Chooran Berries: Nostalgia of School years

This recipes is for those who grew up in India...and have fond memory of  eating a Ber phal, Bore  or Jujube plain or chooran form in their childhood.  Passing through a roadside vegetable market, have you seen someone selling this fruit these days… Does the sight of this dull brown or red fruit bring a rush of saliva in your mouth… do you get a sudden urge to stop your vehicle and buy a handful of this tangy fruit called Jujuberry.  At end of this post I will give you some information of this fruit marked **.

The fruit named Ber or Bore or Jujube is mainly found in rural towns and semi-urban cities. Rarely you may come across an old man selling this fruit in a market on the outskirts of a metro.
When I was in school, outside the school wall many vendors sell chooran made with Tamarind, spices, jaggery and  these berries...
My mouth waters just thinking about this...bringing back fond memories of childhood and my school......

However you don't get these berries locally here in U.S.  I found the the closest taste to these was in dried Cranberries.... So I decided to use dried cranberries to fulfill nostalgia of my taste buds... and this came out pretty good, once you start eating, you can't stop.
This is how I made this.....

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of dried cranberries (I used Ocean Spray brand, but you can use any dried cranberries, these are sweetened by added sugar)
• 1 teaspoon of Kala namak/black salt (sonchar) * See information on this below this post. 
• 1  teasppoon of Cayenne pepper (optional or can add more if desire more spicy )
• 2 tablespoons of Mango powder
• 2 tablespoon of Cumin powder
• 2 tablespoon of Brown sugar (can add more if like sweeter version of this but I like it more tangy)
• 1 teaspoon of tamarind concentrate
• 3 tablespoon of oil (I used Olive oil)

You can adjust the spices, sugar, salt and amount of cranberries, however your palate desires.

 Method:

• Place cranberries in a glass bow.
• Add all the spices, oil and brown sugar.
• Hand mix rubbing the berries with spices in between your finger.
• Mix until everything is well incorporated.
• Keep it out overnight covered then next day. hand mix it again and stror  it is  a glass jar.

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha





*Information on Kala Namak/Black salt: 
Kala namak is a type of  rock salt a salty and pungent-smelling condiment used in  South Asia. 
The condiment is composed largely of sodium choride with several other components lending the salt its colour and smell. The smell is mainly due to its sulfur content. Because of the presence of Greugite  (Fe₃S₄,Iron sulphide) in the mineral, it forms brownish pink to dark violet translucent crystals when whole. When ground into a powder, its color ranges from purple to pink.
Kala namak has been praised in Ayurveda and used for its perceived medical qualities
It  consists primarily of sodium chorlide and trace impurities of sodium sulfate, sodium bisulfate, sodium bisulfite, sodium bisulfite, sodium sulfite, sodium sulfide, iron sulfide and hydrogen sulfide
Sodium chloride provides kala namak with its salty taste, iron sulfide provides its dark violet hue, and all the sulfur compounds give kala namak its slight savory taste as well as a highly distinctive smell, with hydrogen sulfide being the most prominent contributor to the smell. The acidic bisulfates/bisulfites contribute a mildly sour taste.  Although hydrogen sulfide is toxic in high concentrations, the amount present in kala namak used in food is small and thus its effects on health are negligible.

Information of Jujube:
The fruit is a drupe, varying from round to elongate and from cherry-size to plum-size depending on cultivar. It has a thin, edible skin surrounding whitish flesh of sweet, agreeable flavor. The single hard stone contains two seeds. The immature fruit is green in color, but as it ripens it goes through a yellow-green stage with mahogany-colored spots appearing on the skin as the fruit ripens further. The fully mature fruit is entirely red. Shortly after becoming fully red, the fruit begins to soften and wrinkle. The fruit can be eaten after it becomes wrinkled, but most people prefer them during the interval between the yellow-green stage and the full red stage. At this stage the flesh is crisp and sweet, reminiscent of an apple. Under dry conditions jujubes lose moisture, shrivel and become spongy inside. The fruit has been used medicinally for millennia by many cultures.
The fruit is eaten raw or pickled or used in beverages. It is quite nutritious and rich in vitamin C. In India, the ripe fruits are mostly consumed raw, but are sometimes stewed. Slightly ripe fruits are pickled by a process of pricking and immersing them in a salt solution. Ripe fruits are preserved by sun-drying and a powder is prepared for off-season purposes.
Traditionally in India, the fruit is dried in the sun and the hard nuts are removed. Then, it is pounded with tamrind , red chillie, salt and jaggery. In some parts of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, fresh whole ripe fruit is crushed with the above ingredients and dried under the sun to make cakes called ilanthai vadai or regi vadiyalu 
Ber leaves are alternately placed and are oval shaped. Branches are quite thin and the tree bark is really hard. The fruits begin to ripen at different times even on a single tree starting from early November till late February. The fruit’s skin is smooth, dull glossy, thin but tough. The fully mature fruit will be brownish red, soft, juicy with wrinkled skin and has a strong aroma. (Intoxicating is the right word)
The tree is mainly found in semi-arid regions of Deccan Plateau; which means all across the heart of India leaving aside the Himalayas, the Thar desert and the coastal regions. Naturally grown roadside Ber tree might bear (check the pun!) 5,000-10,000 fruits in a season. Superior grafted trees which are commercially cultivated may yield as many as 30,000 fruits.

Name: Ber phal in Hindi, Bore hannu in Kannada or Jujube in Tamil
Scientific name: Ziziphus mauritiana
Native: Central India
Nutritional value: 20-30% sugar, 2.5% protein, 12.8% carbohydrates
Medicinal value: Fruit – mild laxative; rich in Vitamin C | Seed – powdered and consumed to stop nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pains in pregnancy.


Information source on Jujube
http://www.caleidoscope.in/art-culture/ber-or-bore-or-jujube

Information  source on Kala namak source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_namak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

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