Bentong Ginger Liquor

On Saturday's morning, i found an uncle selling Bentong Ginger and Bentong Ginger Liquor in Raja Uda, Butterworth's morning market.

I bought this Bentong Ginger Liquor for RM 35.

No indicator of weight and percentage of alcohol on the label. After tasting it, i guess the alcohol is more than 10%. First time i tried the ginger liquor, it taste pretty good and warm my body immediately. I think i will like it with cooking, as i don't like strong liquor. It was my intention when buying this to cook something like rice vinegar chicken...haha..

According to the label, no preservative, no artificial coloring or flavor. The seller said no need to keep inside fridge and will not turn bad.  Sediment at the bottom are water-soluble fibres and does not affect consumption.

Notes: I really prefer the bottle to has a label with nutritional content. Please inform me in case is not safe. :P

Country of origin: Bentong, Pahang

Is Organic Molasses Sugar that Good?

Molasses sugar is made during the extraction of sugar from sugarcane and sugar beets.
It can has different color, sweetness and nutritional contents depending on the variety or how much sugar been extracted.

How Molasses is Made
During the sugar making process, juice extracted from sugarcane or sugar beets is boiled down until the sugars crystallize and precipitate out. The syrup left over after crystallization is referred to as molasses.
Typically, sugar cane juice undergoes three cycles of boiling and crystallization to extract as much sugar as possible. With each successive cycle, the left over molasses contains less sugar

Types of Molasses
1. Light molasses:
The molasses is lightest in color, highest sugar content, least viscous texture.
This is syrup left over after the first boiling cycle of sugarcane juice.

Product: Natural Molasses Sugar
Brand: Lohas
Nutrition information (from label)
Serving Size: 1 tablespoon (4 g)
Total fat: 0 g
Calories: 15 g
Carbohydrate: 4 g 
Sugar : 4 g
Sodium: 0 g
Country of origin: Malaysia
Weight: +-900 g
Price: RM 7.50
Notes: This product has no benefits of any minerals or vitamins.

2. Dark molasses:
The molasses is darker and more viscous, contain less sugar.
This is the byproduct of the second boiling cycle of sugarcane.

3. Black strap molasses:
The molasses is very dark,least sugar and has the highest concentration of vitamins and mineral.
This is the final byproduct of the third boiling cycle in the sugar making process.
Tips: High content of iron and concentrated vitamins and minerals.

Product: Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Molasses
Nutrition information (from label)
Serving Size: 1 tablespoon (22g)
Total fat: 0 g
Potassium: 730 mg (20%)
Calcium: 115 mg (10%)
Carbohydrate: 14 mg (4%)
Sugar : 10 g
Iron: 15 g
Magnesium: 8 g
Vitamin B6: 10 g
Sodium: 0 g
Country of origin: Paraguay
Weight: 472 ml
Price: RM 27.90
Unsulplhured, organic, Fair Trade and Kosher Certified. Guarantee fair price paid direct to the farmer who grow sugar cane.

Sulfured vs unsulphured Molasses
Sulfured molasses refers to molasses that has been treated with sulfur dioxide as a preservative. Generally, only young sugarcane requires this treatment. Therefore, molasses made from mature sugarcane is often unsulphured. Unsulphured molasses may have a lighter, cleaner sugar flavor.                                                

Uses of molasses:
1. Baking, Cooking
2. Brown sugar- is produced by combining refined white sugar with roughly 5% molasses.

No everyone like blackstrap molasses due to its taste. Traditional way of taking it is to mix hot water with molasses and drink it when is warm. TIPS: The best blackstrap to buy is organic and unsulphured molasses.

Do read the label to compare the nutritional content before buying as they are not cheap!

Reference:
http://globalhealthsupplies.net/the-hair-benefits-of-blackstrap-molasses-%E2%80%A2-improved-growth-and-color/

Bentong Ginger or Ayer Itam Ginger?

How to choose good ginger? Bentong ginger or Ayer Itam ginger?

As far as i know, there are the different types of ginger can be found in markets
1. Bentong ginger - grown in the hillside land in Pahang. 1kg RM20-RM27. I found this in Raja Uda, Butterworth, morning market. The ginger is really spicy. The ginger with lighter color is the top quality Bentong ginger (RM27 per kg) grown in the higher altitude compared to the darker ginger inside the box according to the seller. It is sold in one whole piece.

.
2. Ayer Itam ginger - grown in the hillside in Ayer Itam, Penang. This type of ginger very common in the markets in Penang. 1kg RM10. From Chowrasta Market in Penang.

3. Thailand ginger
4. China ginger

Ginger is commonly used among Chinese in cooking and has various benefits:
1. Get rid of excess wind inside stomach
2. Slow down or prevent growth of cancer cell
3. Effective to treat motion sickness
4. Anti-inflamatory agent
and the following:

Tips: No need to remove the skin of ginger when cooking as the skin has cooling effect to balance the heating effect of ginger itself. Wash the skin clean is enough. Best time to take ginger is morning.

Ginger with good quality:
1. strong ginger smell
2. more spicy
3. thinner skin. Can use finger to rub off the ginger skin when washing.
4. less fibre
5. can last long and retain water inside for a month

Why local ginger?
I do not want to take risk with china ginger due to the fact knowing the farmers always overuse illegal pesticides and the land are highly contaminated. So i am ok with any local ginger.

Ginger farmers using toxic pesticide
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1231442/shandong-farmers-overusing-toxic-pesticide-ginger-report-finds
And this issue is not just recently found but also happened back in 2007.
Latest China Scare: Don't Eat the Ginger
http://www.wnd.com/2007/07/42816/

Aldicarb - branded in China as Shennongdan - is a highly poisonous carbamate pesticide that the Ministry of Agriculture says can be only used on cotton, tobacco, peanuts, roses and sweet potatoes, albeit under strict controls. 

                                                                          Ginger plant

References:
http://www.bentongginger.com/products.html
http://bentong-ginger.blogspot.com/

Graham Flour

Graham flour is a type of whole wheat flour named after Sylvester Graham.
It is slightly coarser grind than whole wheat flour.

Wiki:
Graham despised the discarding of nutrients and bleaching with alum and chlorine involved in making white flour and white bread, and believed that using all of the grain (without adding chemicals) in the milling of flour and baking of bread, was a remedy for the poor health of his fellow Americans during changes in diet brought on by the Industrial Revolution.

Great:
1. Perfect to mix with flour in making bread, pao and mantou.
2. Graham flour gives very nice texture and natural aroma. You will know what i mean when you take out the freshly baked bread from oven and the entire house is full with that wonderful aroma!
3. Graham flour is unrefined and unbleached.
4. It can give hearty full effects.

Weigh: 1 KG (Tips: Buy less if don't use it frequently as need to store in fridge)
Price: RM 8.20
Where to buy: Sunshine Trading
63,Siam Road.10400 Penang.
Tel: 04-2298701
Business hour: 8.30 am-6.00 pm

Specially thanks to my good friend LL whom introduced this flour to me!

Organic Homemade Roselle Jam

The Rosselle is known as the Rossella or Rosella fruit in Australia. Our corn farmer, Hee has recently harvested his Rosselle in his corn farm and made jam for us. Jam is red and abit sour.

Jam Recipe:
1. Cook Rosselle buds with 30% water.
2. Constantly stir it until they become soften.
3. Excess water can be used to make beverage.
4. The soften fibers used as jam.
Tips: Only add sugar after turn off the heat as sugar can become toxic while boiling.

Roselle is used in traditional medicine as treatment for hypertension and urinary tract infection but to date still lack of sufficient evidence to measure it efficacy. The anthocyanins are antioxidant nutrients found in red fruits. They help to prevent aging and degenerative diseases.

Spread the jam on a home made bread, what a wonderful Monday's breakfast!