30Aug2020: Got a bunch of neem leaves, weight approx 330g. Soaked in 12 litres water. Duration of soak... no idea at this moment. I will go thru all the Youtube instructions I can find, and then average out the time.
Will test if the resulting liquid helps deter pests.
31Aug2020: Selamat Hari Merdeka! Happy Independence Day! I was pleasantly surprised... day 2... nothing visibly bubbling like fruit fermentation, but heaps of bubbles on the surface! That's just neem leaves and water! There must be something special to this plant.
2Sep2020: Less bubbles. Something that looks like a thin layer of oil on top. I guess it's ready to use.
Summary of day 0 to 6
6 Sep 2020: I had a separate bottle of water with garlic and chili scraps that I was using as a spray. It wasnt really working. So chucked it all into the neem bucket. It will be a lot easier this way anyways. Anytime I hear about a plant that deters pests, I will add some of it to the brew. Never know I might stumble onto an all natural super bug deterrent!
I think it is a Brazilian Snapdragon. That's the closest result I could find.
I picked a bunch from my mum's place. It had a really sweet smell. Only after doing the vinegar I read that the leaves are fragrant too. Oh well next time.
Filled a small bottle with the flowers, 400ml water and 25g sugar. Covered with cloth.
Mixing daily. By day2 bubbles were visible.
1Sep2020 day3: A purple hue was visible
7Sep2020 day9: Colour great, top looks healthy, smell nice.
31Oct2020: Strained into an old liquid soap bottle. Amazing how dark it has become.
I dont like using lots of soap but you just have to with our weather. So the plan is, without going into graphic detail, to use soap where I sweat the most, and this floral vinegar everywhere else. At bedtime, if my wife tells me to get out of the room due to the smell, then I will relegate this vinegar to cleaning stuff outside.
1Nov2020: I didnt get kicked out of the room :) Success!!!
Wash the pork (1kg belly) well and slice into 1 inch pieces.
Marinate the meat with the following...
3 Tbsp chilli powder
2 Tbsp chilli flakes soaked in little water (I added this for extra heat)
1½ Tbsp cumin powder
1½ tsp turmeric
1½ Tbsp mustard seeds crushed slightly
60g garlic pounded (have experimented with up to 100g and it tastes good)
60g ginger pounded (ditto)
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp vinegar (I use acv but ori calls for white vinegar)
Keep for 2 hours at room temperature, preferably in the pot that you are going to cook in.
Cook on high heat for 10 minutes, constantly stirring to avoid burning. Do not add oil or water, as the oil and moisture will come from the meat after a few minutes of cooking. (If you have to add water, just add the tiniest amount to prevent burning in the first few minutes before the oil starts appearing)
Cover and cook on low heat for a further 20 minutes. Open only once or twice to stir and make sure the meat is not burning.
Turn off the heat. Add 3 TBsp vinegar and salt to taste, and mix well.
My tips...
Don’t cut the pork too thinly.
Place meat in fridge if marinating for longer periods.
Adjust vinegar in the final step to suit how sour you want it. Vindaloo is actually pickled curry, so without the vinegar, it isn’t Vindaloo.
500g lean + 500g belly if you dont want so much fat.
For better flavour, refrigerate after cooking for 24 hours. Reheat and serve the next day.
It's strange but I dont have a picture of my vindaloo even though I cook it every 2 weeks or so. This is a pic of my sister's version. Basically the same but she adds a bit of water.
I have seen references to vinegar in cooking, cleaning, gardening etc tc. So this will be ongoing list from articles I come across... uses for vinegar.
The climbing perch pond has a ton of muck... good for the veggies but tedious to maintain. I have to remove the whole underwater filter to clean the media every 5-6 days. An external filter will help make that job a bit easier. This was my attempt at building it...
31Aug2020: Increased the inflow tube size & made some modifications to the inlet.
This is a summary of the vinegar experiments I have started. It's really addictive... I feel like starting a new batch of vinegar everytime I see some fruit lying around!
This bird set up shop under our awning. I think she is sitting on 2 eggs. Google Lens said it was a Peaceful Dove. What a nice name! I labelled it with the "Pest & Helper" tag. It's a Helper coz it makes us smile in the morning.
23Aug2020: It's looking really precarious. I really feel like climbing up and moving the nest into the cage which just an ornament. But we have no idea if that will scare the mum away permanently. So just have to let nature take its own course.
I have cut off the vines for some time now. Today pulled this octopus out of the ground. It really looked like one coz the roots had knobs on them. And they still had quite a bit of texture/moisture in them.
Then planted 6 seedlings in that area. I will keep the 3 best.
I would say we eat kangkung at least 3 times a week. Touchwood so far we havent got the pains most people have said that will flare up if you eat too much of this veggie.
Following this guy's method coz he seems like the only one who knows the science behind it all...
Slight variations but still sticking to his methodology...
- I won't be juicing the fruit.
- I will use my ginger bug instead of yeast
The ingredients and amounts I used...
1 litre dechlorinated water
357g apple scraps
1 TBsp white sugar
150ml ginger bug (liquid only)
The slightly cloudy top is from the ginger bug I added. It cleared up the next day.
Oh and later at the start of stage 2 I will add 2 TBsp Bragg acv.
Moved the apple scraps around daily.
17Aug2020 day2:
20Aug2020 day5: a thin pellicle has formed and as a result I havent mixed it today...
23Aug2020 day7: Removed solids. Total juice was 1239ml (145ml of that was from squeezing the solids through a cloth). After allowing to settle, I used the liquid minus the sediment which amounted to 1176ml. pH was around 5. Added 2 TBsp Bragg acv
Now wait till 12 Sept to test again.
29Aug2020 day14: First signs the liquid is clearing.
14Sep2020 day30: Tastes nice, milder than Bragg acv. pH 3.5. Bottled it.
** The whole uncut pineapple was 1047g. Flesh 490g. Skin 428g.
With one pineapple, I am trying to...
A) grow another fruit using the top bit.
FAILED! No roots after more than a week. I must have bought a really old dead fruit or they did something to it to make it stop growing. Went into the compost.
B) make tepache with the flesh.
In this was...
1 litre water, 150g jaggery, 490g pineapple flesh (tasted almost sour so didnt expect this to succeed), all blended into a smoothie.
To that added 50g ginger from my ginger bug, 100ml ginger bug juice, 1 cinnamon stick, 4 cloves.
Covered with a cloth. The jaggery gave an illusion of a nice tasting result.
The next day tasted it and decided to throw it out! Thats how bad it tasted.
FAILED! The pulp will go into the compost.
I will try again and next time NOT use the ginger bug, and DO use a better sweeter pineapple.
C) make vinegar using the skin and core.
In this went...
80g white sugar, 900ml water (enough to cover the skin and cores), 428g skin and cores, 100ml ginger bug juice (instead of yeast)
I will follow roughly this guys instructions and timeline...
15Aug2020 update: bubbling nicely, no signs of mold, moved the top layer into the liquid.
16Aug2020 update: You can see it at the start of the video...
19Aug2020 day6:
If the bottle is moved, tiny bits of the pellicle drop off.
20Aug2020 update: It's day 7 and I was supposed to have strained out the solids today. But I am awaiting a reply on one of the forums to see what to do with the pellicle that has just formed on top...
21Aug2020 day8 update:
Took out all the solids. This pellicle was a thin film and powdery, unlike the thicker one in the acv batch1. I just sieved out the lot, pellicle, skin, core, and whatever.
It tasted ok, nothing great but better than expected considering the fact that the starting point was mostly pineapple skin and the core from a really tasteless fruit.
Now I presume stage one is done, converting the fruit sugar to alcohol.
The pH was 5.
Washed and baked the container.
Onto stage 2 of converting it to acetic acid / vinegar, hopefully with a pH of 3.
Added 2 TBsp of Bragg raw acv.
Strained again and left out the sediment.
Final liquid was 1112ml
acv batch1 on the left, this pineapple vinegar-to-be on the right.
Now wait!
10Sep2020 day28: FAILED :(
I did 2 tests. Firstly smell... it smelt like the toilet. Second was pH... it didnt even change colour. No acidity at all!
On the plus side, it did have a pellicle half sunken. Luckily I did enough research to tell me that the pellicle wasn't the mother. Or else I might have kept it and contaminated future batches.
***
So in conclusion... dont use any pineapple. This one was not sweet, it was not ripe either. Make sure it's over ripe, not rotting anywhere, no mold, and wash the skin thoroughly. I also suspect that pesticides could have been an invisible enemy.
I have one more pineapple vinegar in the making, using an over ripe fruit. I did include the skin so maybe that one's results will shed some light into the pesticide factor.
The next batch of pineapple vinegar will be without skin, just the flesh and core.
All shops that service cars will have tons of used motor oil. That is super bad for the environment. I've seen many shops in smaller towns that just dump it into the drain!! Anyways go to any of these shops with an empty container and ask for some used motor oil. They will gladly give it to you for free.
I use it on all wood outside that dont come into close contact with the veggies. The oil on wood will protect and extend its life.
I picked up these boxes dumped outside someone's house. They will make good organisers for stuff/tools I have outside.
The 2 boxes I found plus the table I built at the start of the MCO. For the table I have a transparent protective paint for the top. I use the oil on the feet, just at the very bottom surface that comes into contact with the wet porch almost every day
I was just doing one surface so you can see the difference. Only needed a little bit of oil.
If the wood hasn't been treated before, you will actually see the surface drink out the oil when you start.
I like the darker colour it gives the wood. Be generous with the oil.
After doing the whole surface, you can see patches where it wants to soak up more oil. Give it some :)
2 days later...
The oil has given the box a lot more character. The grains are so much more visible.
I want to show you the other side of this oiled wood...
The oil has made it through to the other side.
The dark spots are from the oil too.
You won't see this after I've oiled this side. It's just a great illustration of the veins in the wood.
