Malunggay Ice Cream, Anyone?

ONE way to fight malnutrition in the country is to encourage children to eat nutritious vegetables. However, these vegetables must first taste delicious and look appealing if people are to be encouraged to consume them.

A food technologist from the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Batac, Ilocos Norte, has found a way to marry off better taste and appeal with nutrition, and she has done so with malunggay recipes.

Dr. Lorma Valera spent years developing the proper use of nutritious vegetables in dishes that have heretofore ignored vegetables like malunggay.

Valera was among the guests during a cooking demonstration in the recent launching of �Malunggay in the City� in Barangay Commonwealth, Quezon City.

�Malunggay in the City� is an urban farming program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) through the initiative of the Biotechnology Program Office (BPO), which is now aggressively promoting the backyard and commercial planting of moringa, commonly known as malunggay for moringa-seed oil production.

The program aims to encourage urban poor communities to plant malunggay to help fight hunger, poverty and malnutrition in the urban area.

Valera started cooking using original malunggay recipes in 1987, which her fellow teachers at MSSU enjoyed. Five years later, she started the first malunggay- processing project, successfully coming up with different flour-based, malunggay-fortified snacks.

MSSU President Elias Calacal, who encouraged her to come up with a project proposal in the processing of malunggay snacks, approved the project after tasting one of Valera�s original, malunggay ice cream.

Since then, malunggay ice cream became a favorite dessert that is served during special occasions. Among those who patronize the malunggay ice cream is former President Fidel V. Ramos, says Valera.

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) funded another project for the processing of more malunggay recipes in the amount of P100,000.

Valera has since been invited to various cooking demonstration sponsored by different state colleges and universities in Ilocos, including the Baguio State University and Northwestern University.

According to Valera, processing malunggay and other vegetables can be the solution to the chronic malnutrition suffered by Filipino women and children throughout the country.
Among her more famous recipe were the malunggay pastillas, polungay or polvrones de malunggay and malunggay noodles. (biolife news service)