Farmseries 01: Nothing is Better Than Lunch Time

It was raining when we finally got back to the HQ. Mba Atie has prepared the corn that we picked from the farm earlier. Steam was coming out of them and they looked so good to eat. We grazed on the corn while waiting for the lunch to be served. Unfortunately due to the rain, we were unable to eat outside at the prepared outdoor table that we have set up among the corns. But that’s fine! We finally had all the food lined up for everyone to taste. Shall we begin?

The food was an array of freshly prepared food by Angeline. By seeing the look, color and texture of them, we salivated and could not wait to start. Every dish were lined up on our kitchen table so everyone could go around and picked what they wanted to try.

Hearty roasted Salad
For these who weren’t into rice, we prepared a heartier salad comprised of roasted vegetables with yellow sweet potatoes, sorghum and some freshly picked garnished, everything from Blueboots Farm. The vegetables were roasted with Taneuh’s fennel salt, which brought out the earthiness of the ingredients and also with Blueboots Farm’s curry leaves, making them more aromatic. Once the ingredients were cooled down, the vegetables were mixed with sorghum and seasoned. The white flowers were delicate sesame flowers which taste like their seeds, while the green garnish was carrot’s tops.

Terong Balado
We grilled Blueboots Farm’s eggplants then topped them with our homemade Balado sauce. The chillies were from the farm too and we have a lot of them these days because they are in season. The fragrant aroma was emphasized by some mini anchovies which also added more proteins to the dish. The Terong Balado was then topped with some edible flowers scouted from the farm that morning.

Papaya Salad
As a refreshment, we made a sweet pickle from young papaya, harvested from the farm. The young papaya were pickled along with carrot, honey, lemon juice, vinegar and lavender. To match the bright colors, we topped them with some vibrant Butterfly-pea flower.

The whole concept of the dish itself was to become a Buddha Bowl, where everyone picked the things that they liked including grains, side dishes and sauce, then mixed them all together. The plant-based menu was to highlight Blueboots Farm’s in season produces and also Taneuh’s products. Most of the main ingredients were produly harvested from the farm and were paired with either Taneuh’s infused salt or their microgreens.

Thus, our recommended method of enjoying the lunch was to get a little of everything and mix them well with some extra sauce, either the peanut sauce or balado sauce, almost like a bibimbap. We also had gado-gado in the menu, consisting of sweet potato and papaya leaves from the farm, drenched with peanut sauce made with Blueboots Farm peanut butter. On top of that, there were some taro fritters to crunch the dish up. Yum!