Blood Amaranth
A Recipe for Immunity
On one of the days that I was in Kerala, I went to the vegetable garden my father tends, and harvested the tops of the Blood Amaranth plants. It has always been one of my favourite vegetables. Rich in calcium, potassium, copper, manganese, zinc and Lysine, as well as Vitamins A,B and K, they are powerful immunity boosters.
The blood amaranth seeds are sometimes crushed and used as cereal. The tiny seeds, full of nutritional bounty can also be used whole, in a variety of dishes. Combined and cooked with fresh jaggery , they make delectable sweets.
Breathe a prayer before you begin cooking. It helps you stay grounded, careful, and in the present.
Handle the amaranth leaves carefully. Try not to bruise them and make them bleed. Yet.
Examine each leaf. Pluck out and discard the ones with holes in them. check for foreign bodies. Discard leaves they have made houses on. Dunk the good leaves in a large vessel full of water, for ten minutes. Any traces of soil will have sunk to the bottom by then. Carefully, wash the leaves without disturbing the sediments overmuch. Take them out and lay them on a clean cotton cloth. Wrap them well.
Grate coconut. Cut green chillies into two, then slice them cleanly, end to end. The seeds should come rushing out, to see who had ‘so unkindly knocked.’ Run back into the vegetable patch, pinch off the top three stalks of the curry leaf plant, run back to the kitchen. Put in the grated coconut, the washed curry leaves, a pinch of salt, a pinch of turmeric powder, the slit green chillies, one clove of garlic, a pinch of cumin seed powder and seven, peeled baby shallots into a small hand-held stone mortar, and crush them all together, combining all of them into happy giggling camaraderie.
Slice the amaranth leaves and stalks as fine as your knife allows you. Put them into a wok. Into the cut leaves, pour in the prepared spices. Pour in two tablespoons of coconut oil. Mix them all with your palm and fingers, not a spoon or ladle. Allow your skin to understand the separate textures of the blood amaranth and all the spices that combine to make this a very rich marriage. What makes your fingers glad, will make your stomach glad.
Keep it aside for ten minutes. Then cook it, covered, for five minutes, and open, for five more. That’s it.
Wait a respectful five minutes, before serving this gift of love, gratitude, and nature’s bounty.
Blood red cooked stalks, the lighter red of the leaves, the intense green of the curry leaves, the softer green of the chillies, the aubergine shade of the minced, crushed shallots, the bone white of the garlic, tinged with crimson, and the grated coconut, now incarnadine, should all stand out, but stay together, like good friends, with their own identities.
Your daily dose of immunity served fresh, from farm, to table.
All who know me, know how much I swoon over blood amaranth. So when they know I am visiting, they make sure to have at least one dish made with it, as part of the fare for the day. The following picture is of a curry made with grated, ground coconut, jackfruit seeds, raw mango and farm-fresh blood amaranth.
And there you have it.
Seek, and thou shalt find.
Nature calls to us, but we need to tune in to her frequency. If, like Ulysses' sailors our ears are stuffed with beeswax, this particular siren might sing no more.
