DRUMSTICK TREE - TRULY AMAZING TREE: HEALTH BENEFITS AND USES OF DRUMSTICK TREE: DRUMSTICK CURRY RECIPE

DRUMSTICK TREE, HORSERADISH TREE, BEN OIL TREE, MORINGA OLEIFERA

The Drumstick tree has some truly amazing properties, both medicinally speaking and ones that help people in their everyday lives in hot countries. It is not to be confused with the Monkey pod tree, which has similar pods also called drumsticks. It is native to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, although it now grows in tropical areas in Africa and South America.

   It is one of Nature’s marvellous medicine trees with every part good for something. The leaves are amazingly nutritious and it is hoped that they could be the answer to malnutrition, as they possess, gram for gram, three times as much potassium as bananas, seven times the vitamin C content of oranges, 4 times the amount of calcium in milk and twice the amount of protein in milk and eggs, and four times the amount of vitamin A found in carrots. The leaf powder which is given to children suffering from malnutrition and breast-feeding mothers to promote lactation contains all 8 essential amino acids. The fruit contains the minerals magnesium, calcium, iron, vitamins A and C as well as some B-complex ones. The bioflavonoids found in parts of the tree include kaempferol and quercetin.

  Apparently it was known and used by peoples of the ancient world, including the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians. The seeds are brown and triangular in shape, and are used to purify water in Sudan and Malawi, and their oil is also used in perfumes and hair care products. The oil can also be used as a salad dressing, or as lubricating oil. They may be eaten raw, and are said to taste like peanuts, or roasted or powdered and made into a tisane. They are also used in curry dishes.

  The trees can be used to make living fences, and the crushed leaves are used in households for cleaning purposes. The wood produces a blue dye; while the gum that exudes from the trunk when it is cut is has the same uses as tragacanth (gond katira) and the powdered seeds are used to clarify honey and sugar cane juice. The leaves are a good source of biofuel, and the flowers can be made into a tisane or eaten as a vegetable and added to sauces (in the same way as kachnar buds). They are also processed and made into effective pesticides. The young fruit are used as green vegetables and can be pickled while the older fruit are used in sauces. Paper can be produced from the wood pulp of the tree and the tree is also used for fuel, making good charcoal.

  Apart from having highly nutritious leaves, the fruit is also a healthy nutritious addition to a dish, but it also has some remarkable medicinal uses, some of which have been supported by medical research. For example the fruit has a hypolipidemic affect on the fats in the organs which are excreted. The tree has potent antioxidant qualities and seems to have anti-cancer potential, as well as being able to detoxify the body. It has antibiotic qualities as well as pain killing ones, can lower high blood pressure and has antibacterial properties.

  In the Ayurvedic system of medicine it is said to cure or prevent around 300 diseases and in India the seeds are used to cure impotency and erectile dysfunctions, and to prolong a woman’s sexual activity. Parts of the tree are used to maintain regular menstruation and it is thought of as a “Mother’s herb”. It is used to reduce inflammation caused by rheumatism and arthritis, and a paste is applied to the forehead to stop headaches and joint pains.

  It is used to cure obesity, for all types of skin problems, diabetes, fever, eye problems, digestive disorders, respiratory tract problems, including to clear mucus and to stop coughs. It is said to stimulate the blood circulation and the nervous system, and to prevent infections of various sorts.

  Medical research is still being done on this tree and all its parts, but given that the leaves are so nutritious, it seems clear that they should be used in powder form for those in developing countries suffering from malnutrition.

DRUMSTICK CURRY

Ingredients

12 drumsticks, peeled and cut into 5 cm pieces

4 onions, thinly sliced

6 green chillies, slit lengthways

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

oil or ghee for frying

tamarind (imli) pulp for 4-5 seeds

1 tbsp dry fried and ground cumin seeds

2 green cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed

1 tbsp coriander seeds, dry-fried and ground

1 stick cinnamon or pieces of cassia bark

1 tbsp turmeric (haldi), powdered

1½ inch piece of ginger root, peeled and finely chopped

a few curry leaves

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ pint coconut milk

 Method

Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions, garlic, ginger and chillies and fry for 5 mins.

Add the spices and cook for a further 3 mins.

Now add all the other ingredients apart from the imli pulp and half the coconut milk.

Cook over a low heat until the drumsticks are tender.

Add the tamarind pulp and simmer for a further 5 mins.

Add the rest of the coconut milk, bring to the boil and then remove from the heat and serve with roti, naan or plain boiled rice.

This has Taste and is a Treat.

WHAT IS SATTU - HOW TO MAKE SATTU AND SATTU DRINK

SATTU; A REALLY REFRESHING DRINK WITH A DIFFERENCE

Along with skanjveen, tukh malanga and gond katira, sattu is a deliciously different drink which is a great thirst-quencher for sweltering summer days. It’s lemon barley water Pakistani-style. 

You can also add ground yellow dhal (channa dhal) or use wheat instead of barley if you prefer. The recipe below is for fresh barley.

SATTU

Ingredients

100 gr barley seeds

To prepare the barley: -

Soak the barley overnight in water, then the next day, drain them and leave them to dry in the shade.

Heat a heavy-based pan over a low heat and add the dry barley seeds and dry fry them until they turn brown. Be careful not to let them burn.

Remove them from the heat and allow them to cool before grinding them to a fine powder.

You can store the powder in an airtight container until you are ready to use it.

Sattu Drink for 1 glass

1 tbsp sattu (prepared as above)

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

sugar to taste

water

ice

Method

Mix the sugar into the water well, add the lemon and sattu and mix together, add ice and serve.

This has Taste and is a Treat.

WHAT IS CARALLUMA FIMBRIATA? CHONG - OUR UNIDENTIFIED 'VEGETABLE': HEALTH BENEFITS AND USES OF CARALLUMA FIMBRIATA: CHONG WITH MINCED BEEF RECIPE

CHONG, CARALLUMA FIMBRIATA

Chong or perhaps chonga is used as a vegetable where we are in Pakistan, although it is not well known in other places it would appear. It is a strange-looking thing when you first see it sitting in a greengrocers, or at leas, we thought so. Neither of us had any idea what it was, so the vegetable seller kindly informed us that this was chong (in Urdu). Apparently it is called danda thor in Punjabi. I wanted to taste it, whatever it was, so my husband spoke with the greengrocer, who called his wife to ask her how to cook it. Her recipe is given below.

  We have been trying to find out what it is called in English for about a year, and finally discovered that it is a succulent cactus, having found photographs online. We know what it is used for here in this part of Pakistan, but were surprised when we discovered that it is used for weight loss in the West. A friend told us that when he was younger he would pick this plant and eat it raw as he was walking as it stopped his hunger and quenched his thirst too. I later found that tribal people have used it for centuries to quell hunger on a day’s hunt.

  Our greengrocer says that it is good to purify the blood when it is eaten as a green vegetable (although it is bitter like karella or bitter melon, so the juice needs to be removed prior to cooking) and it is also good for skin problems and diabetes. It can be made into a pickle or chutney, but we have only eaten it cooked, as the juice is very bitter.

  It is a member of the Asclepiadaceae family, so is a relative of Indian sarsaparilla, and has star-shaped flowers which are unpleasantly pungent, but which are very attractive as they can be purple, black, yellow, tan maroon, red or black. Here they grow on the mountains although in India they grow more freely it would seem, on any patch of waste land. We didn’t see them in other parts of the Punjab, but that may be because the people of Lahore think they are too sophisticated to eat what other websites say is “famine” food. Here it is sold at the greengrocer’s when it is in season and it is expensive as, like kachnar buds and falsa it is picked by hand and those that pick it might have to spend a long time looking for spots in which it grows.

  Studies have been done which seem to prove that little chong is a great aid to weight loss diets, as it contains HCA10 (hydroxyaltrate) which has been proved to contribute to weight loss without stimulating the central nervous system as some weight loss drugs do.

It contains pregnane glycosides which appear to block the activity of citratelyase which is an enzyme that builds fat in the body and also it may block the activity of Melonyl Coenzyme A which means that fat formulation and build up is also blocked, so the body is compelled to burn off the fat reserves it has accumulated so speeding up the body’s fat loss. Furthermore these glycosides may inhibit the hunger sensory mechanism which is found in the hypothalamus, a “primitive” part of the brain.

  Chong also combats fatigue, so you can use it without feeling a loss of energy and you get lean muscle mass by eating it regularly. Trials reported weight loss after 1 month of taking capsules containing Caralluma fimbriata. Hopefully, when this is proved, people will start growing their own chong as I wouldn’t want to be deprived of this vegetable because it is a weight loss product for obese Westerners.

CHONG WITH MINCED BEEF

Ingredients

½ kilo chong

1 tbsp salt

½ kilo minced beef

2 onions, finely chopped

4 tomatoes, finely chopped

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 inch fresh ginger, finely chopped

2 tbsps lemon juice

1 handful of fresh coriander leaves, finely shredded

6 green chillies, finely chopped

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp ajwain or thyme

1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp turmeric (haldi)

8 whole black peppercorns

1 tbsp chilli powder

salt to taste

1 cup oil

Method

To prepare the chong: -

Wash the chong very well and separate the pieces, discarding the root. Pound it a little but not too much, then put one tablespoon of salt over it and rub it into the pieces of chong with you hands, so that it is well mixed into it. Leave this for half an hour to remove the bitter juices.

After half an hour, squeeze the chong to remove the excess juices. Then wash it in cold water two or three times so that all the bitter juices are removed. Put it in a strainer or sieve and leave to drip.

Cooking

Heat the oil in a pan and add the garlic, ginger, black peppercorns and cumin seeds, and fry them for 30 seconds then stir in the onion and fry this for 1 minute. Add the minced beef and green chillies, stir and fry for 5 minutes.

Pour in 1 cup of water the turmeric, ajwain or thyme, chilli powder, coriander seeds and salt to taste. (Remember that some salt will have remained on the chong, however well you washed it.)

Cook this until the water is gone, then add the chong and tomatoes, stirring well to mix. Cook this still stirring for 5 – 7 minutes.

Add 2 glasses of water the lemon juice and the garam masala, stirring to mix.

Cover the pan and let it cook for ½ hour over a low heat or until all the water has gone and the oil floats to the top.

Remove from the heat, and then add the fresh coriander, cover for a few minutes so that the flavours mingle and settle and serve with naan or chapattis.

To get the best out of this dish, serve with natural yoghurt.

This has Taste and is a Treat.

LEMONS - COOLING DRINKS, REMEDIES AND BEAUTY TREATMENTS

Handy Tips for Using Lemons

Lemons are exceedingly nutritious, and we can use them for things other than cooking. Here are some of the traditional uses for lemons and the leaves from the tree in Pakistan.

  Don’t throw away the peel, as for one thing you can get rid of any discoloured or rough skin on your elbows or heels by rubbing the lemon halves that you have squeezed into them.hhhjjj

   Mix the same quantities of lemon juice and salt, shake the mixture and use it to remove stains from cloth, including white clothes and tablecloths.

   Mix ¼ tsp of salt with 1 tsp lemon juice and rub it onto your teeth to whiten them. If you also rub this mixture onto bleeding gums, it will stop this problem.

   If you want your hair to shine, after washing and rinsing your hair, add some lemon juice to a little water, rub this onto your hands and run them through your hair, leaving it to dry naturally.

   If you have eaten burning hot food and have mouth blisters, put 1 tbsp lemon juice in 1 glass of water and rinse this around your mouth.

   If you have bad breath or a wound in the gums, mix1 tbsp lemon juice with 2 tbsps rose water and rinse your mouth with it - spitting it out and not swallowing when you have run it around your mouth for a while.

   If you have a sore throat, or hoarseness, mix 3 tbsps lemon juice which you have heated first, with a tbsp honey, and take some on a spoon and suck it over the course of a day.

  For this remedy you need four types of salt and dried lemon peel. You dry the peel in the shade, and when it has dried you grind it to a powder, and mix it with table salt, black salt, sea salt and lake salt (sambar in Urdu). Store this in an airtight jar and take a pinch after you have eaten so that you don’t suffer from indigestion or other stomach problems. This is very good for those who suffer with stomach pains in the lower abdomen region which lead to either constipation or diarrhoea.

Pakistani Lemons

  If you have a stomach pain, take the same weight of black peppercorns and fresh lemon leaves, grind them together and mix in water, and the pain will be relieved very quickly.

  When you get bitten by an insect such as a mosquito, rub lemon juice into the affected area to stop the itching and prevent lumps forming. You can also cover yourself in lemon juice to prevent being bitten.hhhhhhjj

  To prevent wrinkles and signs of aging of the skin, maze equal quantities or lemon juice, rose water and glycerine and put this on your face at night before you go to sleep. Wash it off as normal in the morning.

   If you have had a particularly hard day and need to get rid of the sweat and dirt, put 2 tbsps lemon juice in the bath and it will help remove the grime and body odour.

   Peel some lemons and break them into natural segments, then thread yarn through each piece and hang them to dry in the sun. When they are completely dry grind them to a powder then mix this with 4 times the weight of sugar or sugar and salt, and store the mixture in an airtight jar. Take a pinch after each meal to aid the digestion and make the stomach strong and healthy. It will stop nausea too.

   If you want a glowing complexion, mix 3 tbsp of milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice, and put it on your skin with cotton wool. Wash it off after half an hour and feel your skin glow.

  Of course if you cut a fruit such as an apple which discolours quickly on contact with oxygen, you can coat it with lemon juice so that it keeps its colour.

   Benefits of Skanjveen

Skanjveen is not just a refreshing drink but it has health benefits too as it can help those with jaundice and stop sickness and diarrhoea. If you want to prevent yourself getting these problems, drink one glass in the morning and one in the afternoon, and to make this drink more effective use misri rather than normal sugar.    

How to Store Lemon Juice

In a sterilized glass jar or bottle with a tight fitting lid, pour in lemon juice to almost the top, then add 1 or 2 tbsps of almond oil to cover the surface of the lemon juice. 

When you want to use the lemon juice, the oil will separate and should be poured into something clean. Use as much juice as you need to then put the almond oil back on top of it and make sure the top of the jar or bottle is securely fastened once again.

How to Make Lemon Sharbet

This will help you if you are on a weight loss diet, and is very refreshing on sweltering hot days, as well as cooling the body internally.

Ingredients

1 kilo sugar

½ litre fresh lemon juice

Method

Put sugar in a pan and add one glass of water to make a syrup. Stir well over a low heat until when you take a spoonful of the syrup and let it fall from the spoon it falls in one line. Then add the lemon juice, stir well and when the liquid boils remove it from the heat.(Don’t over heat or it will become sour.)

Let this cool and when cold bottle it and store for later use.

To drink: - 1 glass of water to 1 tbsp lemon sharbet over ice.

If you are on a weight loss diet, drink one glass every morning instead of breakfast.

This has Taste and is a Treat.