Plant your own backyard spice garden
IMAGINE a world without spices. How dull and less attractive our food would definitely be. Spices, with their incredible tastes and aromas, have been traded since the 14th century. In this region, James Lancaster arrived in Penang as early as 1592 on the ship Edward Bonaventure. After returning to England, he set up the East India Company and sailed back to Penang in 1600 after news of the Dutch fleet successfully landing in Java and returning with shiploads of valuable spices. This was the beginning of the spice trade in Southeast Asia.
Admiral Cheng Ho made seven voyages to Southeast Asia, including to Sarawak, between 1403 and 1433. The spice trade between Europe and Asia had been through middle men from Arabia too.
Today we can see the Tropical Spice Garden in Penang, which has been well established on eight acres of land at Batu Ferringhi – the only such garden in Southeast Asia with 500 species.
This showcases the local spices and famous local timber trees. This got me thinking about creating our own spice gardens at home.
We can do so by using planter boxes, which will brighten up garden corners, windowsills, and balconies. The plants can act as ornamentals, while the roots, flowers, and leaves are useful for cooking or in herbal remedies. Nyonya box This is ideal for Peranakan cooking, which features the influences of the Chinese, Indian, Malay, Thai, and Burmese communities. Your box should include:
Sand ginger – said to be good for women’s health, particularly postpartum healing.
Mild pepper – the fresh leaves are ideally eaten raw for ulam with sambal. Laksa leaves or daun kesum. Pandan – leaves can be used to flavour desserts, fish, and as potpourri. Also a natural green colouring.
Blue pea flowers – will improve soil nutrients. When boiled the flowers can be used as a natural colouring for kuih and rice.
Turmeric – the root extract is used for nasi kunyit.
Calamansi – ideal for juice and to flavour authentic nyonya fare.
Infusion box Create your own infusions by boiling herbs individually for tea and then adding honey or sugar to taste.
Ginger – ideal for making spicy ginger tea by putting sliced ginger in boiling water, tea and milk. Strain and serve piping hot with sugar to taste. This is also an essential ingredient for many Asian dishes and also used for desserts.
Stevia – a natural leaf sweetener that can replace sugar but doesn’t raise blood sugar levels.
Cat’s whiskers – boil leaves to counter diabetes. It is also used to detoxify and to treat bladder infections. Was introduced to Europe as Java Tea in the 20th century.
Lemongrass – relaxing aromatic infusion ideal after a stressful day at work by using the first two inches of the roots. Helps to relieve stomach cramps and gas.
Pandan.
Ginger box In Southeast Asia, gingers are incredibly versatile plants used in many fields. The roots are used for cooking and infusions.
Different ginger leaves are shredded and eaten raw for ulam or used as a garnish. Ginger is also believed to relieve inner ear imbalance to treat seasickness or giddiness.
Here are some gingers to add to your spice garden box.
Torch ginger (Etlingera elatior) – a beautiful ornamental flower and for adding to laksa broth.
Sand ginger (Kaempferia galanga) – finger-shaped roots of this ginger are mainly cooked as a vegetable or eaten raw in Indonesian cuisine. The leaves are used with teak tree leaves for wrapping Indonesian fermented soybean cake. It is widely used in traditional Malay medicine (jamu) to treat abdominal pains, chest ailments, swelling, and rheumatism.
Galangal (Alpinia galanga) – the fresh roots are an important ingredient in Southeast Asian cuisines from Malay, to Thai and nyonya dishes. Take only part of the root for use and leave the rest of the plant to thrive further like lemongrass.
Ginger (Zingiber offificinale) – take gingers with growing buds and soak overnight in water to get rid of anything to prevent growth. Just plant them in a rich planting medium with humus or compost.
All these spice boxes will bring you direct benefits and can also be used as ornamentals for garden displays. We in Sarawak should really consider setting up our own spice garden like the one in Penang.
If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, do send me an email. It shouldn’t be too late to wish all readers a Happy Gawai Dayak and happy gardening.