Tukmaria update

Just a quick note...

I have discovered that it is possible that Tukmaria seeds and their mucilaginous gel can line your stomach, blocking the absorbtion of fatty acids and possibly other substances, I would advise that you do not take it within an hour of taking medication or vitamin supplements to be on the safe side and to use it in moderation.

PS I went out to dinner a few nights ago and was served Falooda from my own recipe! It is one where the fatty acids (and the calories) could well do with blocking

Tukmaria: diet seed?

We have a three and a half hour drive to the nearest international airport, so when one of us is about to travel, it is a great excuse to spend a couple of days in the big smoke. Apart from visiting family and friends, shopping and eating are my favourite city pursuits. Staying in the inner city meant new food shops to explore and as always, I came home with some weird and wonderful things.

I was thrilled to find ready to drink Basil Seed Drink (with honey.) Since I discovered tukmaria seed http://frompotionstopesto.blogspot.com/2010/01/tukmaria-sacred-seed.html  I have been on the lookout for more recipes. I opened it yesterday. It was very sweet, thanks to the 12 % sugar and the honey flavour (!) and I needed to add some lime juice to it to make it palatable. The interesting side effect was that come lunchtime, I wasn't hungry. Checking the label further I found it contained a small amount of dietary fibre, calcium and iron and was 20% carbohydrate. So what are the healing properties of tukmaria?

The mucilaginous gel that forms around the soaked seeds acts as a demulcent, soothing the mucous membranes, and is used to relieve constipation and diarrhoea. Like chia seed, which also forms a gel when soaked, it is possible that it slows down the speed our bodies' convert carbohydrates into sugars. This would account for the feeling of fullness lasting longer and could be useful for weight loss and diabetes.

In Asia, where  basil seed is also known as sabza, subza, takmaria, tukmaria, tukhamaria, falooda, selasih (Malay/Indonesian) or hột é (Vietnamese), Ayurvedic and Siddha medicine both recognise the health benefits of tukmaria. Other reputed benefits are a more active digestion, removal of toxins from the gut and the ability to help prevent heart conditions by lowering cholesterol  although I have not found any scientific research to back this up.

I feel that tukmaria has great potential to replace slippery elm, an endangered rainforest tree that must be killed to harvest its inner bark, as an easily grown, safe remedy for stomach complaints.

Just before lunch today, I stirred half a teaspoon of seed into a glass of cold water with the juice of a lime. An hour later, I still felt quite full, even though the amount of seed I drank was much less than was in the drink yesterday. It was a very pleasant and refreshing drink that didn't need sweetening. It can be added to hot drinks, herb or black teas, or to warm milk. If you don't like the slippery texture add it to soaked Bircher muesli or stewed fruit. It has very little taste of its own.

 I am on a mission to lose weight at the moment so maybe fate is at work again. I'm going to stick with drinking tukmaria for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

Tukmaria: sacred seed

On a recent shopping trip, I was bemused when my beloved returned home with three 100g bags of basil seed. Pulling the crumpled shopping list from his pocket, he pointed, ‘See, there!’ The line above said fennel seed, so of course I had meant basil seed too, hadn't I?
What to do with all this seed? He had found it at the Indian shop. The owner obviously knew his stock for the packets were labelled as ‘Tukmaria’, with basil seed underneath in small type. After a search on the computer I was totally hysterical in front of an Indian cooking video of a very jolly man who was cooking sweet dishes to attract love. Whoever responded would have had to have had a serious sugar addiction coupled to a very blasé attitude to weight gain!
Back to the seeds... The tiny black teardrop shaped seeds are also known by various names: sabza, subza, takmaria, tukmaria, tukhamaria, falooda, selasih (Malay/Indonesian) or hột é (Vietnamese.) In India it is used in Muslim and Buddhist cuisine and as a medicinal herb. The use of Sacred Basil is restricted by Hindus as it has a sacred association to the god Vishnu. Basil seed also appears in the cuisine of Indonesia, Thailand, Iran and Afghanistan. The two varieties I have found from which the seeds are harvested for culinary use are Sacred Basil, ocimum sanctum and Hairy Basil, ocimum canum. I don’t know if common Sweet Basil works in the same way.
The seeds themselves have little or no flavour. What they do have is the ability to soak up water to create a jelly rather like tapioca. As the little black seeds look like tadpoles hatching, there is also a textural similarity to caviar with a crunchy centre. Reputed to have cooling properties, they are mainly used to thicken drinks and desserts. In Iran they are teamed with lemon juice, in Vietnam with either young coconut milk or water flavoured with palm sugar. The most common use is in the Indian recipe for Falooda.
Depending on what recipe you choose, falooda can be as simple as a milkshake or as elaborate as a Knickerbocker Glory. The Hari Krishna cookbook has a version that contains jelly and custard as well as the more traditional ingredients of milk, ice cream, noodles and rose syrup. All the recipes contained massive amounts of sugar, so I have taken some elements from a few recipes. It is a quick and easy dessert that looks impressive. Feel free to adjust the amount of sweetener to suit your own palate.


FaloodaI tsp basil seed (tukmaria)
1 litre milk
2 pinches of powdered cardamom
1 Tbsp sugar
1½ C rose syrup
1 litre vanilla ice cream
Chopped nuts to garnish( pistachios look nice)

Soak the basil seed in one cup of water for at least half an hour to swell.
Heat the milk until it boils, remove from the heat and add ½ cup rose syrup, the cardamom and the sugar, mix well and chill in the refrigerator.
Strain the water from the basil seeds and add them to the cooled milk.
Whisk in ½ C ice cream until dissolved. At this stage you can store in a covered jug in the refrigerator until needed.
To serve, in a tall glass for each person, place a scoop of vanilla ice cream and one or two teaspoons of rose syrup. Top up with the well stirred milk mixture and garnish with chopped nuts.

Serve with a long spoon and a straw.

You can thicken with a little corn flour when boiling the milk or serve with a spoonful of Falooda sev noodles in the bottom of the glass. Falooda sev is available at Asian stores. This recipe will serve 8-12 people depending on the size of your glasses. You can keep any remaining milk mixture in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
I made my own rose syrup. If you can’t find any, use half a teaspoon of rosewater in half a cup of corn syrup or mild honey with a little red food colour if required.
Children love the pink sweetness of this dessert. I created a little kit for Christmas gifts which included seed, rose syrup and rosewater with the recipe. However, I still have 2 bags of seed in the pantry so more research is needed!

Enjoy,

nirala