Amaranth romance
Our affair with Amaranth began long before Pseudo-Ziarna became a fashionable element for gluten-free people. Random leaves of this annual plant are not only a lot of health benefits – high levels of protein and calcium, AIDS in digestion and slimming, and helps to improve vision to mention only a few. They are also delicious!
Remember to cook them first to soften the texture, and then include it in your favorite summer dish, just like this Amaranth Greens with the Sumac Schwarm spice recipe.
The following fragment comes from Certainty, harvest, feast By Marie Viljoen. Has been adapted to the network.
Amaranth
Other common names: Pigweed, Callaloo, Chinese spinach
Botanical names: Amaranthus hybridusIN A. retroflexusIN A. PalmeriIN A. Viridisand other species
Status: Universal annual weeds, some species are ubiquitous exotic, some are native, some are grown as crops
Where: Gardens, open terrain, fields, farmers’ markets, ethnic markets
Season: In mid -summer until delayed summer
Exploit: Vegetable, pseudograin
Parts used: Tender stems, leaves, flowers and seeds
Grow? Yes
It tastes like: Chard land
There are over sixty species of Amaranians (forty -seven in the United States), not counting hybrids, and they are all edible.
But amaranth causes conflicting reactions of people: love, hatred and – mainly in the United States – complete indifference. Crazy as pseudoceal, they are respected. People with nice leaves (Amaranthus Tricolor– Popular crops in China and Southeast Asia) are more and more grown for food. The most effective members of the Genesis-Supermodels with red resulting from them known jointly as a red amaranth (A. Hybridus) – were domesticated centuries ago. Their seeds were the laborious basis of the Aztec diet. However, a few buyers of the first twenty, who buy fashionable, gluten-friendly seeds, recognize their cousins-played plants decaying in their gardens and courtyards, or ignored weeds blooming next to the pavements in the pits on the city’s trees. It would consider growing or collecting them to eat less.
These are low forecasts. They look uninvited in gardens and crops, where they meet with a flood more and more ineffective and virulent poisons. The threshold guides are often considered toxic to farm animals, because they absorb so much nitrogen from the exploit of synthetic fertilizer – conversion to nitrates – that it becomes a reflection of our agricultural abuse. The plant revers us, giving us as good as possible. But Pigweed is ubiquitous, which means that there are many places away from conventional agricultural places where you can collect plants unscathed – Delicious and ripe for collecting.
There are cultures that recognize the value of these Amaranians. They are essential deciduous crops in regions as diverse as East Africa, India and China. In Cape Tipi Titoti, which is Amaxhosa, he taught me to create a customary rural stew based on edible wild greens, known collectively (in the same way as Greek Horta) as Morogo. Pasted amaranth (humor) is a valued ingredient. Boiled in a little water until tender, with a little potatoes or meal (Corn flour or grit, in the United States), and there is nothing more than salt as spices, creates a comforting and nutritious stew. He fed families when the lard was naked. And if you have to eat food because you are impoverished, you can learn to despise it when the times are better. I have South African friends who don’t like to eat Amaranth because it reminds them of the past.
Sonisty in Jamaica Callaloo It refers to both stew and two edible greenery, on which: Amarant and Taro, which form his stuffy and deciduous base. When I lived in Harlem, I was able to buy lush groups from Greenmarket Amaranth from a farmer born in the Caribbean, who develops them in Up-to-date York. The local grocery store sold them at 125th street. Ethnic markets and foodstuffs are often the only commercial source of wild greenery.
Amarantics are generous summer plants, growing in warm months, when good good spinach and chard, and even lamb quarters gave up the spirit. Their somewhat scratchy raw consistency begs for cooking and I think they are honestly more attractive than cooked spinach. Cooked, both adolescent and ripe greens are tender and bland in taste. Attach them to the dishes in which Swiss Chard, spinach or beets leaves.
Flowers and seeds of delayed summer have a different, more granular consistency, which is very attractive (and also nutritious, containing many minerals, as well as protein).
How to collect and prepare
Amarantics are one of the few plants that accumulate bulky metals to a high level. Boiling does not affect bulky metal levels. Avoid collecting amarants from the edge of the highway or aged industrial places. Also avoid arable fields subjected to high doses of synthetic fertilizers.
Choose fragile stems, leaves, flowers and seeds. At home, refresh the imprisoned amaranth, immersing it in a bowl of frigid water. Reject tough stems that will not fall apart in cooking. If you are deeply patient, collect the seeds, shaking your head with ripe in a paper bag.
The potentially high level of nitrates, as well as oxalic acid (as in spinach), are reduced by cooking. Cook the amaranth for a few minutes, drain, refresh under chilly water and squeeze parched.
Care
Do not feed babies: Infants under the age of six months have digestive bacteria that transform nitrates into nitrites, which are potentially carcinogenic and can also cause hunger for oxygen in the blood. Before children are six months aged, acid levels in digestive systems grow and kill these bacteria. Be careful if you breastfeed. High and recurrent consumption of amaranth can be anti-nut in adults, as it can prevent the absorption of certain nutrients.
Amaranth Greens from Sumac Schwarma Spice
Serves 4 as a side
These inspired Schwarm Greens are such an unexpected hit at home that I do this dish with every greenery when it appears in the season. He is perfect, frigid, eaten with a pile of ordinary yogurt. An additional mix of spices in a tight jar. It lasts many months and is divine with a slowly roasted lamb or chicken or mixed in dip yogurt.
Ingredients
Wild Schwarma Spice Mix
Wild Schwarma Spice Mix1 tablespoon Sumak
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground spices
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1/4 teaspoon of terrestrial cloves
3 Cardamom seeds
Amaranth Greens
12 ounces (340 g) Amaranth leaves, fragile stems or floral heads
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of the wild mix of Schwarm spices
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Topping
1/3 cup yogurt (80 ml)
3 tablespoons of water
1/8 teaspoon of salt with ramp leaves
Procedure
Combine the spices in a diminutive bowl and mix very well. Bring the average pot with water to boil and drop in the amaranth for 1 minute. Remove, drain and refresh with chilly water. Squeeze parched. Heat the oil in medium heat and add garlic in medium heat. Fry to translucent, then add amaranth. Add lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of spices and salt, stirring. Cook for 5 minutes.
In a diminutive bowl, lean the yogurt with water and mix until polished. Season with salt to the ramp. Pour amaranth before serving.