Description of peach palm fruits, taste and aroma characteristics. Chemical composition, benefits and harms. How are palm peaches eaten? Popular recipes. Note! Fruits have immune-correcting, strengthening, analgesic, hemostatic and regenerating properties.
Contraindications and harm of peach palm fruits
It is strictly contraindicated to use them for people with an allergic reaction to these fruits, which usually looks like redness and itching of the skin, irritation of the nasal mucosa and sore throat. The product must be included in the menu for pregnant women and the elderly very carefully. It is also worth doing this with great care for any diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
To exclude harm from the fruits of the peach palm, you need to try not to eat them in the morning. Before that, you should either have breakfast with something else, or, in extreme cases, drink a glass of warm water, which will eliminate irritation of the gastric mucosa with fruit pulp.
How is peach palm fruit eaten?
They are practically not eaten raw because of their specific taste. Before cooking, the fruit is poured with water and left for 1-2 hours, after which it is dried and boiled in salted water for 2-3 hours. They are served hot, most often with some kind of gravy.
Equally popular is the combination of pulp with cheese and mayonnaise. It can be boiled, fried, stewed. The peel from the fruit and seeds are always removed. They are used to prepare wine, various soft drinks, desserts. There is also experience in making oil and flour based on the product.
Peach Palm Recipes
You need to take only fresh, raw fruits, not covered with mold and with a rather tough skin, which, moreover, should be smooth. They can be added to completely different dishes - salads, desserts and even soups. They can be fried, stewed, boiled, stuffed and baked in the oven, they turn out to be very tasty and healthy.
Of all the recipes with peach palm fruits, you can suggest the following:
- Jam … Wash the "peaches" (1 kg), dry them, cut them in half and remove the seeds. Then grind, add boiled water (50 ml) and cook over low heat for 20 minutes. After a large amount of juice appears in the saucepan, stir the mixture and remove it from the stove. Then combine sugar (300 g) and warm water (100 ml), boil the mixture and mix with boiled palm fruits. After that, put the mass on the fire again and do not remove for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly with a spoon. After this time, beat it with a blender, pour it into clean glass jars with a volume of 0.5 liters and roll up with sterilized lids. Dip the ready-made jam into the basement, turn the jars upside down and leave in this form for 2-3 days.
- Cheesecake without baking … Dissolve gelatin (20 g) in cold water (100 ml) and let it swell for about 30 minutes. Do the same with the same amount of gelling agent, only this time using canned pineapple syrup as the liquid. Next, crumble some shortbread cookies as small as possible without any additives and put them in a baking dish covered with special paper. Then combine the sugar (120 g), liquid cream (100 ml), vanillin (1 tsp) and whisk with a blender. Bring the gelatin swollen in water to a boil and combine with cottage cheese, grated through a sieve. Mix these two compositions and fill them with the cookies previously laid out in the form, put it in the refrigerator. After 20 minutes, place the fruits cut in a semicircle around the edges and add the boiled gelatin soaked in syrup. Place the dish in the refrigerator for 3 hours to cool and set.
- Jam … Wash, peel and seed and chop the fruit (1.5 kg). Put them in a multicooker bowl, cover with sugar (700 g) and cook in the "Jam" mode for about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally and removing the resulting white film or foam. After this time, beat the mixture with a blender until a homogeneous gruel without lumps. Place the finished jam in sterilized jars, roll up the lids and put upside down for 2-3 days, then return to the normal position. It can be used both for greasing a slice of bread for tea, and adding as a filling to pies, pies, buns.
- Stuffed fruits … Wash and boil them together with the peel and bone (200 g) in salted water. Then peel them and beat with a blender. After that, stew white chicken meat (200 g), fry the mushrooms (150 g), grate hard cheese (150 g). Combine all this, season with grated garlic (3 cloves), sprinkle with pepper and salt to taste, pour sour cream (2 tablespoons). Then wash, cut the fruit in half and fill with the prepared mixture. Place them on a greased baking sheet and place in the hot oven for 15 minutes.
Note! The fruits tolerate heat treatment well, without losing their taste and usefulness. Moreover, after boiling, they become much softer and more pleasant in salads.
Interesting facts about the fruit of the peach palm
On one tree, an average of 7 clusters weighing up to 10 kg grow each year. The fruits have a diameter of about 5 cm and from the side are similar to ordinary peaches or apricots, which is why the plant got its name. In order for a person to be satiated, it is enough to eat 5-6 fruits at a time, which, by the way, in folk medicine serve to eliminate pain in the abdomen and head.
Ripe palm fruits remain usable for a short time, already 3-5 days after harvest, they become moldy or become soft. It is for this reason that it is almost impossible to find them fresh in those countries where this plant does not grow. Most often, fruits are sold in supermarkets canned in metal cans or on order in online stores.
Boiled fruits are very popular in Costa Rica, where vendors on the streets of the cities offer to try them as a snack. In Panama, besides people, parrots also love these fruits, for which they are used as food. By the way, harvesting is carried out here all year round, but it is especially rich in the period from October to November.
The palm tree is protected from animals by sharp thorns, which are used by the Indians for tattooing. They - those who live along the shores of the Amazon - call this plant peihuara, and for them the fruit of the tree is one of the staples in the food system.
What a peach tree looks like - watch the video:
We talked about how peach palm fruits are eaten, how they are best cooked and what to serve with. And it is obvious that there are a lot of options here, these fruits can easily replace ordinary peaches or apricots, they do not lose to them either in taste, or in benefits, or in ease of preparation. One has only to try them once to be convinced of this.
