GOOSEBERRIES or AMLA in URDU; USES and RECIPE - GOOSEBERRY CRUMBLE

GOOSEBERRIES or AMLA in URDU
Gooseberries are native to southwestern Asia and Europe. It’s believed that they grow right up to the foothills of the Himalayas. However the so-called Indian gooseberry, or Amla, is Emblica officinalis, but the gooseberry that we know is Ribes grossularia and the one that grows on the subcontinent, is Ribes uva. So they are closely related although not exactly the same. The wild variety is a straggly little thing compared to the cultivated variety. In northern England there have been huge gooseberry bushes. One was 12 feet in diameter, apparently.
In the Middle Ages, the gooseberry was referred to as the Feaberry or feverberry as it was believed to help cure fevers. It is rich in vitamins A and C, and so would be good to ward off colds and flu. It was first cultivated in Britain in the 16th century when physicians recommended it as a cure for the dreaded plague.
John Gerard, writing of the Feaberry said it was ‘greatly profitable to such as are troubled with a hot, burning ague.’ In Ayurvedic medicine the gooseberry has many uses and is often used in powder form. Traditional practitioners believe it has cooling properties, so agree with Gerard. However, they use the gooseberry for a whole host of cures. They say it’s good for diabetes, heart problems, illnesses related to old age, gastric problems and believe it gives a boost to the immune system. The gooseberry helps to balance the body’s nitrogen levels so can help those who need to gain weight, too. Basically if you eat Amla every day, you will ward off a number of illnesses.
If you make a paste with Amla by boiling 6 with a cup of milk, then removing the seeds and mashing them to a pulp, you should rub the paste onto your hair roots. Leave it on your scalp for 20 minutes, then wash your hair. This is supposed to prevent hair loss.
Acne sufferers should mix 20 grams of Amla powder with a little honey and ghee. The mixture should be taken internally to clear the blood and so rid the skin of unsightly spots.
In spring it is said that the gooseberry is more valuable in herbal medicine than rhubarb.
Gooseberries were extremely popular by the early 19th century in England. People grew bushes in their gardens and held fairs to celebrate the gooseberry. Fairs and gooseberry shows are still held in the Midlands and northern England, where people compete for the best gooseberry pie or tart and see who has produced the biggest gooseberry etc.

The phrase ‘to play gooseberry’ is believed to have originated in the 19th century, when young couples were carefully chaperoned. Often the chaperone would distract herself by picking gooseberries in the hedgerows. So a chaperone was known as a gooseberry. And as for the tale of babies being found under gooseberry bushes, perhaps this was because in Victorian times every coy middle class family had a gooseberry bush in their garden, so babies could be left under one. Who knows?



GOOSEBERRY CRUMBLE
Ingredients
500 gr gooseberries, topped and tailed
2 tbsps sugar
water
125 gr butter
250 gr plain flour
2 tbsps sugar


Method
Put the gooseberries in a saucepan with a little water and 2 tbsps sugar, bring to the boil then simmer for 20 mins.
Make the topping. Rub the flour into the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and mix well
Preheat the oven to a medium heat.
Put the gooseberries in an ovenproof dish, you don’t need to thicken the mixture as gooseberries contain pectin, a thickening agent. Pour the crumble topping over the gooseberries. Dot here and there with butter and place in the preheated oven
Cool for 20-30 mins until the topping is golden brown, but not burnt.
Serve with custard or cream.
This has Taste and is a Treat.

BLACK MUSTARD SEEDS (RAI) HISTORY and USES:RECIPE CHICKEN SALAD MOULD

BLACK MUSTARD SEEDS
There are at least 40 different varieties of mustards, but we use black, white and brown. Black mustard seeds originated in the Middle East and the southern Mediterranean region. The Latin name for the plant they come from is Brassica nigra so they are related to other brassicas, broccoli, brussel sprouts and cabbage for example. The plants have very distinctive yellow flowers and are cultivated in fields across Britain, the rest of Europe, the Americas, the subcontinent as well as many other places. The brown seeds come from the foothills of the Himalayas.
The seeds might be small, but they are packed full of minerals and trace elements. They contain Omega-3 fatty acids, iron, selenium and magnesium among other things. They can help in the treatment of asthma and more research might show that they can help prevent cancer.
We know that the mustard seeds were used in Greece, and their discovery was attributed to Aesculpius The Romans invented the forerunner of modern mustards by pounding white seeds into a paste. The leaves are also edible and were used as a vegetable in ancient times. In Pakistan and India they are made into saag, a vegetable side dish, or a vegetarian meal on its own with roti (chapatti).
The mustard seeds used to grow mustard and cress, so often found in egg sandwiches, is white mustard, and these young mustard sprouts are good in salads.
In his Herball of 1623 John Gerard wrote that mustard ‘Doth help digestion, warmeth the stomach and provoketh the appetite’. The English town of Tewkesbury was famous for its mustard seed balls, which were black mustard seeds, mixed with honey, vinegar and a little cinnamon. Shakespeare mentions Tewkesbury mustard in ‘Henry V’ and one of the fairies in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is called Mustard-seed. In his ‘Acetaria’ of 1699, John Evelyn refers to the Italian way of making a mustard paste to which they added orange or lemon peel. Culpeper thought it was good to take the poison out of snake bites, and said that mustard powder and honey rolled into balls would clear the voice and help sufferers with cold symptoms. He also believed that if mixed with wax or honey and applied to a black and blue bruise, it would remove the colouration, and also get rid of a ‘crick in the neck’.

Mustard seeds are stimulants and a diuretic; they are used in poultices to relieve swelling and muscle pains. If you bruise the black mustard seeds, and pour boiling water over them and leave until hot, this makes an excellent footbath for tired feet. If you drink a tisane prepared in the same way, you will reduce cold and flu symptoms.
In Pakistan mustard oil from the black seeds is sold from door to door by street sellers, and is bought not for culinary purposes, but to condition hair and leave it shiny. People here are embarrassed to use it for cooking as it’s so cheap, they prefer to be seen to use more expensive items such as top quality ghee, or clarified butter. However it’s good to cook with! And probably expensive where you come from!
When you use mustard seeds, you should bruise them a little and fry them in oil until they start to sputter, to release their flavour and also flavour the oil. They are used in pickles and sauces. Below is a different type of recipe for them.


CHICKEN SALAD MOULD
Ingredients
250 gr chicken, boiled and cut into small cubes
½ cup raisins
½ cup mayonnaise
½ tbsp black mustard seeds
½ tsp white pepper, ground
1 tbsp aspic
1½ cups chicken stock (see recipe in our Bay Leaf post) hot
½ bunch of fresh coriander, shredded
salt to taste
oil for greasing mould


Method
Grease a 1½ pint mould with the oil.
Pour a little of the stock into the aspic powder and stir to mix until it dissolves. Use a cup to do this.
Put the rest of the stock in a large bowl and add the mustard seeds and mayonnaise and mix well. Then add the aspic and the stock mix the raisins, white pepper and salt and mix well.
Add the chicken pieces and coriander leaves and stir in well.    Pour the whole mixture into the mould.
Put the mould in the fridge and leave until set.
To get it out of the mould in one piece, put the mould briefly in warm water, and then turn it out onto a large plate.
Garnish with fresh mint leaves and slivers of root ginger, or green chillies.
                                       This has Taste and is a Treat.

PAAN and the BETEL or ARECA NUT or SUPARI

PAAN and the BETEL or ARECA NUT or SUPARI
If you’ve ever been to the subcontinent, you will have noticed paan (or sometimes, pan) shops everywhere. People will tell you different paan stories of their own, a friend of a friend… You know the sort. Anyway, I’m told that a seasoned paan eater doesn’t actually swallow all the paan, but only the fillings, in sweet paan. The rest gets spat on the pavement, or wherever the chewers might be. At home, of course, they will have spittoons for the messy pink liquid.
Paan has been used for centuries to sweeten the breath, particularly of lovers and royalty, which is why so many illustrations of paan accessories are set in bedrooms. Paan was one of the 8 delights enjoyed by royals in ancient times. In other classes, only married couples were allowed to use it as it was believed to be an aphrodisiac.
It has had poems written about it, such as this translation of one by Murkhya Charan Bhattacharya, a poet from Bengal.
She lives indoors, but is not a woman,
Not sought by the young but adored by the old.
She is a temptress like a fire-fly
Fools will not interpret this and will remain confused.
It is given as an offering to Hindu gods, and it is believed that Vishnu is particularly pleased when given 32 betel pepper vine leaves, no more or less. There is a superstition that if you eat a dry paan leaf, your life will end rather suddenly.
Paan is a part of the culture in India, and in Bengali wedding ceremonies, the bride and groom are given traditional brass containers topped with betel leaves and condiments in the hope that their future life as a married couple will be a happy one. As their love grows, the woman will not only roll paan for her husband, but also feed him with her own hands.
Those who enjoy paan believe it is a good stimulant, and antidepressant which relieves stress.
It’s said that Krishna himself used to chew it and we know from texts that it was chewed on a wide scale by the 5th century AD. The betel palm, which the betel nut grows on, is thought to have originated in Malaysia and Sumatra. It spread to the subcontinent where it is now cultivated.
The betel nut, or areca nut, grows on the betel palm tree, and the leaves which are the outer layer of paan come from the betel pepper vine.
There are 2 basic types of paan. One is tobacco paan, in which quids of tobacco are rolled into paan with a betel nut, or slivers of it. The other is sweet paan which includes the betel nut as well as some or all of the following ingredients: betel or areca nut, anise, cinnamon, cloves, green cardamom seeds, roasted fennel seeds, sweetened desiccated coconut, almonds, pistachios, rose petals or rose petal preserve, and preserved fruits as well as sugar syrup and dried dates. In special paan, edible silver leaf is included too. The leaves from the betel pepper vine are coated with a paste made from lime, not the fruit, but calcium hydroxide, and a pink substance called catechu which is a vegetable extract from the wood of the acacia tree.
The customer can choose what goes into the sweet paan and this depends not only on personal taste but on the reasons for buying the paan. For example, someone suffering with a sore throat might ask for paan with mahlati (dried ginger root) with betel nut and green cardamom seeds.
You can eat all of the sweet paan, if you wish, but you have to spit out the tobacco paan as tobacco is harmful for the stomach.
Modern research has shown that betel nut chewers risk the onset of diabetes, asthma and cardiovascular diseases.It might also be responsible for starting oral cancers. Its availability is restricted in the USA. However other research has shown that it could be useful for Alzheimer’s sufferers as it increases glucose absorption in the brain. There is also a school of thought that suggests it might be useful in the treatment of schizophrenia. In traditional Ayurvedic medicine it is used as a laxative and a digestive aid, while in Unanai medicine it is used to combat diarrheoa and urinary disorders.

The betel nut or areca nut is also used as beads in some jewellery, and boxes to keep betel nuts in have been around for centuries. The leaves and stalks of the betel pepper vine can be woven to make cups, fans, umbrellas etc.
A word of caution: first time chewers of paan often suffer from nausea, giddiness and feel as though they are in the initial stages of poisoning.

MOUSSAKA RECIPE

This is a traditional dish claimed by both the Greeks and the Turks. Whatever its origins, it’s well worth the effort you have to put in to making it. Like our Pastitsio recipe it takes a while to prepare and then ¾ of an hour in a preheated medium oven.
If you’re not a fan of aubergines (eggplants) you can substitute them with courgettes (zucchini), and if you are a vegetarian you can use both and leave out the meat. You just need to fry the courgettes lightly so that they start to become translucent.
Because the sauce is rather like a soufflé, you need to put the whole thing in a greased oven proof dish which has a lot of room at the top (leave 3 inches to be on the safe side) as the sauce will rise like a soufflé. You can omit the eggs if you’d prefer, and just settle for a cheese sauce.

Ingredients
300 gr minced beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 or 4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp oregano (dried)
2 tsps Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp flour
oil
1 large aubergine, sliced, salted, washed thoroughly and dried
4-5 tomatoes, sliced
3-4 medium sized potatoes
50 gr butter
50 gr plain flour
250 gr grated cheese (cheddar for flavour)
750 ml milk
2 eggs separated and whites whisked to stiff peaks
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.



Method
Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the onions and garlic until the onions start to turn translucent, then add the minced beef, and fry until it is cooked. Add a tbsp flour and the tomato puree to soak up the fatty juices, stirring well. Then add the oregano and Worcestershire sauce.
Remove from the heat and put in the oven proof dish you have greased.
Now add more oil to the frying pan and fry the aubergines, for about 5-10 mins. While you are doing this, place a layer of tomato slices over the meat mixture.
When the slices of aubergine are cooked, remove from the pan and get rid of the excess oil by drying them on absorbent paper. Then layer them over the tomatoes.
Fry the potato slices for about 10 mins, 5 mins for each side, dry as you did the aubergines and put them over the aubergine layer.
You can now make the cheese sauce.
Melt the butter over a low heat, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the flour so that it becomes a smooth paste. Slowly pour in a little milk and stir. Now put the pan back on the low heat, and add the milk gradually, stirring all the while so that it doesn’t become lumpy. Bring to the boil, add half the grated cheese, and simmer for a few minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the egg yolks with a wooden spoon. When they are well integrated into the sauce, add the stiff egg whites and fold into the sauce using a metal spoon. Add the salt and pepper. When the whites are well mixed into the sauce, pour it over the potatoes. Top with the rest of the grated cheese, and place it in the oven which has been preheated to a medium heat. Leave for 45 mins.
Remove from the oven and serve hot with a salad.
This has Taste and is a Treat.