Vanilla, or herbaceous aromatic plants, is a pleasant experience due to its containment of aromatic compounds. Human ancestors discovered and domesticated many varieties of vanilla, the Mediterranean, the Americas and other regions are the main birthplaces of vanilla, and there are also indigenous growth of vanilla varieties everywhere. All kinds of herbs are shaded in spring and summer, which is cute.
Plants are the deepest human dependence. This phrase refers not only to food, but also to the herbs that have helped humanity heal itself and improve the quality of life for thousands of years.
A fragrant SPA by the sea, aromatic essential oils added to skin care products, dried herbs stuffed in pillow cores, and Chinese incense that is becoming increasingly popular... As a way of life, vanilla is used to improve physical and mental quality and return to coordinated rhythm along with healthy eating and moderate exercise.
In addition to the efficacy of vanilla itself, behind the charm of vanilla is also people's yearning for the culture of origin it represents - romantic, self-sufficient, soothing, slow rhythm. If you want, you can turn your own courtyard, balcony, window sill into a vanilla garden, where you can pick fresh cooking ingredients, and various herbs can also be used to make tea and make ointments.
In the name of vanilla, let us return to a natural and comfortable life.
Long before the dawn of modern medicine shone into human society, both The East and the West generally used local traditional medicine to treat diseases and save people.
In Europe, the church was responsible for protecting the catholics, and the early "hospitals" were the affiliates of the monasteries. The monastery is a place for monks and nuns to study theology and get close to God, and in addition to religious buildings and facilities, there is generally a medicinal botanical garden dedicated to the cultivation of medicinal herbs, most of which are vanilla.
Europeans and Americans love the source of vanilla, and it is probably here.
In medieval Europe, the medical system was already divided into specialties.
The surgeon is a barber who is responsible for performing bloodletting and bone grafting. Physicians graduated from medical schools that already existed at the time, and by observing the patient's symptoms, they prescribed it, and then the pharmacist in the pharmacy dispensed the medicine and handed it to the patient.
For the poor, the monastery's herbs became their dependence. In the hands of the monks and nuns, vanilla can not only be made into meals, but also purified and blended into hydrocarbons.
Lavender (lavender)
Lavender has been a natural tranquilizer for thousands of years, performing well in soothing the nervous system, calming emotions, relieving insomnia and anxiety, repairing scars, and its essential oils are also the most commonly used in aromatherapy.
It is said that Queen Elizabeth I of the United Kingdom suffered from headaches and had to drink lavender tea all year round, and placed lavender flowers on the table to alleviate it, so lavender was well promoted in Britain.
Lavender etymology "Lavare" has the meaning of washing, lavender has always been a good companion for bathing, and can also be used to clean clothes.
Peppermint (peppermint)
There are as many as 2,000 varieties of peppermint, and peppermint is the most common daily variety. Records of its treatment of stomach pain have appeared in the medical records of ancient Egypt.
Because peppermint contains a large amount of menthol, it can paralyze and relax muscles and even the muscles of the gastrointestinal wall, and is still used today to relieve mild symptoms such as indigestion, flatulence, nausea and so on. Peppermint also inhibits fever, helps wick away sweating, and fights colds.
There is a tea mixed with peppermint and nettle, which is very beneficial to the respiratory system, and whenever the flu season or cold symptoms appear, many people rely on drinking this tea to relieve nasal congestion and runom and calm inflammation.
Catnip
False wattle mustard, commonly known as catnip, is nicknamed because it emits an aroma that cats especially like, which can make cats behave abnormally.
False wattle mustard is harmless to people, people can directly pick the leaves and eat them raw, decoction soup can cure colds and flus, sore throats. When injured in the wild, it can be stopped by applying false wattle mustard. Wattle mustard and chamomile are common companions for soothing teas.
Compared with the ancient European continent, the research and utilization of medicinal herbs on the mainland is more systematic. From the "Shennong Materia Medica" of the originator of Materia Medica to the "Compendium of Materia Medica" mistakenly sorted out by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty, plants are one of the largest subclasses, and the herbs in plants, because they contain volatile aromatic hydrocarbons, are often used as herbs that diverge and dissolve tables, activate blood and scatter stasis.
Southernwood
In 2015, Chinese scientist Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for extracting artemisinin to combat malaria from the stems and leaves of Artemisia annua.
Artemisia annua is an ancient plant of the genus Asteraceae native to the mainland, with a distinct aroma. Ancient Chinese medical books not only record the general effect of Artemisia annua in fighting inflammation and swelling, but also record the treatment of malaria by Artemisia annua. The Jin Dynasty Ge Hong's "Elbow Rear Emergency Fang" has such a record: "Artemisia annua is held in one hand, stained with two liters of water, twisted to extract the juice, and served it as much as possible." ”
Patchouli
Patchouli, also known as large-leaf mint and mountain fennel, is well known for its common use in the anti-summer medicine - Huoxiang Zhengqi water, which can dissolve dampness, relax the chest, and wake up the spleen.
Fennel
Cumin, also known as bulb fennel, blooms inflorescences in the shape of an umbrella and emits a sweet aroma.
One of the first people in the West to discover the multiple medicinal properties of cumin was a German nun in the 12th century, Hildegard von Bingen. In her medical paper, she wrote: "No matter how you eat it, people feel pleasure ... And it aids digestion. ”
For a long time, the seeds and leaves of cumin have been used as digestive medicines. In places like India and Pakistan, cumin is even made into an after-dinner dessert, and when people have a full meal, especially after eating a lot of meat, the cumin is served to the table.
Chinese doctors, in addition to paying attention to its effects of warming the stomach, dispersing cold and aiding digestion, are also good at adding micro-fried and ground cumin seeds to the incense to regulate the qi.
Depending on the depth of processing, vanilla comes in different forms of incense. The easiest and most direct way to use it is to make dried flowers and hay, using oily volatile substances to keep its fragrance for a long time.
A little more diligently, you can cut the dried vanilla into less than half a centimeter of chopped vanilla, pick your favorite flavor and mix it into a sachet made of fabric or art paper, which is also the most common form of sachet in foreign countries.
A more exquisite and efficient way to use is to use distillation, cold pressing, solvent extraction and other methods to extract volatile aromatic substances from vanilla, that is, essential oils, and then incense through aromatherapy machines, scented candles or heating.
The mainland has a two-thousand-year-old tradition of fine incense making, known as Hexiang. The materials of hexiang are plants, animals, and minerals, of which plants account for an absolute proportion.
1.Fennel flower 2.Perrin 3.Oregano leaf 4.Lavender flower 5.Silver leaf cottonwood 6.Sage flower 7.Fragrant wood 8.Sweet pine 9.Rosemary 10.Peppermint 11.Wormwood 12.Herb flower 13.Mexican sage
Gan song
Gan pine is a native chinese vanilla, the whole plant emits a pine fat-like aroma, although not as famous as foreign vanilla, but it is really a herb and spice that has been used for thousands of years. Casually open a page of ancient incense recipes, we can always see the name of gansong, its smell is warm and sweet, can be rational and wake up the spleen, lyrical embrace.
Wang Wei has a sentence: "Remote smell of the waiter, secretly know Ling Junxiang." The "Lingjun" in the poem refers to Xun Yu, a famous adviser of Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period, who used a strong incense to smoke clothes, and when he went out as a guest, the aroma of the place where he sat did not disperse for three days.
In the Song Dynasty's "Chen's Xiang Spectrum", a good incense recipe of Xun Yu was retained, named "Xun Ling Shi Li Xiang", which is the simplest and elegant Chinese incense with the simplest production method and elegant aroma, and gansong is one of the flavors of the incense. Today's incense lovers still make sachets according to this recipe, wear them with them or give them to friends.
The herbs made of incense can also play a role in purifying the living environment and disinfecting insects.
Gao Shufen, a famous lady of the Republic of China, moved to Australia in her later years, recalling the customs of the old family in Hangcheng, saying that during the Dragon Boat Festival, Master Zhu of Gaozhuang would take a large handful of mugwort leaves and calamus with roots, and the maids of the age of forty or fifty would cut the calamus leaves into the shape of a sword, and at the near root, another calamus would be used as a sword handle, making a "calamus sword" and hanging it in each door. The people in the accounting room would go to the pharmacy to buy Cangshu, Bai Zhi, Xiong Huang, Shochu and the like. At noon, the maids closed the doors and windows, each holding a white copper-footed stove, and put Cang Shu and Bai Zhi in the furnace for about an hour to drive away pests and detoxify them. The herbal smell in the room can be retained for many days.
With the improvement of sanitary conditions, we no longer need to kill as we did a hundred years ago, but the use of vanilla to drive away evil spirits has been retained, with wormwood, calamus and lemongrass being the most effective.
Argy wormwood
Wormwood is an herbaceous plant of the Asteraceae family, with a strong aroma, growing in the north and south of the mainland, the "Book of Poetry" has recorded that the girl went up to the mountain to collect wormwood, and the sweetheart did not see a day like a love song every three autumns.
Wormwood whole grass is a treasure, into the medicine has to damp and cold, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic and other effects; sun-dried and pounded into moxa, can make moxa strips, printing mud; smoked can be disinfected and killed insects; young shoots can also be edible, such as made into green dough; sun-dried into wormwood powder, is a natural plant dye. Wormwood also has the effect of warding off evil spirits and attracting blessings, and hanging wormwood on the door during the Dragon Boat Festival, which means avoiding disasters and blessings.
Calamus (calamus)
Calamus of the Southern Celestial Star family is an herbaceous plant, with many wetlands, streams, and paddy fields, which can extract aromatic oils and aromas, and is a spiritual grass for epidemic prevention and exorcism in traditional Chinese culture.
The calamus rhizome is mashed and boiled in water, and the resulting liquid can be used as a natural pesticide to control insect pests. The smell of calamus is light and elegant, and when you feel sleepy, you can smell it to wake up.
In the Ming Dynasty's "Xiang cheng", there is an incense recipe specially burned when reading, which is made of calamus root and spices such as angelica and camphor.
Lemon grass
Lemongrass, also known as lemongrass, is a perennial herb that smells refreshing due to its volatile citral. Although lemongrass has medicinal properties, the most impressive thing is that lemongrass tastes like soap.
In the era of material shortage, soap is an important household item, which added lemongrass oil can effectively inhibit bacteria, the smell of lemongrass has also become a childhood memory of many people, smell the smell of lemongrass, will feel that this dress is clean.
This also creates an embarrassing and ridiculous situation, as lemongrass is a common vanilla in Southeast Asian cuisine, making many people frown when tasting exotic flavors, as if they have eaten a mouthful of soap.
In today's life, the most dazzling performance of vanilla is still cooking seasoning. From Neapolitan pizza to southern French stews, from primitive grills to molecular dishes, from cocktails to ice cream, vanilla is constantly being played with in the hands of chefs, while being written and praised by countless food writers.
The female professor of "Under the Tuscan Sun" does not hesitate to talk about the long table under the fig tree, the kitchen that cannot be neglected in the long summer:
"In the summer, we never close the door so that the outdoor air and sunlight can enter the kitchen at any time... Sage, like lavender, is the beauty of the weeds. I often chop fresh or sun-dried sage and sauté it with olive oil with white knife beans... Throw a few long bunches of rosemary on the charcoal fire... When grilling shrimp, simply use rosemary stalks to skewer shrimp skewers... Putting the herbs into a stone mortar and scooping it with a wooden pestle will soon produce oil and grind out the essence of the dish. ”
Basil (basil)
Basil is also known as the nine-story tower, duck incense. Basil is known as the "King of Vanilla", probably because it grows fast and is easy to pair with food and drink, replacing almost any common vanilla. Italians even joke that the green, white and red colors of their flag are basil, cheese and tomato.
Parsley (parsley)
Parsley, also known as parsley, french incense, coriander, among all vanilla, is the mildest taste, can be eaten directly raw, but also suitable for cream soup, pasta, baked potatoes, roast chicken, etc., especially the French bread iron partner - garlic butter sauce is indispensable ingredients.
Sage (sage)
Sage has a strong smell and is suitable for pairing with foods with strong flavors, such as offal or fried foods. People in the Mediterranean region like to dip it in oil and dip it in bread. Sage has the Latin meaning of "cure".
Rosemary (rosemary)
Rosemary's Latin meaning is "dew of the sea", perhaps because it is native to the Mediterranean coast, where the sea breeze blows all day long and the dew condenses on the vanilla when the temperature is low.
For a long time, rosemary's needle-shaped blades were used as drugs to enhance memory and concentration, and to improve intelligence. Rosemary is dense in texture and rich in aromatic oil, and a few rubs of the leaves with your hands will give you a slippery greasy feel.
Compared with young leaf herbs such as basil and parsley, rosemary has a heavier flavor, so you need to pay attention to the dosage when cooking, and do not cover up the taste of the food itself.
Rosemary can also be soaked in vinegar and kept tight for two months to make a delicious and healthy vanilla vinegar.
Thyme (thyme)
The whole plant of thyme contains volatile oil, the aroma is distinctive, it can be fishy when cooking fish, and the almost woody material is also suitable for filling the stomach of chicken and duck for a long time.
Coarse vanilla such as thyme and rosemary, the leaves can be plucked individually, sealed and stored after thorough drying, and can be used for a long time; the remaining hard rods are bundled into a bunch and thrown into the soup pot.
“Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme……”
In the pre-Internet era, this reverie British folk song was the starting point for many people to fall in love with vanilla.
Today, when the Internet has taken over every aspect of our lives, the life we yearn for is still the distant Grandma Tasha.
Living artist Thasha Dudo's herb garden occupies the top of the hill and is the neatest corner of the entire estate. Winter mint, tarragon leaves, oregano, cumin, basil, leeks, are all things that Grandma Tasha wants to embellish on the recipe.
Sage in hard cheese and turkey fillings, basil in her proud baked beans, large amounts of parsley chopped and frozen for later, Grandma Tasha used every vanilla to make dried flowers, cream and vanilla tea.
Even if there is no market and no garden, we can try planting some in small pots on the balcony. They are easy to feed, adapt to the soil with good hydrophobicity, as long as they are not completely dry, most of the withered can also be saved by a bowl of water.
Edit: Yuqing
Text: Li Xiang
Photography: ray (backlit line of sight)
Image source
Stylish COSMO
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