What is Momordica Cochin, the main properties and the possibility of use. How locals eat it and recipes for Europeans. Interesting facts growing in cool climates. Also in the pulp and seeds of bitter gourd: riboflavin, niacin, ascorbic acid, phosphorus, nickel, manganese, magnesium, iodine, copper, sodium, glutamic acid and 59 other useful substances.
Hook seeds have nutritional value. The oil that is made from them is rich in vitamin E, lycopene and beta-carotene, which is 2 times more than in mackerel liver. That is why Momordica Kokhinhinskaya has received official recognition in medicine in China and India, and it is used as an ingredient for the manufacture of medicines.
Useful properties of Momordika Cochinchinskaya
Already by the unique chemical composition, one can see how useful it is to eat bitter gourd.
The benefits of Momordika Cochinchino:
- It has an antitumor effect, prevents oncological diseases of the intestines and female reproductive organs.
- Increases overall immunity and body tone.
- Helps stay healthy during the epidemic season as it has antiviral and antibacterial properties.
- Increases the level of hemoglobin, stimulates the production of red blood cells, normalizes blood clotting.
- Regulates insulin levels, normalizes blood sugar levels and prevents the development of hypoglycemic coma.
- Reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary artery disease, stroke and heart attack, atherosclerosis.
- It has an anesthetic effect, helps to get rid of headaches.
- Improves the condition of rheumatism, eliminates muscle pain and aching joints.
- Accelerates the regeneration of the skin after acne or purulent-inflammatory processes.
- Eliminates edema, including those provoked by impaired lymphatic processes in the subcutaneous tissue, causing cellulite.
- Prevents the development of depression, eliminates insomnia.
- Accelerates metabolic processes, helps the body to cleanse itself of toxins.
- It has an antioxidant effect, isolates and removes free radicals from the intestines and liver. Restores hepatocytes and accelerates the excretion of metabolite products from the liver.
- Stimulates the production of local immunity of the mucous membrane of the digestive organs, prevents the development of gastritis and peptic ulcer.
- Improves visual function and keeps the optic nerve in working order.
- Accelerates recovery from "childhood" infections: measles, scarlet fever, mumps and chickenpox.
- Prevents the development of complications after diphtheria and pneumonia.
- It normalizes the water-electrolyte balance in case of intestinal infections, stops diarrhea, and replenishes the reserve of the body exhausted by the disease with nutrients.
- Calms the nervous system and restores healthy sleep.
Momordica Kokhinhinskaya for women is of the greatest value. The introduction of the product into the diet helps to quickly get rid of excess weight, accelerates metabolic processes, prevents age-related changes, and stimulates the production of collagen and elastin.
External application of pumpkin juice and decoctions from leaves restores the quality of the skin, heals burns, prevents the formation of mildews and blackheads - comedones, helps to quickly get rid of dermatitis of various etiologies. It is recommended to wipe the delicate baby skin with prickly heat and bedsores in bedridden patients with a decoction of Momordica.
Harm and contraindications to momordika kokhinhinskaya
If the inhabitants of Asia eat it raw, then for Europeans this option is hardly possible. The pulp is bitter, and the tastes of the inhabitants of Asia and Europe differ significantly.
Overeating is not limited to the use of Momordika Kochin. This product should not be introduced into the diet:
- During pregnancy, since the tonic properties are so high that they can provoke uterine tone and abortion;
- During lactation, an allergic reaction may develop in a child;
- A child under the age of 3 years, since there are too many in the composition of various components and it is impossible to predict their effect on the body;
- With too sensitive mucous membrane of the larynx, so as not to provoke perspiration.
Overeating should be avoided:
- With cholelithiasis and urolithiasis, so as not to provoke the release of calculi;
- With intestinal diverticulosis with localization of diverticulums in the rectum, with an increase in the speed of peristalsis, they will not have time to be released and colic will appear;
- During menstruation, so as not to lengthen the cycle and not to provoke bleeding.
It should be very careful to introduce the pulp of Momordica Cochinchino into the diet, this product often causes allergic reactions in people who are not accustomed to it. The most common symptom is diarrhea.
Recipes with Momordika Kokhinhinskaya
In India, China, Vietnam and many countries of the East, the concept of "tasty" is treated differently than in Europe. "Tasty" and "useful" must be combined, otherwise the product is simply abandoned. Often, not pulp is introduced into the diet, but seed oil, using it as a salad dressing.
Recipes with Momordika Cochinchinskaya:
- Warm vegetable salad … In order for the pulp to lose its bitterness, it is pre-soaked in salted water for 4-5 hours. Then the pumpkin is cut into strips, the green chili pod into small rings, and the usual onion into half rings. The pan is heated, vegetables are fried until soft in vegetable oil, and salted. Cut the beet tops into ribbons, make a pillow out of it on a plate, spread vegetable frying on top. Garnished with fresh tomato slices and poured over the fat on which the vegetables were fried. Instead, you can use sunflower oil heated to body temperature.
- Roasted Momordica Seeds … The seeds are carefully removed from the fruit so as not to damage the thin burgundy shell. Prepare breading - beat eggs with flour, adding a little sour cream or milk. You can add a little salt, although the locals believe that salt only spoils the original taste. Roll the breaded seeds and fry until golden brown. Serve as a side dish or as a separate dish.
- Momordica caviar … The pulp is soaked in salted water, cut into small pieces. Chop the onion, grate the carrots. Ingredient proportions: 600 g hook pulp, 3 medium carrots, 2 onions, 6 cloves of garlic. Vegetables are fried in sunflower oil until soft in a closed pan, salted and pepper to taste. Grind until smooth with a blender or an ordinary fork.
- Pickled hook … Use the pulp of unripe fruit. The lumpy skin is cut in a thick layer to remove the main bitterness. Cut the pumpkin into pieces, trying to keep them all the same size, otherwise they will not marinate evenly. Liter jars are sterilized, spread on the bottom of a currant leaf, dill, 1 large momordica seed, and pumpkin slices on top. The marinade is cooked: 1 tablespoon of salt, sugar and vinegar for 1 liter of water. The vinegar is added just before turning off. Pumpkin is poured with boiling marinade and the jars are tightened with sterilized lids.
- Momordica with rice … The dish is very simple and hearty. Residents of Asian countries cook pieces of raw pumpkin along with rice over low heat, without first soaking. As a flavor improver, seeds are added to the pan 10 minutes before cooking. You can salt, pepper, add any spices and herbs to a ready-made dish.
- Cold bitter gourd jam … The pulp of the fruit is soaked in cold salted water, washed and spread on paper towels. Wait until the excess liquid is absorbed. They clean lemons and sweet oranges from peels and seeds; if possible, it is necessary to remove white fibers and films. Turn everything together in a meat grinder, cover it with sugar and let it brew until the sugar has completely melted. Then they put it on ice. Number of ingredients: 1 pumpkin, 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 kg of sugar.
The seeds can not only be fried, they are boiled, they are added whole to soups and salads. To taste, they are combined with fresh coconut, fried and boiled pork, unsweetened yogurt, tomatoes and cucumbers. The grated seeds are added to baked goods - buns and cookies.
The pulp can be eaten raw by choosing chunks near the seeds. Locals generously add it to almost all salads, because “useful” for them means “delicious”.
Interesting facts about Momordika Cochin
The name Momordica comes from the Latin word for "bite." The outline of the leaves resembles a dog bite mark.
Momordika Cochinha is so often mentioned in Indian folklore that Kipling used it to describe the color of India in the famous "Jungle Book" about Mowgli. "And the courtyards will be overgrown with Karelian, bitter Karelian" - a line from the ballad, which Kipling dedicated to the description of the future of the village, abandoned by the inhabitants (translated by S. G. Zaimovsky).
Dried bitter gourd pulp is a must in Indian curry.
In India, Karelians braided the doorways of temples with whips.
In Thailand, the gak is called the heavenly fruit. Interestingly, the seed shells seem tasteless to Europeans. But locals rate the taste as spicy and melon.
In ancient China, pumpkin was specially prepared for the many members of the Chinese emperor's family, and the commoners were forbidden to eat it on pain of death.
The gak scatters its seeds in the same way as a mad cucumber: the fruit opens into 3 parts, and the seeds are thrown out with force, however, they do not fly farther than 40-100 cm.
To avoid bitterness, fruits that are later used for food are harvested 10-12 days after formation. The peel has not yet acquired a bright orange hue, but all the beneficial substances in the pulp are already present. The pericarp has already acquired its ruby color.
The earlier the fruits are removed, the more new ovaries appear and the more active fruiting will be.
It is not difficult to get a harvest of Momordika Kokhinha - it is enough to follow the recommendations for growing ordinary cucumbers. The main thing is to prevent temperature differences and ensure stable temperature conditions from + 15 ° С. Large seeds are soaked before planting, then planted in a humus pot and only then transferred to the soil.
Watch a video about Momordica Cochin:
At present, the plant has already "conquered" the greenhouses of the Urals and is moving on. Momordika Kokhinkhinskaya attracts with decorative qualities and useful properties. Maybe very soon vases with bitter gourds will replace pots with aloe on the windowsills of apartments.