Description of the "royal berry", distribution area. Calorie content of cloudberries, composition and useful properties, harm from use. Dishes from northern berries, interesting facts and peculiarities of the collection. External use of cloudberry juice has an anti-inflammatory and regenerating effect, increases blood clotting, accelerates healing in case of damage to the skin.
For burns and wounds, all parts of the northern berry are used as a dressing.
Harm and contraindications to the use of cloudberries
Recovering with cloudberries is not available to everyone. In most cases, a negative reaction of the body to berries is provoked by overeating: drupes irritate the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines, nausea and vomiting may appear. But even the limited use of berries has contraindications. These include:
- Peptic ulcer and gastritis with high acidity;
- Chronic colitis and enterocolitis with a tendency to diarrhea;
- Diseases of the kidneys and liver at the stage of exacerbation, hepatic and renal failure;
- Individual intolerance.
It is possible to reduce the harm and negative effect on the body by processing berries: the juice irritates the digestive tract less, and heat treatment stops the function of stimulating hydrochloric acid.
But nutritionists warn that even cloudberries prepared for future use should be consumed with a restriction - no more than 800 g per week. The volume of fresh berries in the weekly daily menu, even in a healthy person, should not exceed 500 g. These portions are eaten several times - no more than 100 g per "one sitting".
Cloudberry recipes
The most useful is fresh cloudberry, ground with sugar. It is also harvested in the form of all kinds of jam - jam, marmalade, confiture, stewed fruit and pickled. Modern haute cuisine introduces the northern berry as an ingredient in sauces.
Cloudberry recipes:
- Simple jam … The berries are covered with sugar - 1 to 1, left for a day so that the juice stands out. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the syrup thickens. This recipe is used for all juicy berries.
- Medicinal jam … The proportions of berries and sugar are the same as in the previous recipe, and the preparation method is different. First, the syrup is boiled - 1 kg of sugar per glass of water, then the berries are poured with the syrup and boiled for no more than 15 minutes. Rolled up in sterilized jars, stored in a cool place.
- Delicate jam … Additional ingredients for sugar and berries - white wine, 1, 5 cups, and half a lemon. The washed cloudberries must be dried by spreading them out on a paper towel - you can leave them in a sieve to drain the water, but this will take more time. The berries are laid out in a saucepan, poured over with lemon juice and covered with half of the sugar. Leave the workpiece overnight, covered with gauze. In the morning, the cloudberries, which have released the juice, are boiled over low heat for up to 20 minutes - the "bulbs" should be small, the berries are trying to keep intact. At the very end of cooking, pour in wine, stir gently and wait until the contents of the pan boil. The berries are removed with a colander, laid out in jars - approximately filling them by half, and the second half of the sugar is poured into the pan and the syrup is boiled for another 10 minutes. Jars of berries are poured with boiling syrup, the lids are rolled up. Turn the cans over and let cool under the covers.
- Cloudberry sauces … For meat, usually for venison, the sauce is prepared according to the following recipe: mix demi-glace sauce, cloudberry jam and red wine, proportions - 2 to 1 to 4; cook for 10 minutes to thicken the sauce. If you need to set off the taste of the fish, a different recipe is used. Grind a glass of cloudberries, mix with half a glass of fatty sour cream, add lemon pepper, honey - less than a teaspoon, a little hot tomato sauce - to taste. Achieve a homogeneous structure and put it in the refrigerator for half an hour - cool. Served with hot fish.
- Confiture … Ingredients: berries - 0.5 kg, apples - 1 kg, brown crystalline sugar - 0.8 kg, lime - 1 piece, "Bianco" (martini) - 2.5 tablespoons. You need to grind the cloudberries in mashed potatoes, then pass through a sieve 2-3 times to remove all traces of berries, beat the berry puree in a blender to get an airy homogeneous structure. The apples are cut into small cubes, after removing the peel. You can grate them - if you feel sorry for the time, only in this case the structure of the classic jam is broken. Mix cloudberry puree with sugar, pour in lime juice, add zest, put on fire, bring to a boil, stirring constantly, pour apples into a saucepan. Boil for 15 minutes, constantly remove the foam, then allow to cool. Put the container on the fire again and boil again for 15 minutes, let it cool again and boil again for 10 minutes with the addition of martini. The jam is laid out in sterilized jars.
- Soaked cloudberry … This type of harvesting was the most popular in the pre-canned era. For 1 liter of water - 200 g of sugar. The number of berries - so that the sugar water covers the surface by 2 fingers. The wooden tub is cleanly washed, ripe, but not overripe berries are poured into it, filled with syrup and covered with a lid, on which oppression (load) is installed. You can enjoy the berry for the new year. Store in a cellar.
- Pickled cloudberries … It is unlikely that the owners of modern city apartments have a cellar, so they pickle cloudberries. The marinade is boiled at the rate of: a liter of water, 10 allspice peas and 8 pcs. cloves, a teaspoon of vinegar essence, half a cinnamon stick, 2 tbsp. l. granulated sugar. First, sugar syrup is boiled, then it is filtered through cheesecloth, spices are added, boiled again, diluted with water - 1 to 10, left to brew for 12 hours under a tight lid. Clean berries are laid out in jars, poured with boiling marinade and sterilized under lids for about 10 minutes. Then the jars are rolled up.
Cloudberry is a tender berry. It is impossible to keep it fresh - after 3-4 hours it turns into mash. To cook the jam, you need to prepare everything for the syrup in advance. It is best to warn your family in advance that you are returning home with a "catch", then you can be sure of the high quality of the harvest.
If you plan to pickle or harvest a berry in the form of compotes, then you can pick it up unripe, reddish-orange - such a product is stored longer.
Interesting facts about cloudberries
The biological name of the species is made up of two words-concepts: Greek, meaning spreading on the ground, Latin "morus" - the literal name of the mulberry. It turns out that cloudberry is a mulberry that creeps along the ground.
The Slavs called the chameleon berry "marsh eyes", "marsh guard" and "marsh amber", respectfully called it "royal berry". Chameleon - because first the colors change during flowering - from green to pinkish and white, and then the berries - green, white, red and only then orange.
In Russia, kvass from cloudberries was always served at the tsar's table. Before his death, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, the great Russian poet, asked his wife for pickled berries.
On one side of Finland's euro coins, there is an image of cloudberries - designed by the architect Raimo Heino in 1990.
For a hike in the forest, it is better to choose evening or morning time, before the dew falls. If you plan to use cloudberries for medicinal purposes, then it is better to pluck with sepals.
You need to take dishes with low sides with you and lay out the berries in a thin layer. If you take buckets or cans with you, like when picking cranberries or lingonberries, you will bring porridge home. When collecting cloudberries, you need to avoid places that are near industrial facilities - berries absorb pollution from the air and from the soil. Berry picking is the end of July and the beginning of August. Two weeks, and the creeping lashes crumble.
With an exacerbation of urolithiasis or with the appearance of edema, you can dig up fresh roots at any time of the year. However, traditional healers believe that it is better to harvest plant parts for future use during flowering.
Watch a video about cloudberry berry: