Barberry is a healthy and tasty berry that has been used in cooking and medicine since ancient times. In this case, only ripe berries of the plant are used for cooking, and for medicinal purposes - practically all its parts: leaves, bark and roots.
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Berries of barberry are widely used in cooking. Of these, jams and preserves are boiled. Dried they are put in meat dishes, in pilaf, added to various sauces and marinades. Spice gives a pleasant aroma and beautiful color to the dish.
To cook Uzbek pilaf with barberry, take:
- 700 g of meat (lamb or beef);
- 3 large carrots;
- 3 heads of onions;
- 1 pc of sweet pepper;
- 2 glasses of rice;
- 2 handfuls of barberry;
- pepper, salt;
- Bay leaf;
- vegetable oil.
In a cauldron, heat the vegetable oil. Peel the meat from films and veins, cut into pieces and fry. Cut the vegetables into slices, chop the carrots into strips, and send everything to the dishes with meat. Mix the mass and put the barberry, bay leaf and spices. Salt. Pour water and simmer all together for 20 minutes.
Pour clean rice into the cauldron. Cover and cook pilaf until tender over low heat.
From barberry, excellent sauces are obtained with a kind of sourness, which gives them a berry. In Abkhazia a barberry is prepared from barberry called akatsakhur syzbal. To prepare this sauce, you will need the following ingredients:
- 1 kg of fresh berries of barberry;
- 2 tablespoons adjika;
- 2 glasses of water;
- a few leaves of mint.
Wash the berries of barberry and pour them into the pan. Pour in water, put mint leaves. Put the dishes on the fire and cook until the berries are soft. Crush the barberry and wipe the mass with a decoction through a sieve. Put adjika in mashed potatoes and mix everything. Serve akatsakhur syzbal to baked meat dishes.
In the original recipe, this is marsh mint, but you can use pepper, it will give an excellent fresh aroma to the sauce.
Barberry makes excellent refreshing drinks. Try to cook not only tasty, but also healthy kvass. Pour ripe berries in a jar. Their number should be half the volume of the tank. Pour barberry with cold boiled water and place in a cool dark place. In a couple of days, a refreshing and pleasant drink will be ready.
The berries of this wonderful plant have unique healing properties, they contain a huge amount of valuable substances: vitamin K, which is responsible for the blood coagulation processes in the body, pectin substances and sugars, mineral salts and many other useful elements.
Herb teas, decoctions and tinctures are prepared from the bark, roots and leaves of barberry. From the berries for medicinal purposes make syrup, compote or juice.
Barberry helps with external and internal bleeding, jaundice, diseases of the gallbladder and liver, has a choleretic effect, lowers blood pressure and stimulates the immune system, it is an excellent anti-inflammatory agent. The list of diseases in the treatment of which barberry is used can be continued for a long time.
Berries contain substances that remove toxins from the body and slow down the aging process. It is proven that they prevent the formation of cancer cells and atherosclerosis. Eat fresh berries of barberry, put them in dishes as a healthy and tasty seasoning, drink drinks and make vitamin tea from young leaves. With regular use of it in food, it will help to strengthen health and forget about many diseases for a long time.