LASORA? IN ENGLISH?! LASORA PICKLE RECIPE

GUM BERRY, GUNDA, CLAMMY CHERRY, LASORA
Gum berry or Lasora is known by a whole variety of names, and although I have eaten this delightful little berry, there’s a whole swamp to wade through out there in Internet land to find out what its name is in English. First of all it seemed as though it might be called the Indian Cherry, and the picture looked right, but…So we persevered, yes, it took two of us to identify the real deal, but now we think we’ve found it. It’s a member of the borage family and is also known as Fragrant Manjack.

It has a sticky gum inside, which small children use as glue, after they pick it from a tree. You can eat it raw, I’m told, but it tastes dry. If you have a tree near you, and you just might as it grows in the Americas, you can pickle the green fruits, which are unripe. These are the wonderful morsels I have tasted, and I thoroughly recommend them. You can probably buy Lasora or Gunda pickle online from Asian food sellers, there’s one called Methia Gunda Pickle, and you really should try it. 

The recipe below is with mango, but it’s good as a pickle on its own.The ripe fruit is yellow when ripe, and you can use this as a vegetable – fry in oil like okra or ladies fingers.
It’s used in traditional medicine to help relieve indigestion and the bark of the tree and its roots can be boiled, and then drunk and they say this is good for coughs, colds, and sore throats.
In Punjabi, if children love you a lot and stick to you like glue, people say they stick to you like lasora. Also in Punjab there are people called ‘changhar’ who have nowhere to live and they live from what they can forage in the forests where they tend to live. 

They eat whatever they can find, herbs, snakes, turtles, etc. When they find a suitable place to sleep, they sweep it with a broom made of branches from the Lasora tree, as they believe that it will protect them from evil.
So now you know-all you have to do now I try one!


LASORA AND MANGO PICKLE
Ingredients
500 gr lasora
oil as required
4 tbsps salt
3 tbsps turmeric
3 tbsps fenugreek seeds, coarsely ground
1 tbsp mustard seeds, coarsely ground
½ tsp asafoetida
150 gr green mango cubes
4 tbsps red chilli powder


Method
Slit each berry and rub them with a mixture of salt and turmeric. Leave the red chilli powder, but mix together all the other spices.
Heat about 2 cups of oil in a pan and leave to cool. When it’s lukewarm, pour it over the spices and mix well.
Dry fry the salt over a low heat, for 1 min, then add the red chilli powder and dry fry for 1 more minute. Mix this with the spice mixture, stirring well.
Now add the berries and mango pieces to the mixture and coat them well in the mixture.
Transfer to a glass jar with a tight fitting lid, and leave it to settle for 4/5 days.
On the 5th or 6th day, heat enough oil to cover the fruit, and mix into the pickle when it is cool. Cover the jar tightly and leave for a week.
You can leave it for longer, of course and it will keep for a few months- if it’s still around after that long! Make sure the spoon you use to take the pickle out of the jar is dry, or the pickle will spoil.
You can reuse the oil for the next batch of pickle when you finish it.
This has Taste and is a Treat.

FENUGREEK (METHI) HISTORY, TEA and RECIPE

FENUGREEK (METHI)
Fenugreek was used by the ancient Egyptians in their embalming process, and in the Eber medical papyrus fenugreek is listed as one of the ingredients used to treat burns. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, thought it a valuable soothing herb, while Dioscorides used it in treating inflammation of the genitals. Now it is used as a tea to promote milk flow for breast-feeding mothers, and research has shown that it may inhibit liver cancer growth, and help in the treatment of diabetes. French researchers also believe it is a good aid to digestion.
The flowers and seeds are used for medicinal purposes, and the leaves are grown in Europe and parts of North Africa for animal feed. It has a long history of being used in this way, as its Latin name, foenum graecum means Greek Hay. However in Pakistan, in the northern Punjab region, the fresh leaves are cooked as saag, sometimes on their own but more often with spinach. They are rich in vitamins, minerals and protein. The leaves are more often used dried (kasuri methi), and added to sauces and other savoury dishes. Often they are dried at home for use later in the year. The young shoots can be eaten raw with watercress as a salad.
Traditionally, fenugreek has been used to promote weight gain in anorexics, to lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and soothe gastric disorders. The oil from the seeds is used as a skin softener, and the powdered seeds, when added to yoghurt are used as a hair conditioner in India.
To make fenugreek tea, steep the seeds in boiling water for 5-10 minutes, then boil for another 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and cover, and leave for a further 10 – 15 minutes. Strain and use 2 or 3 times a day, hot or cold. You need 1 teaspoon seeds per cup of water. It’s a soothing drink for stomach problems, and it calms the nerves. It’s also good for lactation.
You may think that you haven’t tasted fenugreek, but the likelihood is that you have. It’s one of the ground spices normally used in curry powder- that particular smell it has is noticeable and it is used as a substitute for maple syrup, and even for vanilla!
The seeds are fairly easy to come by in Britain, but you’ll probably have to go to an Asian food shop to buy the dry leaves, (kasuri methi) or buy them online. The recipe calls for dried methi (kasuri methi).



FRIED METHI CHILLIES
Ingredients
250gr green chillies (about 3 inches long)
2 medium potatoes
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
2 tbsps dried fenugreek leaves
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying


Method
Boil potatoes, still in their skins. When cool remove skins and mash to a puree with 1½ tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (methi), cumin seeds and seasonings.
Mix together the flour, 1/2 tbsp methi, thyme and 1tbsp salt on a plate and beat the eggs in a bowl.
Slit the peppers from top to bottom, leaving the stem intact, and remove the seeds.
Stuff the peppers with the potato mixture, then dip them one at a time, in the beaten egg, then roll them in the flour mixture, coating them evenly. Repeat the process once.
Heat the oil in a pan and fry the stuffed peppers for 4-5mins over a low heat.
Serve alone or with dips as an appetizer.
This has Taste and is a Treat.

DILL WITH A DOLMADES RECIPE

DILL
Dill is sometimes confused with fennel leaves, but they are different. Dill has a milder flavour, although it still tastes of aniseed. It’s good with fish, shellfish, vegetables and in yoghurt dips. You can use the leaves and the seeds, although these are not interchangeable. You should add dill leaves at the end of the cooking process to preserve the flavour.
Dill is native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, although it now grows almost everywhere. It was mentioned in ancient Egyptian medical texts written around 3,000 BC. The ancient Greeks believed it was a sign of wealth, and for the Romans it was lucky. In mediaeval times it was believed to have magical properties, and if you drank a tea made from dill leaves and other herbs, people believed that it would rid you of any curse or evil. People burnt dill leaves to calm a thunderstorm, and used it with wine and other herbs in love potions. They hung the dried seed heads in homes, over doorways and babies’ cradles to protect themselves from evil. If you give a witch dill tea, it will take away her power to harm you or so it was believed. Dill symbolized love and protection.
Dill calms the digestive system and contains vitamin C as well as being rich in minerals, particularly calcium. To relieve indigestion, you should bruise 13 gr dill seeds, and steep them in a cup of boiling water. Leave them to infuse for about 20 mins, then strain the liquid and take a tbsp of it. Its name comes from Old Norse, dylla, meaning to soothe.
In recipes, one measure of dried dill is equal to 3 of fresh dill leaves. Culpeper made use of this herb and thought that it ‘strengthens the brain’- brain food, like fennel seeds. Dill seed is good in salad dressings but the leaves are excellent in sauces.


DOLMADES WITH EGG AND LEMON SAUCE
Ingredients
250 gr minced beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ cup cooked rice
1 small head white cabbage
4 egg yolks
½ cup lemon juice
small bunch dill leaves, finely shredded
250 cl water or chicken stock (see recipe for Bay leaves),hot
oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper


Method
Steam the cabbage leaves until they are soft and pliable.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onions and garlic until the onions are translucent, then add the meat and stir occasionally until it is cooked through. Remove from the heat and mix in the cooked rice.
Taking a leaf at a time, stuff the cabbage leaves and roll them up, making secure parcels of them. Use wooden cocktail sticks to secure them if you have to.
Put the egg yolks into a bowl and whisk them with a fork, then VERY slowly add the lemon juice, until it has all been mixed with the egg yolks. Gradually stir in the hot stock or water. Add the shredded dill leaves and seasonings.
Arrange the stuffed cabbage leaves in an oven proof dish and pour the sauce over them. Cook in a preheated medium oven for 30 mins.
Serve with a salad, alone or with a side dish of vegetables.
This has Taste and is a Treat.

Fennel Leaves, Fennel Stalks, Fennel Seeds and Florentine Fennel Bulb also misri:Recipes for: Misri with Fennel Seeds; Fennel Bulb

FENNEL

Fennel leaves, fennel stalk, fennel root, fennel seeds and the Florentine fennel bulb can all be used in cooking and in other ways too. It’s a very versatile herb and was one of the nine sacred herbs of the Anglo-Saxons, which were;-mugwort, plantain, watercress, betony, chamomile, crab apple, chervil, thyme and fennel. It has also been used, in Britain, to keep evil away on Midsummer’s Eve, or the summer solstice, and was hung over doorways with other herbs at this time of year.

It originated in the Mediterranean region and western Asia, but is naturalized in Britain and cultivated all over the world. Italians love it and use the peeled stalks, ’cartucci’ in salads. The edible bulb is called Florentine fennel, and is good either eaten raw in salads or cooked. This has an aniseed flavour and is rich in vitamin C and the mineral potassium.

Pliny wrote that snakes ate the plant and rubbed their eyes on it to help improve their eyesight after they had sloughed their skin. It was used as eyewash, and even modern herbalists recommend its use for pink eye or conjunctivitis. The Romans thought it was efficacious as a treatment for snake bites, and Culpeper agreed with them. He also wrote that it was an antidote for food poisoning after eating the wrong kind of wild mushrooms

The ancient Greeks believed that fennel tea would help reduce weight and some modern herbalists still believe it helps with weight loss. This is because it accelerates the digestion of fatty foods.You should boil ½ tsp fennel seeds (sanf) with one cup of water for 10 to 15 mins, and then cover the pot and leave to cool. Then strain it and drink it. Take a cup of tea three times a day, but you shouldn’t take any more than that, and if you’re pregnant, don’t drink it. This tea will soothe a sore throat and cough, and will relieve stomach pains and cramps. We don’t know about weight loss, as in Pakistan, people chew the seeds to improve their appetite! In Mediaeval England it was used as an appetite suppressor during days of fasting, e.g. Lent.

It features in Greek mythology too, as Prometheus is reported to have brought back fire, which he stole from the god Hephaestus Roman (equivalent Vulcan), to humanity hidden in a stalk of fennel, which was used as kindling. Also the fennel stalk, topped with a fir cone was the thyrsus used by acolytes of Dionysus (Roman equivalent Bacchus).

It is also used to keep fleas away from stables and kennels.

Below is a recipe for the bulb and the seeds. You can use the feathery leaves as a garnish and also with fish recipes. It really is a versatile plant.

LIVER AND FENNEL CASSEROLE

Ingredients

300 gr liver, cleaned and cut into 1 inch cubes

1 large onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 fennel bulb, roughly chopped

1 tsp thyme

½ tsp paprika

1 glass red wine (white will do)

2 glasses water

oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat the oil and fry the onion, garlic, fennel and liver for 5 mins. Add the red wine and stir to remove residue from pan. Add the water, thyme, paprika and seasonings and bring to the boil. Stir well and cover the pot.

Put it in a preheated medium oven and cook for 45 mins.

Serve with mashed potatoes.

This has Taste and is a Treat.

FENNEL SEED AND MISRI APPETISER

Ingredients

200 gr fennel seeds

50 gr almonds, roughly chopped

50 gr pistachio nuts chopped

50 gr walnuts, roughly chopped

10 green cardamom seeds, removed from the pods and crushed

150 gr rock candy sugar (misri)

50 gr sultanas

100 gr butter

Method

Melt the butter in a pan and add the fennel seeds. Fry for about a minute, then when they are cold, grind the fennel seeds. Now mix all the ingredients together including the butter.

Store in a jar in a cool place and have a few spoonfuls each morning, as this will help the body and aid memory. It won’t spoil, which is why this recipe is for a large amount.

You can serve it with drinks of any kind.

MISRI

This is a sugar which was made in Persia and the Indian subcontinent in the 9th century. It is sugar which has been heated to a high temperature and allowed to form into crystals. Apparently we call it rock candy or jaggery. Basically it’s large sugar crystals, you can make it yourself from ordinary sugar and water. But it takes 7 days for the crystals to grow.You can find it in Asian shops and specialist stores.