Curly Mallow (Malva Crispa) - Doctor, Culinary Specialist And Decorator

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Curly mallow and healer, and cook, and decorator

The mallow is probably familiar to many. Along the roads, near fences, on wastelands, there is a nondescript plant with half-lying stems. This mallow is low. Perhaps someone in childhood feasted on "kalachik" - its unripe fruits. But now we will talk about another, cultivated plant.

The homeland of curly mallow (Malva crispa) is China. There this plant has long been known as food, medicinal and ornamental. It is hard to believe that this plant is an annual, when in the middle of summer you look at a huge two-meter bush, behind which you can hide - it has such dense greenery. It is the greenery that gives the curly mallow a decorative effect: large (about a plate), wavy leaves with a fringe along the edge.

Flowers in mallow are small, white-pink, numerous, collected in bunches in the axils of leaves and branches; bloom from July until frost. The fruits ripen in September. They look like "kalachiki" made of round (like tablets) seeds. In Russia, they were compared with prosphora or prosvira. This is a church bread, folded from several parts, with which Christians perform the rite of communion. This similarity is due to the old name of the plant - mallow. In the rest of the world, according to the botanical classification, it is called "mallow".

The healing properties of plants of the malvaceous family were known to Hippocrates as early as the 6th century BC. And now it has been established that their leaves contain a lot of mucus, carbohydrates, vitamin C, tannins. An infusion of flowers and leaves is used internally and for gargling with inflammatory processes in the respiratory tract. Outwardly, in the form of ointments, poultices and baths, mallow is prescribed for skin irritation, tumors, burns, ulcers, eczema, hemorrhoids.

Curly mallow is not difficult to grow. Given its enormous size, I try to give it a place where it would not interfere with other plants, and at the same time, it showed its decorative qualities to the maximum. This is possible if the plantings are placed along the fence, near the compost heap, near the toilet, shed and other outbuildings. Green giants form a hedge, protecting the area from cold winds and blocking out unsightly areas in the garden. I sow seeds in early spring: I put several pieces into holes 3 cm deep after 70-80 cm. After emergence, I leave one of the strongest plants in the hole, and pluck the rest. During the period of active growth, timely watering and feeding with nitrogen fertilizers (mullein, urea, ammonium nitrate, etc.) are important. Mallow grows very quickly - in the second half of July the plants reach their maximum size. The mallow stems are very thick (at the base up to 5 cm) and do not require a garter.

The mallow is green, not just before the frost, but until the real frosts. All this time, its leaves can be used for food. They have a pleasant, neutral, slightly sweet taste. A wide variety of dishes can be prepared from them. Mallow is good in salads, raw and boiled. When there is no time to cook a salad, I take a mallow leaf, put on it 1-2 stalks of tarragon, dill, parsley or lovage, a leaf of spinach, oat root or scorzonera, 2-3 feathers of some onion (chives, oblique, wild garlic), I roll it up and eat it with a loaf of bread. And I don't remember the food for half a day.

Very tasty first courses can be prepared with mallow leaves: soup, cabbage soup, botvinya, okroshka. Here is a family recipe for okroshka: boil 400 g of leaves in salted water, cool and chop coarsely; chop radish or radish on a coarse grater (about 400 g); chop 5-6 boiled potatoes, a couple of cucumbers; pour 2 liters of chilled kvass; serve with half a boiled egg, dill and sour cream.

From the second courses I would like to mention cabbage rolls. And this is in July! Everything is as usual in them, only the mallow leaf is used instead of cabbage; and should be served with a hot sauce. You can cook delicious scrambled eggs very quickly: stew coarsely chopped leaves with tomatoes, mix with onions fried in vegetable oil, make holes, break an egg in each one, keep on low heat until the protein curdles, divide into portions and sprinkle with finely chopped spicy herbs.

An excellent filling for pies and dumplings is prepared as follows: boil the leaves for a couple of minutes, cut, simmer for 5 minutes in oil, mix with an equal amount of cottage cheese, feta cheese or grated cheese, add a little spicy greens that go with dairy products (mint, catnip, snakehead, lofant, savory, hyssop).

The mallow does not leave the table in our family all year round. In August, I dry the leaves on shelves under a canopy. If in two days they do not dry to brittleness, then I dry them in the oven and grind them into powder. It is convenient to store in glass jars and is easy to use. We add this powder to soups, sauces, gravies, to minced meat for cutlets and dumplings.

Curly mallow (mallow) is cultivated in many countries of Asia, Europe, America. In earlier times, it was widespread in Russia. In different provinces, it was called differently: hand out the potion, breast, gorodina, curly mug, biker, big zhinziver, shlyas. The manual of R. I. Schroeder "Russian vegetable garden, nursery, orchard", first published in 1877, curly mallow is mentioned in the "Spinach Plants" section.

Today this culture is almost forgotten in our country. Let's revive it together! I will gladly send curly mallow seeds to everyone. They, as well as seeds of more than 200 other rare plants, can be ordered from the catalog. Send in a marked envelope with your address - you will receive the catalog in it for free. My address: 634024, Tomsk, st. 5th Army, 29 - 33 - Anisimov Gennady Pavlovich. The catalog can also be obtained by e-mail - send a request to E-mail: [email protected]