PUMPKIN-MORINGA-CARROT VEGGIE PATTY AND ROLL

I thought I'd combine pumpkin, moringa and carrot and cook these two ways.  The crunchy veggie patty and veggie roll;  "ukoy"  and pritong lumpia respectively to us Pinoys. 

Preparation of Ukoy.

Mix half of following ingredients: 

 Grated pumpkin ( kalabasa)

Grated Carrots

Moringa leaves, sun dried half a day to remove bitter taste

 Chopped spring onions and celery leaves

Pre-sautéed minced pork 

Add to the mixture a tsp of cooking wine, egg, corn starch, salt and pepper and form that into patties and fry.   It would have been great if I had baby shrimps to top the ukoy but since this is a spur-of-the-moment decision, I had to make do with what I had in my ref. 

Preparation of veggie roll: 

In a tablespoon of oil sautee the other half of the veggies, add a reasonable amount of the pre-sautéed minced pork and season with salt and pepper.  Let it cool awhile and wrap into a roll and deep fry.

I was walking with a neighbor this morning and we got into talking about the challenges of cooking for two especially the idea of avoiding leftovers.  Oftentimes it is a trial and error to cook just enough, I don't want to be short also. Rewind 5 to 10 years when veggies were still so affordable, I used to buy a lot and cook a lot too.  

Recently however, veggies are putting more dent in our marketing budget that to be practical, I now count the number of string beans, pieces of eggplants, miniature bitter gourd, bunches of leaves, etc. I will need for the week. Veggies wilt, you know. 

We are lucky that Jim's backyard okra plants give us around  6-8 pieces daily.  "Why, that's great", my neighbor replied. It is really great since oftentimes okra at the market are no longer tender.  This was when she told me that she makes veggie patty with moringa leaves, pumpkin and egg.  

I thought I'd try her idea two ways.  Hence the ukoy and the "fritong lumpia". 

I Made Dried Banana Blossoms

Do you use dried banana blossom?  I always do for adobo, braised beef, Pata Tim,  arroz caldo and all other congee.  

I often sauté banana heart in salt and vinegar with a little sugar and pepper; actually it's like pickled banana heart.  This is a great appetizer and my sister's favorite.  When she visits, I always serve this for any meal. 

But I have to remove a lot of the outer covering and only use the inner tender portion and end up throwing away the outer blossoms as shown below:

These are what I usually throw away.  

When we harvested two banana hearts last week, I thought I would not waste the outer blossoms.

I need to remove the plastic looking part in each blossom as well as the part looking like a match stick as shown 

Once this is done, the blossoms are blanched for 20 minutes in water with a tablespoon of salt.

Once drained, I made a mixture of equal parts of soy and sugar 

I soaked the blossoms in a soy and sugar mixture overnight.  

I drained again and sun dried. 

 I placed these in ziplock in the refrigerator and these will last for a long time for future use. 

I MADE MORINGA POWDER

                                  Fresh moringa leaves with their stems

I've been liquefying fresh moringa leaves with a banana for my evening shake.  However it is so much of a hassle to put a handful of leaves, liquify that with a banana.  Moreover, it has a slightly bitter aftertaste. 

I've been drinking matcha green tea with low fat milk for a long time now and I thought converting the moringa into powder would work as well.  So I thought of making the leaves into powder 

There are several suggested ways to pulverize but I chose a less complicated way, tweaking the procedure some. 

Leaves removed from the stems 

In a covered tray, I sun-dried the leaves for three days. 

Notice the difference from the fresh ones.  The dried ones  look toasted, and they crackle when moved about..

I used my coffee bean grinder to pulverize the dried leaves, 2-4 handful at a time.

This is how it looks after 20-25 pulse-grind 

I placed the powder in a sealed container. 

My shake recipe: two ways

In a cup of low fat liquid milk, I add a heaping teaspoon of the powder and shake well to incorporate the powder to the milk, yum! 

Or

I liquify 1 big lacatan banana and add one tablespoon of the powder and half a glass of water. Also yummy. 

I noticed that the shake has a slightly toasted taste sans the bitter taste of the fresh leaves.  I conclude the powder is better. 

I suggest you google the health benefits of  this superfood and I'm sure that you will be interested.