Translate Page

Search

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

What is Chives?

By Timothy Tungsten

Garlic is native to the steppes of the Djungar and Kirghiz region of central Asia, from where the Mongols soon introduced it to China. It was also cultivated on a large scale in ancient Egypt.

In the year 812 Charlemagne, aware of its culinary and medicinal properties (the essential oil it contains is still used to relieve flatulence), ordered that it be grown on his estates. It was believed to silence rumblings in the stomach, stop hiccups, and prevent the formation of intestinal gas; burnt seeds if placed on a wound were said to promote rapid healing. Nowadays dill is naturalized and grown not only throughout Europe but also in America and the West Indies.

Nowadays garlic is widely used as seasoning throughout the world, but it is used most by the peoples of southern Europe, north Africa and South America. It plays an important role in lands noted for their excellent cuisine, from France to China. Its uses are many: crushed together with salt in green salads; as seasoning for sauces, vegetables and meat dishes (beef and mutton), sausages and salamis, and fish. Besides being a seasoning it also has many important medicinal properties; it prevents flatulence and destroys intestinal parasites, checks the growth of bacteria, and is used in the treatment of arteriosclerosis. The chief exporting countries are USA (California), Egypt, Bulgaria, Hungary and Taiwan.

Dill is exceptionally good when combined with cream sauces and soups, cream cheese and butter, or with vinegar salad dressings. It is also used as a seasoning with raw vegetables, boiled meat and fish. A simple but tasty dish is boiled and buttered new potatoes or string beans with dill. As a rule it is not used with other herbs because of its distinctive aroma.

In order to have fresh dill in the garden the whole year round it should be sown in succession from March till late July. The leaves will be ready for picking within six weeks of sowing. Dill is an annual herb and plants sown in spring produce seeds in the autumn of the same year.

Wild chives occur in several forms: with leaves rounded to greatly flattened and flowers ranging in colour from white to dark pink. Unlike the leaves, the flowering stems are not hollow. Cultivated varieties are generally larger and more robust but wild chives make an equally good seasoning.

About the Author:

0 comments:

Disclaimer;

Information contained in this blog are published only for reference purpose. Brand Pile Blog owner and http://www.brandpile.com/ website will not be held responsible for using information obtained on this blog that have resulted with budget/health loss or misinformation. Visitors are encouraged to do more trough research before any important decision for them.

No.1. Affiliate Program