is there any information on how exactly chilim used?
Chilim, or
Floating Rogue, or
Floating water walnut, or
Damn nut (lat.Trápa nátans) - annual aquatic plant; a species of the genus Rogulnik of the Derbennikovye family, originating from the southern regions of Eurasia and Africa.
It grows in lakes, creeks and oxbows of slowly flowing rivers, grows up to 5 m in length. The plant has a characteristic fruit resembling the head of a bull, with one large starchy seed. For this seed, the plant has been cultivated in China for at least three thousand years. Chilim seed is cooked and eaten as a light snack.
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Stone Age alienWe will preface the conversation about this amazing plant with a small story-reality of the writer Yuri Dmitriev "Chilim", which was published twenty years ago and came to mind today quite aptly. Using a historical example, he once again convinces how it is necessary for all of us to know well the wild-growing edible plants.
"... It was during the civil war. Sergei Mironovich Kirov was then in Astrakhan and directed the defense of the city. And the situation in the city was very difficult. Astrakhan was cut off from its own people, and no one could get into the city or leave it. in the military language, this is called a blockade.
The White Guards really needed to capture Astrakhan. Firstly, it is a large city with many factories and factories, and secondly, Astrakhan is located at the very mouth of the Volga, and not a single ship can enter or leave the Volga without passing by Astrakhan.Therefore, the White Guards threw huge forces to capture the city. However, its defenders, led by Kirov, turned the city into an impregnable fortress.
But if the White Guards could not approach Astrakhan either from the sea or from land, then another enemy, stronger than the White Guards, had already entered the city. It was hunger.
Every day, less and less bread was left in the surrounded city. And then the moment came when Kirov was informed that the flour would last only a few days. What to do? It seems there was no way out.
However, it was not for nothing that everywhere, wherever Sergey Mironovich came, he became a friend of all ordinary people. They went to him not only for help and advice. People themselves sought to help their leader if he found himself in a difficult situation. And Sergei Mironovich listened attentively to the advice of workers, peasants and soldiers.
It happened this time too. Sergei Mironovich was holding a meeting with the leaders of the defense, when they reported that some old man urgently wanted to see him. And he wants to see right now. Kirov ordered that the old man be admitted immediately.
The old man entered the office, greeted everyone and put a small oblong object on the table.
“Here,” he said. Everyone looked at each other in surprise.
“It's a water nut,” one of those present remarked.
- Right, - the old man nodded, - water nut. Chilim.
Tired of sleepless nights, preoccupied with the plight in the city, some of the participants in the meeting were indignant: here it is about life and death, and the old man came with some nonsense. But Sergei Mironovich sternly cut off the indignant and asked the old man to continue.
And the old man said that this nut has long been known among the people. Now only boys get it for fun. And earlier, in the years of famine, the people were saved from death thanks to this nut. After all, flour is obtained from it, which is quite suitable for baking bread. True, this bread will be worse, of course, than wheat or rye, but it is quite suitable for eating. And in terms of nutritional value, it will not yield to the present!
Kirov's eyes sparkled with joy:
- Is there a lot of this chilim here?
- Wow! - the old waved his hand. - For a year, or even more. You just, Mironych, give the command - I'll show you the place.
On the same day, the White Guard observers were very surprised by the movement on the river. Through binoculars it was possible to clearly see dozens of boats, from which people were jumping and catching something in the water.
How could the White Guards know that, on the advice of the old worker and on the orders of Kirov, the defenders of Astrakhan mined "water bread", which helped them to defend the city, which received the name of the Fortress on the Volga. "
Not all of us even had the chance to see "water bread", and even more so to eat it, because because of the predatory harvest, it has become a rare and inaccessible plant on the Don. And yet it can still be found in quiet shallow water bodies in the Vesheki region, sometimes in a number of places along the Seversky Donets and in the lower reaches of the Don. Nevertheless, we will tell about chilim everything that we know about it in order to draw attention to this very interesting, very useful, but disappearing plant from the face of the earth, and at least to some extent contribute to its revival.
Chilim, or as it is also called - water nut, ragulnik, batlachik, horned nut, water chestnut and even the devil's nut - is a very ancient plant, relict. It occupied fresh water bodies of the planet seventy million years ago, that is, it lived even in the interglacial period and served as a constant food for primitive man.
Not many plants of the earth have withstood such a long test of time, and it is all the more offensive to lose it now and lose it forever. And this can easily happen if you continue to mindlessly exterminate it, not caring about reproduction.
The water nut prefers slow steppe rivers, shallow, quiet backwaters, lakes with stagnant water, estuaries, floodplains and even artificial reservoirs. Its diamond-shaped dense leaves are very reminiscent of birch leaves.They gather in neat rounded rosettes that do not sink even with great excitement, because the petioles of their leaves contain airborne tissue and, moreover, are connected to the underwater plant stem. In the center of such a rosette, small white flowers are located in the axils of the leaves. These flowers live for only a few hours: they bloom at sunrise and soon submerge in water. How their pollination takes place remains a mystery. The flowers are thought to self-pollinate and often under water.
The fruit of chilim - a drupe with a delicious nut-bone - is also born under water. It is rather large, up to 5 cm long, with three to four curved horns resembling anchor paws, and covered with a strong shell.
The leaves and stem become crimson-red by autumn and die off. Nuts fall to the bottom, are fixed by horns and germinate in spring. Each such new plant produces up to fifteen nuts. Their nuclei are very nutritious. They contain 52% starch, 3% sugar, 7.5% fat, up to 15% protein and could be a good help in our diet, especially since the artificial cultivation of chilim is not difficult. In shallow water, nuts are immersed in silt, one fruit per square meter (ten thousand pieces per hectare). The yield of water walnuts is quite high - up to 85 fruits per square meter.
Chillim leaves are excellent livestock feed. In addition, they have medicinal properties and have been used since ancient times in folk medicine for snake bites, for the treatment of rabies, dysentery and other diseases. Scientific medicine has obtained the drug trapazid from chilim leaves, which is effective against atherosclerosis. In China, India, Japan and other countries of the East and Africa, water walnut is essentially introduced into the culture. There, freshwater reservoirs are divided into sections and everyone who has a chilim plantation takes care of planting it and harvesting it in time. In these countries, the water nut is not threatened with destruction, because it has become a common food of the people there and is constantly reproduced.
What can be made from chilimFirst of all, waternuts are eaten raw as we eat, for example chestnuts, which are very similar in taste to chillim. They eat waternuts boiled in salted water and baked in ash, like potatoes. Finally, chilim kernels are ground into flour or cereals, and here there are unlimited possibilities for the culinary creativity of any housewife. Cook whatever you want: soups, dumplings, cereals, casseroles, jelly, pancakes and even bread, which, according to many, is quite tasty and very similar to wheat. So the magazine "Chemistry and Life" was absolutely right in convincing its readers that "from chilim it is possible without much effort to compose a menu of a whole dinner and quite delicious." And he offers: for the first course - soup or fish soup with a water nut instead of potatoes, for the second - pancakes made from kernels crushed into flour or crushed nuts, boiled like porridge, and on the third - nut kernels dried in the sun. And all this, of course, with bread baked from chillim flour with the addition of wheat.
In India, chillim is eaten with salt and pepper, stewed and bread is baked, as was done in ancient Thrace, and in the Middle Ages in France, Italy, Yugoslavia and other European countries. Today Chilim is especially revered in the East.
Chillim pureeCut the peeled chilim kernels into slices, pour in milk, cover tightly and cook for 30-40 minutes. Then rub through a sieve together with milk, adding butter, sugar and heat, stirring occasionally. Ready-made puree can be used as a side dish for meat and poultry dishes, as well as as an independent dish.
Product consumption: chilim-200 g, milk - 150 g, butter -15 g, sugar -5 g, salt to taste.
Chilim in milkPour the prepared chilim kernels with milk and cook for 30-40 minutes until soft. Add butter, mix with flour, salt and sugar, stir well.
Consumption of products: chillim kernels-200 g, milk -100 g, butter -15 g, flour -5 g, sugar -5 g, salt to taste.
Chilim stewed with celeryPour chilim with meat broth, add chopped and sautéed celery, salt and simmer over low heat until soft for 30-40 minutes in a saucepan covered with a lid. Pour the prepared chillim with tomato sauce and boil slightly.
Serve as a separate dish or as a side dish.
Product consumption: chillim - 200 g, celery - 25 g, broth - 50 g, butter - 15 g, tomato sauce -50 g, salt to taste.
Chillim stew with applesPour boiling water over the peeled chillim and simmer in a sealed container until tender. Add butter, sugar, apples, peeled and seeds, cut into thin slices, and continue simmering until the apples are tender.
Product consumption: chilim-100 g, apples - 100 g, butter -15 g, sugar -10 g.
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