Green Wedding Souvenir and Gift

For your happy day or any occasion you need green wedding favor or gift for your relation and beloved one, we provide organic herbs in bio-degradable pot or terracota pot. We have wide range of herbs: local Indonesian herbs and medicine plant, or mediteranian herbs: rosemary, oregano, thyme, dill, catnip, and many others. Contact us for detail at: irfan.asputra@gmail.com or +62811223998

Basil Wedding Souvenir

Sweet Genovese Basil

I am really exciting today, as my basil seeds have already germinating. These are sweet basil seeds I bought from ebay, a culinary herbs that used mostly in Italian cuisine. This variety is not common in Indonesia. The only basil that is much used in Indonesian cuisine is kemangi, and used as lalap (raw vegetables) and company with sambal. To season certain Indonesian; curries, grilled, steamed, soup and stew dishes, lemon basils are often used. Lemon basil has a strong lemony smell and flavour very different from those of other varieties because it contains a chemical called citral.

Nutmeg: In the Name of Gold and Glory

Several years ago at my aunty backyard in Ciamis, West Java, I saw a tree abundantly and fully with yellow-green fruits, with hard flesh and good smell and sized of chicken egg. I ask my aunty, and she said that was "Pala" tree. Buah Pala or Pala Fruits, sold in West Java as "manisan" or candied fruits, or as whole dried seeds for spices. It came to my mind "Oh this is the tree that attracted colonialism in Indonesia for more than three hundred years.

Nutmeg plant is native to Indonesia's Banda Islands. Once one of the world's most valuable commodities, it drew the first European colonial powers to Indonesia. The tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of Indonesia, or Spice Islands. The nutmeg tree is important for two spices derived from the fruit, nutmeg and mace.

Nutmeg

It is known to have been a prized and costly spice in European medieval cuisine as a flavouring, medicinal, and preservative agent. Saint Theodore the Studite (ca. 758 – ca. 826) allowed his monks to sprinkle nutmeg on their pease pudding when required to eat it. In Elizabethan times, it was believed nutmeg could ward off the plague, so nutmeg was very popular.

In some romantic story novels I found out that noble in medieval era used nutmeg powder as paste for tooth brushing.

The small Banda Islands were the world's only source of nutmeg and mace. Nutmeg was traded by Arabs during the Middle Ages and sold to the Venetians for very high prices, but the traders did not divulge the exact location of their source in the profitable Indian Ocean trade, and no European was able to deduce their location.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutmeg

Indonesian Herbs and Spices

http://spajourney.co.uk/products/the-bali-collection-spice/

Indonesia is the place from many kind of exotic spices. From hundred years ago people from another country attracted by Indonesia as the source from spices; especially nutmeg, cloves, and pepper. Indonesia taught the world the use of exotic spices and herbs. Indonesian cuisine is known for its deliberate combination of contrasting flavors (spicy, sour, sweet, hot) and textures (wet, coarse, spongy, hard). Indonesians have developed original gastronomic themes with lemongrass and laos, cardamom and chilies, tamarind and turmeric. Read more on http://www.globalgourmet.com/destinations/indonesia.

Here you could find more references about Indonesian spices at ehow.

• The food and spices of Indonesia are a reflection of its rich history. With more than 17,000 islands, this Republic is also referred to as the Spice Islands. The foods are greatly influenced by some nearby countries, including India, but also by far away countries including Spain, Portugal, the Middle East and China.

Cabai, or Chili Pepper

• Many savory dishes in Indonesian cuisine require some heat to them and a variety of chili peppers commonly found in households can accomplish this. The large red Cabai chilis of Indonesian cuisine are considered to be very hot. The level of heat in each dish varies according to how much you add.

Jahe, or Ginger Root Seed

• Jahe adds a tiny bit of heat to a dish, but also adds some health and medicinal properties. Ginger has long been used in Southeast Asian countries to treat nausea, flu, menstrual cramps and fever. There is also a popular drink in Indonesia called "wedang jahe," which is a mixture of ginger and palm sugar.

Kunyit , or Turmeric

• Kunyit, or Turmeric, belongs to the same family as ginger. A cook can use it as a spice to add flavor to a dish and as a colorant. If he desires an orange-yellow color in his dish, he might use turmeric. He could also use the leaves of the plant in Minangese and Padangese curry.

Kapulaga, Cardamom

• Cardamom imparts a slightly bitter taste but also bold color. It is used for medicinal purposes in some areas, treating everything from digestion issues to tuberculosis. As a spice, many people use it in desserts and some teas, including chai. Though cardamom is the world's third most expensive spice, a little goes a long way.

Adas, or Fennel

• This spice is better known to many as "the licorice spice" because it tastes like black licorice. In Indonesian cuisine, you can used it with eggs and fish to give dishes a savory flavor. It is also a key component of "gripe" water, which is used to ease colicky babies.

Kayu Manis, or Cinnamon

• The Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra cultivate cinnamon, which you can use to spice coffees, teas and sweets. Unlike other cinnamons, Indonesian cinnamon is packed in neat little quills and is so hard that you can't grind it properly without risk of dull or broken blades. It is therefore often used whole in dishes or drinks.

Kemiri, or Candlenuts

• Candlenuts come from a flowering tree that produces small nuts that are so oily you can use them for candles, hence their name. Indonesian cooks often use it to make a thick sauce eaten with rice, noodles or vegetables. Some also use it as a medicinal substitute for castor oil.

Cengkeh, or Cloves

• Like many Indonesian spices, cloves have multiple uses. You can crush them or roll them to smoke in a cigarette or pipe. You can also used them to flavor stocks and broths, which are in turn used to make soups and other dishes. You can often use these same stocks to flavor fish and beef dishes.

Asam, or Tamarind

• The tamarind tree produces small pods that have the sticky tamarind, or asam, inside. Asam has a sour taste that is used in candies around the world. You can also use it as a souring agent in dishes or to tame the heat of especially spicy Indonesian dishes.

Ketumbar, or coriander

• Though many know coriander as cilantro, the coriander used in Indonesia is actually the seed and not the leafy herb used in Indian, Mexican and other cultures. The coriander seeds are used to spice soups, stews and curries. The seeds are small and can easily be eaten whole.

Galangal, or Blue Ginger

• Though Galangal is sometimes referred to as blue ginger, it does not taste like ginger. It does, however, resemble ginger quite a bit and they are a part of the same family. It is used in Indonesian culture in "soto," a traditional broth dish. You can eat the broth in a variety of ways, including with chicken, fish and various vegetables, depending on the area of Indonesia in which it is being served.

Read more: Spices Found in Indonesia | eHow.com 

Herbs as Spices and Medicines

I think I fell in love with herbs and spices after I had a strange dreams; I was dreaming that an old woman teach me about herbs and spices. It felt so real, since I could smell the pungent of the fresh ginger and saw the yellowness of the turmeric so brightly in that dream.

Have you read the Mistress of Spices novel by Chitra Banarjee Divakaruni? Here the excerpt of the review by Shampa Chaterjee:

The spices rule. Tilo, the mistress, can only pray to them to release their magical powers but the ultimate power, the power to heal, cure and restore happiness and well-being, lies in them. In Divakaruni's 'Mistress of Spices', Tilottama (Tilo) the narrator is a woman born in another time and age and trained in the art of spices. This knowledge and initiation comes at a price. To serve the spices she must leave her own form and journey to another time and live in the body of an old woman in Oakland. Here she opens a shop and administers spices to cure and heal the people that visit the store. Each chapter in the book is the story of a spice --- turmeric, cinnamon, chili, fennel, peppercorn and so may more --- and of the people that consume it. I enjoyed this blending of the spices with the characters and their emotions. Turmeric, the hope for rebirth; chili, the cleanser of evil; fennel, to cool tempers; fenugreek, to render the body sweet and kalo jire to reduce pain and suffering.

Spices Image from Wikipedia