Cooking Pea Eggplants, Harvesting Activities And More
Before showing you my recipe, let me invite you to see my activities in harvesting some vegetables. Then I will serve the vegetables with a simple recipe but for us, it is a delicious recipe and free from nature.
I'm going to harvest pea eggplants. As a bonus, the skin on my hands feels itchy but it doesn't matter for such a fun activity. Also, I get food ingredients for daily food intake. I can also save it for a few days' supply, for example for chilies.
Bushwalking can be annoying as some of the grass creates an itchy feeling on the skin. It's not a problem when it becomes a normal activity. The garden visit I made was not a clean garden without grass.
The grass that looked like the bush I visited was deliberately left taller until harvest time, to feed the goats. So, I had to fight the grass and be careful not to cut the skin on my feet and hands. Some of the grass becomes very sharp if it rubs against the skin at a fast speed. I need to be careful, and that's all.
I always enjoy visiting my husband's uncle's house. It makes me do fun activities on the edge of the village. My uncle's house is still very traditional because it is far from the city center. Still made of wood. It's so quiet there and I still hear lots of insect sounds that I can no longer hear in my area.
HARVESTING PEA EGGPLANTS
Have you ever heard about pea eggplants before? Some people call it Turkey Berry. I prefer that they are called pea eggplants because their shape is similar to peas, but they are still in the same family as eggplants where their tree shape is similar.
The size of pea eggplants and their color are indeed similar to peas. The texture of pea eggplants is harder and crunchier. However, when cooked pea eggplants will become soft.
It's just that pea eggplants trees can grow taller than eggplant trees in general. Also, the pea eggplants tree has small thorns on the sharp part. So, we have to be careful when harvesting pea eggplants.
I harvested pea eggplants but I forgot to bring a container. So, I just accommodated pea eggplants with my hijab. Enough to stock up on food intake in my kitchen. Because there is only me and my husband.
HARVESTING GREEN CHILLIES
Finished with harvesting pea eggplants, I continued towards the green chili trees. The green chili trees are covered with tall grass.
I was excited to take those fresh green chilies. My husband and I are chili lovers! In fact, my husband always interrupts me if I don't cook something that uses chilies one day. Lol. Can you eat chilies and tolerate the heat?
My harvest of green chilies is enough for several days. There were many more green chilies in the garden but I didn't take them. It does not matter. The most important thing is that it stays fresh on the tree even though over time it will turn into red chili.
SPICY PEA EGGPLANTS
First, let me be honest with you guys. pea eggplants are similar to other types of green eggplants which mostly taste a little bitter. The good news is, pea eggplants have health benefits that people still rely on. So, the price of pea eggplants is still considered to have value in the market.
In the past, my mother often consumed pea eggplants to treat blurry eyes and to control blood sugar. Yes, we know, bitter things actually have many health benefits.
Because they taste bitter, we have to mix them with foods that have a strong taste. Usually, I mix pea eggplants with tempeh or tofu. Then, served in a spicy way. Of course, spicy flavors will really help to disguise the bitter taste. Apart from tempeh, recommended proteins that can be used for plant-based protein are chickpeas, cashews or lentils.
For spicy flavour, I use chili paste. I don't use the green chilies I harvest. I used red chilies, which I mixed with garlic, red onion, and garlic. With half a teaspoon of salt, I pounded them together until they became chili paste.
THE INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup of pea eggplants
- 1/2 cup of diced tempeh or you can use more if you want
- chili paste (from half a handful of red chilies, 3 white cloves and 5 small cloves of red onion)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- (optional): bay leaves, fresh or dried
COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
Heat the oil. I use sunflower oil. Then fry the tempeh briefly, not until it becomes over golden brown. Then drain them.
After finishing frying, diced tempeh, then fry pea eggplants. Keep stirring while frying the pea eggplants until they look white. Lift and drain.
The white surface of fried pea eggplants will turn wrinkled when they cool and they will look 'wilted'.
From the remaining oil, reduce the oil and use less to cook the chili paste. Continue stirring until the chili paste looks like it has reduced its watery texture and becomes cooked. Chilies that are not cooked will give us a stomach ache. Also, the aroma of uncooked chili paste will be too strong and uncomfortable.
The final step, add fried pea eggplants and fried tempeh. Don't forget to add salt. If needed, add a little sweetener such as sweet soy sauce, brown sugar, or general sugar. Sweetener will balance the taste. Stir well until they are all mixed together and remove them.
SERVING WAYS
Can't dodge it anyway. The best presentation of spicy pea eggplants is with warm rice. It will easily combine them nicely and we will forget the bitter taste of pea eggplants.
I also added a piece of traditional cracker for an extra crispy texture! I didn't even expect the final taste of this dish to be so amazing on my tongue even though all the ingredients come from plant-based ingredients. What do you think, HIVE LOVERS?
BONUS ACTIVITIES
After harvesting, I also fed my husband's uncle's goats. I really like holding the faces of the goats there! I think it's quite funny. Have you ever held a goat?
There was a basket full of grass for the goats. My husband helped his uncle to pick up the grass.
By feeding the goats, my heart feels happy! I don't know, it's hard to put into words. So, just enjoy! :)
Thank you for reading my blog and reblog if you want my blog this time worthy of reading by others.
Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari
Anggrek Lestari is an Indonesian fiction writer who has published two major books. Now She is a full-time content creator. She has a goal to share life, poem, and food content that makes others happy and can get inspiration.
Contact Person: [email protected]
Discord: anggreklestari#3009
It is always a greater satisfaction to be able to cook the foods that we can harvest, they are also more exquisite and nutritious, since they do not have chemicals.
I love this dish, it looks exquisite and very striking.
I appreciate you sharing this experience with all of us.
have a splendid day
Really grateful for that. And helpful to have food stocks even with simple stocks
It's so cool when we can cook food that we grow and your peas looks so good, the dish looks a light and nice dish ❤️
Thank you 😊 the local pea has great health resource for sure
This is so cool,I have not seen this plant before but I love it seeing it now
Yeah just local veggies in my area
It makes a lot of sense
Hello! it's great that you have shown us the place where you harvested the pea aubergines, I had never seen them, thanks for your demonstration, by the way that red sauce looks very very spicy, greetings @anggreklestari :-)
Those veggies is difficult to find in another area. I think on Thailand we can find those veggies too
Wow, this is my first time hearing and seeing pea eggplants. I guess we don't have that plant here in our place. It's good to have our own vegetable plants around because we can save money from buying it from the market and we can harvest it fresh from day to day.
Sometimes when we have nothing on kitchen, then garden is really helpful 🙂
A big check on that sis. 😊
I'm super grateful that my parents also are planting vegetables just around our house.
I love the bonus activities. When I was a kid my grandparents had goats and we used to play with them and feed them. This post reminded me of them. They loved licking salt. Maybe you should give them a little salt haha.
When I have goat in the past, I gave them salt water for sure and yeah they love it!
Your quite amazing putting veggies together and making them look so delicious:) Those look like sheep, do you call them goats there? Anyways I'm sure they were happy to see you 😊
Here we call them goats because we can not get their wool 😊
Oh I see thanks for clarifying. I knew it was probably for some reason.
I really miss eating tempeh! Your dish looks yummy!
Where you stay for now? Is there no Tempeh?
It is wonderful to cook what we harvest, it is a blessing.
I confess that it is the first time I see this pea eggplant and this dish you prepare for us looks really spicy....
I like the smiling faces of the goats :)
I thought those veggies only ready on some country, Indonesia, Thailand, and more
some people called it with Turkey Berry too 😊
Here in my country I don't know it, although it is very similar to the pea, only that eggplant is much bigger!
Thanks for sharing
Yeah those are local veggies. But in Thailand have some too 😊
For me it is a pleasure to make these gastronomic trips and learn about different cultures.
Pea eggplants? I don't know about it and I think I haven't seen it yet.
Wow! You have a lot of goats and you are really doing great with it.
In my area, we called it with pokak/cempokak
I haven't seen that vegetable here.
At first I thought that these was either gigantic peas or a tiny portion 😂 Then I realized that it's a pea eggplant. Never heard of that! Do they actually taste like eggplant or like pea?
The taste like eggplant, with a bitter sensation 😊 so we need strong seasoning to reduce the bitterness
your post about harvesting and cooking pea eggplant sounds like a delicious and rewarding experience.
i loved way you described your husband's uncle's house as being "very traditional" and "far from the city center." It sounds like a peaceful and idyllic place. I can imagine how much you enjoy visiting and spending time there.
I also appreciated your honesty about the bitter taste of pea eggplants. It's refreshing to read a post that doesn't sugarcoat things. I'm glad you found a way to make pea eggplants taste delicious, despite their bitterness.
Thank you for reading clearly my post.
I love those activities especially for the weekend 😊
Glad to see your activities and the food looks so yummy.
Thank you 😊
Most welcome dear.