Description of the plant Brazilian cariocar and its edible fruit peki. Calorie content of tropical berries, useful properties, harm and contraindications for use. Recipes and interesting facts. External use of pequi stops the vital activity of the fungal flora.
Eating the fruit and rubbing it with oil increases muscle performance and relieves sprain pain and myalgia.
Harm and contraindications to the use of peki
Pequi fruits have a high calorie content, therefore, they should not be introduced into the diet of those who are losing weight. It is not recommended to abuse these berries for people with an inactive lifestyle in order to avoid the formation of body fat.
A contraindication to the use of peki is individual intolerance; allergic reactions in people unfamiliar to the product were common.
Care should be taken to feast on very tasty oily pulp with high blood clotting, with reduced immunity.
You should not start getting to know a new product during pregnancy - it is not known what effect this will have on the body. In addition, it should be remembered that in pregnant women, the viscosity of the blood increases, and the pequi fruits in their raw form or oil can provoke the development of varicose veins and a rapid transition to thrombophlebitis.
How to eat pekas and what to cook with fruits
In its raw form, the product is rarely used due to its too oily sharp taste, which is rarely liked by anyone.
Cooking consists of rinsing the thin skin and removing the bone. Do not try to spit it out by eating the fruit. The surface of the bone is covered with sharp thorns that get stuck in the gums or are embedded in the esophageal mucosa.
To obtain edible pequi seeds, the dense shell of the stone is cracked with an ordinary hammer or nutcracker, like apricot seeds. Do not use the "express method" and prick bones, spreading them in one layer under plastic wrap. Fragments of thorns are trapped in the pulp and the seeds become inedible.
Locals use berries to make cocktails, season with lightly fried or boiled pequi rice or beans. Also, sauces for fish and meat are prepared from the pulp. Salads are seasoned with oil from cariocar fruit.
Pequi recipes:
- Beer snack … Seeds are “extracted” from fruit seeds, fried in a dry frying pan until golden brown. There is no need to add oil, there is enough of it in the composition of the seeds. For flavor, you can sprinkle with salt, pepper mixture, dry garlic, or other seasonings. The snack tastes like roasted peanuts.
- Pequi beans … A glass of beans is soaked in cold water overnight and washed in the morning. Fry the pulp of the pequi in a pan without oil, so as to simmer a little. It is desirable to ensure that the harsh taste disappears. Peks are removed from the pan, onions are fried on it - no need to add oil. Pekui is added at the very end of boiling the beans, in 1-2 minutes, and together they are brought to full readiness. Mix with onions at the very end, after turning off the heat. Using the same algorithm, rice is combined with fruits.
- Warm salad … Ingredients: 5 pecky fruits and 10 pitted seeds, cherry tomatoes - 100 g, a small piece of camembert - 50-60 g, ground pepper, green salad - 4 leaves, some fresh cucumbers. The seeds are fried in a dry frying pan. Then the pulp of the pequi is spread on it and, when oil appears, it is removed from the heat and squeezed in mashed potatoes. Lettuce leaves are torn by hand, tomatoes, cucumbers and cheese are cut into small cubes. All ingredients are mixed, added and seasoned to taste. Before serving, the dish is placed in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. The oil contained in the fruit is sufficient for salad dressing.
- Seed salad … Caryocar seeds, about 50 g, are fried in a dry skillet. Chicken fillet is boiled or smoked chicken fillet is used. Lay out the salad in layers: 1 layer - diced chicken; 2nd layer - 2 boiled chicken eggs, mashed with a fork; 3rd layer - canned corn; Layer 4 - finely chopped white cabbage. You can coat each layer with mayonnaise or generously grease a layer of cabbage with sauce. Sprinkle the salad with fried pequi seeds on top and garnish with pieces of pulp. Thus, you can add exotic taste to a traditional European salad.
- Peka sauce … Seeds are removed from half of the chili peppers and the shell is cut into small ribbons. 1 clove of garlic and half of a small onion are interrupted in a blender, adding 1/3 cup of roasted pequi seeds to the bowl. The fruits of the cariocar are squeezed to obtain an oily juice, heated in a saucepan, and the mixture from a blender is put there. Pour into a saucepan 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, the same amount of hot chicken broth, a little transferred cilantro and a teaspoon of grated dark chocolate. Boil until thickened, filter, rubbing through a wire sieve with large cells. Serve sauce for lean meat or poultry.
Refried pequi seeds can be added to sweet batter for baking pies or cake layers. Locals flavor banana bread with cariocar flour.
Peks can be added to fruit cocktails. Drink recipes:
- Fruit cocktail … The pequi are soaked for 2-3 hours in cold water, washed thoroughly, and the bones are removed. Dates are also washed and also get rid of seeds. Then all the fruits are ground together in a blender. The pulp of the peka should be 2 times larger than the pulp of dates. It is diluted by half with cold mineral water without gas and filtered. The thick is thrown back, and the drink is again poured into the blender bowl, a banana, 0.5-1 vanilla pod and a little carob powder are put there. Beat until smooth. Consumed cold. To taste better, they first make a blank and put it in the refrigerator. Interrupt with seasonings just before serving.
- Chocolate cocktail … Pequi seeds, slightly dried in a pan, are interrupted in a blender along with a piece of banana and fig berries. For 10 seeds - 1 banana and 2 fig berries. Pour in a glass of water, add a tablespoon of cocoa and a little vanilla to taste. Interrupt until a homogeneous structure. Cool before serving and add ice to the drink. To achieve a special taste, the drink is salted.
Beverages made from pitches or containing cariocar oil should not be served in silver-alloyed metal containers. This darkens the noble metal.
Interesting facts about Brazilian cariocar
Due to the special strength of wood and the ability to resist decay, karyokar were ruthlessly cut down and practically destroyed in the middle of the twentieth century. Today it is included in the list of endangered plants. The export of timber is strictly prohibited, the plant is protected on the territory of Brazil, and its felling threatens with a long imprisonment.
Local healers used oily pulp and oil squeezed out of the fruit and seeds to treat lichens of various types in tribesmen and sunburns in Europeans. Shamans rubbed the skin with fruit pulp before rituals.
Before traveling through the selva, the pequi impregnated the skin with oil. Aboriginal clothing was limited to a loincloth, and the increased smoothness helped to avoid injury and cuts from thorn pricks of plants weaving into dense thickets. One of the European travelers, who hired a guide, a girl from a local tribe, before the long journey, described with surprise that the thorns tore the clothes of the white travelers and glided over the girl's naked chest without causing harm.
Fruit ripening depends on climatic conditions - the duration and abundance of tropical rains. The collection is quite laborious. Aboriginal people with wire baskets on their shoulders climb the trunk of the cariocar and collect bunches of fruits by hand. In the future, the fruits are sent for processing.
Industrial distillation of oil consists in squeezing fruits, with or without seeds, and squeezing in a centrifuge. Locals use the cold pressing method using a press.
Latin Americans who regularly consume cariocar fruits are distinguished by longevity, do not suffer from cardiovascular diseases, and have healthy, smooth skin. But at the same time, you can see that most are overweight, which, however, does not prevent them from moving freely.
The oil obtained from raw materials is thick, oily, transparent, with a golden hue. It is used in the cosmetic and medical industries. Cosmetic chemists use it as an ingredient in skin creams and masks, detergents and hair care cosmetics. Pharmacists add oil to dietary supplements used to prevent atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, hypertension.
The Indians learned to make soap from the pulp of pequi, which does not have a drying effect and protects from the scorching sun. Visitors are happy to buy a detergent with unique properties.
Watch a video about Peks:
If you manage to try pequi while traveling in the Southern countries, you should start with a small bite, so as not to provoke indigestion. Do not try to bring an oily berry to your loved ones, it spoils on the second day in the refrigerator. The best souvenir from hot countries will be soap. It will only be a pity to use it.
