.
Lots of green fresh leaves on the vine...
But just a few flowers if the leaves grow intensively.

To stimulate the emergence of flower buds we have to reduce the leaves.

Look... I have a pail of young tender leaves for 'clear soup'.
It will be withered caused by the heat, and turns much smaller than the fresh leaves.

OYONG : PART 1

After a long series of coconut, so for this monthly series.
now we will talk about one of my favorite vegetables.
Oyong (Luffa acutangula syn. Cucumis acutangulus) is member of Cucurbitaceae family.

This vegetable is a popular vegetable in tropical area, especially in Indonesia.
We can find them are sold on the traditional markets or groceries.
In Indonesia this vegetable is well known as Oyong, Gambas or Petola.
On the world wide this vegetable is called angled loofah, ridged gourd, Chinese okra, sponge gourd, vegetable gourd, ribbed loofah, dish cloth gourd, and many more.

This vegetables always present on my garden all year round.
As annual plant I grow this vegetables alternately on my garden.
I can pick this vegetable almost every time, so we can see this vegetable on my harvest basket.

Next we will talk more a lot of  about Oyong.

Do you grow this vegetables on your garden?

KEEP WARM WITH MY AZALEA

This rainy season is so hard for us.

Rain falls almost everydays.

The weather is so wet and cool when the rain falls and after it.

But before the rain falls, the weather is so hot and sweaty.

This weather make lots of people get flu.

We are lucky, we all keep healthy during this hard season.

Just less time on gardening.

So many flowers are blooming, make our home garden has a beautiful smell and so colorful.

Both of cool color and warm color are blended.give us more warmness.

Bright color from so many flowers and foliage 

Too much rain, just limited time to do outdoor activity, especially gardening.

Cool weather make us stay at home enjoy the warmness of our little family.

For all of my friends, keep warm keep healthy.

Enjoy your own current season...

Have a wonderful weekend with your family...

ANOTHER STAR...

Yesterday, I have showed you about my star fruit on my little garden that grown on a medium pot.

Now, I'm showing you another star fruit that grown on our seedling division.

My friend planted it about two years ago.

It's grown directly on the ground, so the growth is much better than mine.

Looks the little tree is so lush.

The dense branches and leaves are covering the fruits.

This little tree never stop show us it flowers and fruits almost all year round.

The taste is so sweet and juicy too, especially during the dry season.

During the rainy season, that a lot of rain, the taste is less sweet anda little bit plain.

The height of this tree is about 2 meters.

It needs pruning to keep the branches produce healthy flowers for the healthy fruit next.

Will you try to grow it on your garden?

FRUITY FRIDAY : MY FIRST STAR

My Belimbing or star fruit finally show me its fruits.

Last week we pick the first ripen fruit.

I wrapped all the fruits to keep them safe from fruit fly attack.

The first fruit was so big.

The taste was so sweet and juicy.

And aromatic too...

Will you taste my juicy star...

There are some young fruits that hanging on the little tree.
We have been waiting for the next ripen fruits!
Hope no fallen fruit again. 

WEEKLY HARVEST : JANUARY 2015

Just a few harvest from my little garden this week.

And not all of the harvests were taken its picture.

Labu air (squash), Hyacinth beans green and purplish, white hot chilli, and lembayung (long yard bean leaves)

Strawberry

Purple hyacinth bean

Belimbing / Star fruit

Labu air

IT'S FALL HERE....

Actually this is rainy season here.
As tropical climate, we don't have summer, fall, winter and spring, our office yard is on 'fall'.

Yes.... the Michelia alba or we call it as 'kembang kantil putih' is on the blooming season.

The high tree is full of little flowers.
I guess it has thousand flower where hanging on this tree.

Every day we can find a bountiful fallen petals on the ground.

The aromatic fragrance is spreading every where.
So sweet and refreshing...

Natural aroma from the fresh flowers...
We can enjoy this blooming season for about one month even more.

Enjoy the aroma from far away...