Hello Friday! Hello to June! Happy holiday to all. Actually, most of my office mate are taking their leave today! Well, I don't want to waste my annual leaves yet because I may need them later on. I do love FRIDAY! Short working period although there are so much work to be settle before the audit starting 12 June 2012! I do hate auditing, feels like vomiting blood! The most annoying thing is, every year the university keep on changing all the forms. Crazy! So, here at the office, I have main file in the PC and the hard copy is just to satisfy all the new forms. Really, phew~

I do love the colors from the picture below. I hope I can have that color patone for September! Pray hard! Well, let's move on to hard work and make our dreams came true. InsyaAllah. 

Recipe: Lebanese Flat Bread

Yesterday, I went to one of mini shops at Serdang just to look around and found Lebanese flat bread on the shop's rack called Roti Sihat. I bought it and of course it wasn't as fresh as when you dine in some Arabic restaurant. But I like the chewy texture. From the packet, it is recommended to serve the bread as a pizza base, substitute to pita bread or dip the bread with any gravy including humus or baba ghanoush (I miss Samaneh's baba ghanoush - SEDAP!). The most important is, from the bread tag line - Roti Sihat. The ingredient and the recipe that I have found really proves it is healthy. Less sugar, less fat, less salt! Below is the recipe found on the net. Looking forward to test it!

Make this delicious, exotic accompaniment a part of your Springtime barbecue feast.  

Ingredients

(Makes: 8 bread)

7g sachet dry yeast
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 1/3 cups warm water
4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

1. Place yeast, sugar and 1/3 cup warm water in a jug. Stir to dissolve yeast. Set aside in a warm place for 10 minutes or until foamy.
2. Sift flour into a large bowl. Add salt. Stir to combine. Make a well in centre. Add yeast mixture, 1 tablespoon oil and remaining warm water. Mix to form a dough.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead, adding remaining oil, for 20 minutes or until smooth. Place dough in an oiled bowl. Cover. Set aside in a warm place for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
4. Using your fist, punch dough down. Knead for 2 minutes or until smooth. Divide into 8 balls. Using a rolling pin, roll each ball out to a 22cm round. Layer rounds between baking paper. Set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until slightly puffed.
5. Heat an oiled barbecue plate on high (230˚C). Reduce heat to low. Cook bread, in batches, for 2 minutes each side or until lightly browned and puffed. Serve.

Jungle Tracking - Lintang Organic Valley, Sik Kedah

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to have a look and roaming around in some jungle at Lintang Organic Valley, Sik Kedah. Really its a jungle!

Excited - Have to get through them to reach The Lintang Organic Valley 

          But I am surprise that in the middle of the jungle, there is a paddy field. All the paddy there was organically planted with the SRI (System of Rice Intensification) method. Worry not! There are more people there and all of them are interested with the SRI Rice. On that day, from the SRI method, the total rice yield is 7.16 tonnes/hectare for MR263 rice variety. From my point of view, thus is such a good technique and the total rice yields increased compared to the conventional method. Plus it is ORGANIC! Such a good stuff.

1) The participants - most of them are students and researcher from the universities. 2) Won the gold medal for Malaysian Invention and Design Society. 3) Paddy sample for MR263 variety is about to be harvested. 4) Participants are counting the rice yield.

The objective of my visit is actually to know and learn what is ubi gadong or scientifically known as Dioscorea hispida. At first, I thought it was as same as tapioca plant but it was as closed to the yam family. Ubi gadong has the potential to act as an organic bane towards the parasitoids (such as Scirpophaga incertulasdan and Scirpophaga innotata) and the golden apple snail. The active compounds are toxic alkaloids known as dioscorine and dioscorine N-oxide that retards the development and insecticidal activity (act as depressants in the nervous system to the insect). The tuber is cut, put in a blender and then soaked in water for 24 hours. The soaked water were used to spray on the paddy plant. Meanwhile, there is another active component known as saponin that can be used to kill the golden apple snail. But in a large doses, saponin can kill any type of fish in the paddy field. I think further research is needed towards this matter before the tuber is use for reducing the golden apple snail invasion.

Ubi Gadong

Ubi gadong vines.

Besides ubi gadong, I was introduced to akar seruntun or also known as patawali, brotowali or batang wali. Scientifically it is known as  Tinospora krispa (miers) or tinosprora tuberculata. They said that the vine of this plant is so bitter and can be used as repellent for parasitoids. The preparation of the vine is as same as the ubi gadong. The soaked liquid is sprayed on the plant. Both of the vine and the tuber can be mixed together too.

Akar Seruntun

          The findings are much more interesting. I wonder, why should we go for chemical pesticides etc while there are abundance of natural sources that are much more safer for the environment. Let's think again!

References:

1. Two Isoquinuclidine Alkaloids of a Tropical Yam, Dioscorea hispida (Dioscoreaceae) as Antifeedant and Toxin Against Lepidopteran Insects.
2. Padi SRI Selangor
3. Wild Yam (Dioscoreaceae)

Cleaning Day!

While writing this, my muscle started to ache and I felt really tired. Cleaning the lab was a really hard work really. But I'm glad finally have have a clean space to work.Yeay! Happy. These are the happy faces that I took during the cleaning session :)