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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

NATURAL FOOD COLORING PART 3

GREEN

Green is a natural color.
We usually use so many leaves to make green color agents.
The color agent is called Chlorophyl.

Klepon; a Javanese traditional snack
Here, there are pandan leaves, katu, green amaranth and suji  leaves.
In so many savory dishes, such as green noodles, we use katu (Saoropus androgenus) and green amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) leaves.
And for sweet dishes, we use pandan (Pandanus  amarilyifolius) and suji (Pleomele angustifolia syn Dracaena angustifolia) leaves.
Both of them have cooling effect for the body heat.

Pandan
To make liquid extract, we use blender or food processor to get the juice, then strained.
So the extract is already to be used.
Pandan leaves are used fresh or dried, and are commercially available 
They have a nutty, botanical fragrance which enhances the flavor traditional foods, especially sweet dishes and cakes.

The leaves are sometimes steeped in santan (coconut milk), which is then added to the dish. 

Pandan leaves
Pandan leaves may be tied in a bunch and cooked with the food. 
The leaves usually  be woven into a basket which is used as a pot for cooking rice.
The leaves are also used as a flavoring for desserts such as cake and sweet beverages. 
Bottled pandan extract is available in shops or groceries.

Suji leaves
We have a lot of traditional foods on green.
This is Dawet Ayu, an identity drink from Banjarnegara.

Dawet Ayu

Our family are really love this drink.
We use juruh (palm sugar syrup, santan (coconut milk) and 'cendol'.
Cendol is made from tepung gelang or tepung ketan (glutinous rice flour).
Gelang is flour that made from Aren log (Arenga pinnata).
 
Cendol; the main ingredient in Dawet Ayu
Both of Suji and pandan leaves are the green coloring agen for cendol.
So we get the green color, sweet flavor and smell good.



Do you have 'green food'?

17 comments:

  1. In my country there is little natural dyes.
    I do not use artificial dyes in the kitchen.
    Your food of I really like.
    It is colorful and more appetizing.
    Regards from far more cold Polish.
    Lucia

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    1. I'm sure that in every part of the world there are so many plants that could be good stuff for food dye, but they aren't explored yet.
      Have a wonderful day

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  2. Lots of our food - vegetables - is naturally green but I don;t purposefully colour food green.

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    1. As long as I now, western food have plain color and simple cooking. The colorful appearance is came from colorful and various ingredients

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    2. Yes we do like our food to have colour but achieve this by using a variety of coloured ingredients. I'm not sure what counts as western food these days as we have influences of all sorts of cuisine from different countries.

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    3. Yes, you all right. We have a lot of foods that influenced by western and eastern food/culture. They enrich our food variety.

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  3. The only time that I see green coloring of food is for St. Patrick's day. I don't participate in the coloring as we don't have natural food coloring here. Because of all the chemical food colorings, we almost have the feeling that food coloring is bad in our country. Of course it isn't if done the way you are doing but is has become a perception.

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    1. Actually now we csn find so many artificial food dye that much cheaper than the natural dye. But we can't get the natural taste and flavor that it's only produced by natural stuffs. Natural food must be very special.

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  4. That's interesting. I have not heard of any of these.

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  5. Thank you for removing word verification from your comments! Awesome!

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Endah, dziękuję za usunięcie weryfikacji obrazkowej.
    Pozdrowienia.

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  8. An interesting post, I don't think I have coloured anything green apart from icing for cakes.

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    1. You can try to coloring your own food. It's so fun.

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