Go greens

'Ulam' is any kind of edible plant that we eat raw, as a side dishes accompanying the rice. Having brought up with Malay traditional food, I sometimes miss the 'ulam' we can easily get back in Malaysia; ulam raja, pucuk gajus/janggus, daun selom, pucuk beluntas, bebuas, pucuk paku and many more. With each ulam, there will be the 'sambal' or chilli paste that goes together. Be it sambal belacan, sambal cuka, sambal tempoyak, or even budu and cencaluk, all are delicious and suits certain ulam. For example, pucuk bebuas should go with sambal cuka, and 'setenggek burung' with budu.

Of course here in Sydney they also have lots of greens and 'ulam', such as ocra, lettuce, parsley and salads, so we have to make do with whatever the place has to offer. For instant, I can't have pucuk paku to make kerabu, I used parsley instead. Even green apple tastes very nice when turned into kerabu with perut, hmm...

We are lucky that at this place called Bankstown where we live currently, there is a Vietnamese town close by. Lots of the greens we familiar with are available here. One day, I saw bunches of pegaga in the polystyrene while shopping for greens. Elyn was excited when I called her asking whether she wants it or not. They sold it in a big bunch, $6/kg if my memory served me right. To go with it, I've made some sambal nyoq (sambal kelapa lah tu), which Elyn found not really to her liking, tak penah makan katanya...

This was not the pegaga kampung we usually plant at home, very crunchy and soft. This was pegaga gajah, bigger and a bit hard. So we ate a few as ulam, and turned it into kerabu pegaga the next day. Tak larat nak gonyeh, hehehe...


Nutritional Value of Pegaga Gajah:

Measurement	Weight gms	Energy Kcal	Water gms	Protein gms	Fat gms	CHO gms	Fibre gms	Ash gms
	100	30	89.90	1.20	0.4	5.30	1.3	1.9
1 cup (chopped)	43	13	38.20	0.50	0.2	2.30	0.6	0.8

Measurement	Weight gms	Retinol microgram	Carotenes microgram	RE microgram	B1 mg	B2 mg	Niacin mg	C mg
	100	0	1404	234	0.07	0.20	0.4	70.20
1 cup (chopped)	43	0	597	99	0.03	0.09	0.2	29.80

Source: http://nutriweb.org.my