Food for Wind Body

Assalāmu'alaikum wa raḥmatullah

Because my body predominantly consists of the wind element, so I display physical and emotional characteristics linked to the elemental qualities of the space and air. People with this kind of body are very active, mobile, restless and energetic. They have fast metabolisms, so are often thin with little muscle development and protruding joints that may make cracking noises. Their skin is dry, rough and thin with visible veins.

Eat More

Items that I should take more...

• Warm, heavy, moist, sweet foods.
• Vegetables such as avocado, asparagus, eggplant, leeks, olives, pumpkin, radish, sweet potato, spinach, zucchini.
• Fruits such as banana, apricots, fresh figs, peaches, citrus fruits, dates, mango, grapes, berries, pineapple, plums.
• Grains such as oats, rice, wheat or pasta.
• Mung beans or soy beans being made into tofu or eaten with milk or cheese.
• All nuts in moderation. Sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
• Dairy products in moderation.
• All nuts in moderation. Sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
• Asafoetidea, basil, caraway, clove, cardamom, sage, cinnamon, pepper, coriander, cumin, fennel, garlic, onion, ginger, nutmeg, turmeric.
• Most oils, especially sesame.
• Warm drinks, herbal or spiced teas, warm milk, fruit and vegetable juice without ice.

Eat Less

• Cold, light, dry, pungent, bitter foods.
• Raw or frozen vegetables, peas, brussel sprouts, broccoli cauliflower, cabbage, cucumber, corn, celery, lettuce, mushrooms, potatoes.
• Dried fruits, apples, pears, prunes, pomegranates, cranberries, melons.
• Barley, buckwheat, rye, corn, millet, rice cakes, puffed or dry cereals.
• Most beans: kidney, lima, navy, pinto, split peas, white beans, black beans, lentils.
• Dry roasted or smoked nuts.
• Powdered milk and ice cream.
• Coriander seeds, fenugreek or parsley.
• Corn oil.
• Carbonated drinks, cold or iced drinks, coffee, tea or alcohol.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

Pickled Cabbage

Assalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

A very good Friday, the weather is just nice out there. I cannot expose myself to the wind after the rain for few minutes because I am subjected to Siddha norms. I am practicing Siddha and Ayurvedic methods for health practices. The wind at the flat land is not nice unless if I am on the mountainous region. Today I would like to share about pickled cabbage. Very easy and simple one since everybody could make it...

Ingredients

1 lb cabbage, remove the tough outer leaves

2 tablespoons salt

2 dried finger hot chili peppers

1 cup hot water

3 cups cold water

2 tablespoons vinegar

1/4 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns

Instructions

Cut the cabbage to pieces roughly 1" x 1 1/2" and separate the leaves. Using a wide mouth jar, dissolve the salt in hot water and then pour the cold water down together with Szechuan peppercorns and chillies. Mix them well.

When cool, add the vinegar and cabbage into the jar. Non-Muslims could put the gin (some kind of vodka or rice wine) but I do not take alcoholic stuffs so I simply use plain vinegar. Cover it up and put in the refrigerator for four to five days. Remove the cabbage from the solution and serve cold. It could be use over and over again and add two tablespoons more salt every time we use it.

After the first use, it only takes about two to three days for the cabbage to pickle. Maybe we need to add some more chillies and another tablespoon vinegar after using it twice. We can also substitute it with different kinds of vegetables. We can use nappa cabbage, green beans, or carrots. We can also mix all of these vegetables together.

I used to make few kinds of pickle and most of all they are Chinese style since I am not good in Indian style cooking. I eat mostly like a poor Chinese guy since we could easily get Asian stuffs in our neighborhood. If I am closer to Indian shops then I will practice Indian style cooking, it depends on the location but mostly I prefer vegetarian since it is easier to digest and to eat. We also make Indian style pickles such as Acar and it is quite oily for me and more elaborate in spices. I have a whole notes about spices and I studied about them, lol. There are many kinds of Indian style acar and not only confined to vegetables but also fruits such as mango, lime, beans and stuffs. 

As for Chinese style pickle, we could take it with both noodles and plain rice. Indian style pickles could be taken with various kinds of rice and unleavened bread. I have heard about Sauerkraut (Sour Cabbage) in my beginner German class around 2011 but I have never tried that. For North Eastern Asian style pickle, we can put some chili powder in it with some blended ingredients such as garlic, ginger and other things. I think, the Korean call it as Chimchee or whatever it is, haha...   

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

Pickled Green Tomatoes

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Some people perhaps do not take tomatoes because it is a kind of foreign vegetable. But who cares about foreign or not. It is still from the same mother earth. Green tomatoes is actually perfect for pickling since it has sugar content which is less that the ripe ones. These are lacto-fermented tomatoes. Some people do not recommend vinegar fermented ones because good bacteria is not as much as in the lacto-fermented ones.

Ingredients 

All you need are:

7-8 small fresh green tomatoes, or 4 large green ones.

1 tablespoon fennel seeds or mustard seeds or cumin seeds.

1/2 tablespoon chilly flakes or any fresh chillies or mint leaves.

2 tablespoons celtic sea salt.

4 tablespoons whey (if not around, use additional 1 tablespoon salt).

2-3 cloves garlic (peeled not crushed)

Water

Steps

How to do...

Wash tomatoes well, maybe half or quarter of them if you want to fit them in the jar. Place them into a mason jar or anything. Add all the ingredients and at the end add water to fill the jar, but leaving at least one inch below the top of the jar.

Cover tightly. Shake to stir ingredients. Give at least two inches of head space and make sure all ingredients are submerged in brine. Keep at room temperature for about 3-10 days before placing it into cold storage. Be sure to "burp" the jar every 1-2 days just to let the gases out. It is difficult to give correct duration as it depends on several factors like ambient temperature, ripeness of tomatoes, type of salt and so on.

Other than that, you maybe can add some peppercorns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, or peppers in the jar. Vegan food is easier to prepare as compared to meat ones since we do not have to waste time washing and washing the meat to get rid of that "blughhh" smell.... I avoided meat for so long. I could even tell the smell of those who take the meat which makes me feel nauseated. I am so sorry but that is the fact : S 

Anyway I tried some other simple recipes too such as Pumpkin Soup. Maybe I would keep the recipe here so I could make it again. Not so much complicated and suitable for those who feel lazy to cook, haha.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

CNY: Sungai Petani 2012

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Village Mall

Mangrove Forest and River 

Masjid Sultan Muzaffar Shah

Fajar prayer service with mum in the congregation.... I noticed a fellow Muslim Chinese brother there but I didn't get the chance to talk with him because he quickly disappear after the service. Usually I would choose to pray beside Muslim Chinese brother because of the sense that we are the same people, haha.

Old SP Town

Having some breakfast, nasik lemak tungkup tunjung with mum after prayer service. Nice view huh...This one is beside the old bus station. I used to take bus from Penang to Sungai Petani while being an undergraduate student and I stopped by here during holidays. I stayed at our old house alone with an axe in my hand while sleeping. This place sometimes make me feel not safe but it is my hometown. I was born here and three years of my early life was spent here.

Char Koey Teaow Stall in Old Town

Foods

These cuisines and things could be easily founded in the natt in Sungai Petani Old Town...

Khao Nieow Gai Thoat

It simply means chicken with glutinous rice or pulot ayam goreng. We bought this together with the following snack from a Muslim Thai auntie who talks vulgar words, hahaha. 

 Miang Kham

A kind of Thai snack known as Miang Kham which consists of Cha Plu or Daun Kadok as the wrapper. Ingredients inside the leaf would be shallots, fresh bird eyes chili, ginger, garlic, lime, onion, roasted peanuts, small dried shrimps with sweetened nam pla sauce. Nam Pla is fish sauce and it is wrapped separately in the plastic like we can see in the picture.

Mentarang

Urmmm, I don't know what is this called in English. It's called as Mentarang in Malay. Perhaps a kind of Moluska. I'm not good in Biology anyway, haha. I think this could cause us impurity too if eaten but mum said that it is not mentioned in their school of jurisprudence which is Shafi'ie school. They sold this along side the beaches at Perlis such as in Kuala Sanglang and Pantai Sabak in Selangor. This one was bought in Sungai Petani in Central Kedah. A kilo in Sungai Petani, RM8 and RM9 along Pantai Sabak.

 

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace, and love, amin!

Dried Mushroom Noodle

Assalaamu'alaikum wa Rahmatullah!

Just recording my life in this hostel. Last night before Isya' prayer I took dried mushroom noodle before having real meal after Isya.' I bought two packets of dried mushrooms since last semester and they are still there. Before 'Isya prayer why not taking them with maggi mee instant noodle?

I have this problem when I do not prepare for my dinner earlier and it would take away concentration when talking to God in Maghrib. It is ok if we could not talk to God but do not disturb our fellow jama'ah in concentration with our stomach making noise. That is not good.  

Vegetarian Maggi Mee with dried mushroom and Red Dates Longan Instant Tea with the cup left by Muhammad Sabran, hahaha thank you Muhammad hope you are happy with your family here

Very easy to prepare. Put dried mushrooms and pour hot water in the pera-pera. Pera-pera means tupperware in Kodiang Kedahan jargon because they bought the tupperware from a carnival called pera-pera in the town, lol. Wait until the mushrooms soften by hot water. Then toss the water out of the vessel and put the dried noodle and again pour hot water. Some spices from the noodle packet. Stir the spices right. Then cover up the pera-pera and wait for few minutes before it is ready to be eaten. Then we can continue with prayers. Thanks to maggi mee. 

Before we eat anything, do not forget to say prayer for protection and birkah (blessings) on the food we are having. Say: "O God our Lord, please bless for us in whatever You had grant to us as Your sustainance, and prevent us from the torment of the hell fire. With the Name of Allah, nothing in the heaven or in the earth would harm us with His Name." 

Just after finishing our meal, sit a while and recite praises and thanks to Allah 'Azza wa Jalla. He sustained us and never leaves us alone. Recite: "All of the praises to Allah who nourishes us with this meal, and vanquishing our thirst with this drink and make us please o Lord a Muslim (a person with tranquility in heart)." : ) 

It is OK to recite prayers outside of the salaat with any language that we speak. Allah never burden us instead helping us with our life before reaching Him, but we are the ones who put the burden on ourselves. Very simple right? : )

Till now, sealed with prayers: "O Allah bless us with Your sustainance through Your Mercy and Your Love to lowly slaves. Aaaminnn!!!"