Herbs and Spices - Caraway seed
Caraway seed
Caraway grows extensively all over the Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor regions. It is a biennial, herbaceous plant which blooms once in every two years. Its creamy flowers appear in umbels. The plant grows to about two feet in height and bears small feathery leaves. Caraway seeds, having similar in appearance as that of cumin, have a crescent shape, dark brown, with up to five stripes (ribs) running lengthwise on their surface.
Caraway harvested during the early morning hour of the day to avoid spilling and wastage of its seeds in the field. They are then stacked in bundles and left to dry under sunlight. The seeds extracted by threshing, either manually or using machines.
Caraway seed derives its culinary and medicinal properties from its distinct characteristics. Its flavor has a nutty, bittersweet sharpness with a hint of citrus, pepper, and anise (mild licorice).
The caraway seed’s high concentration of natural essential oils gives the spice its unique flavor profile. These volatile oils, combined with the plant’s dense supply of antioxidants, provide many of the medicinal and health benefits of caraway. Due to its essential oils—primarily carvone, limonene, and anethole—caraway has a sharp, stimulating aroma that is slightly minty or peppery. People confuse caraway seeds with fennel and cumin. The caraway seed is darker colored and smoother than cumin seed and tastes more bitter. Its anise flavor is also less pronounced than it is in fennel seeds.
In the traditional Europian cuisine, caraway seed is one of the dominant spices featuring in several savory dishes. Strongly aromatic, caraway is a member of the parsley or Umbelliferae family; a large family of plants that also includes commonly known herbs and spices such as dill, anise,fennel, and cumin.
Benefits:
1.Rich source of dietary fiber: 100 g seeds provide 38 g of fiber, 100% of daily recommended intake of fiber. The soluble as well as insoluble dietary fiber increase the bulk of the food and help prevent constipation by speeding up its movement through the gut.
2.High in antioxidant: Caraway has health benefiting flavonoid antioxidants that helps to remove harmful free radicals from the body and thus protect from cancers, infection, aging and degenerative neurological diseases.
3.High content of Vitamin: The caraway seeds indeed are the storehouse for many vital vitamins. Vitamin-A, vitamin-E, vitamin-C as well as many B-complex vitamins like thiamin, pyridoxine, riboflavin, and niacin particularly concentrated in the seeds.
4.4.Excellent source of mineral: Caraway spice is an excellent source of minerals like iron, copper, calcium, potassium, manganese, selenium, zinc and magnesium. Copper required for the production of red blood cells. Iron required for red blood cell formation. Zinc is a co-factor in many enzymes that regulate growth and development, digestion and nucleic acid synthesis. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps regulate heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese used by the body as a co-factor for the powerful antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase.
Serving way:
• Add caraway seeds to potato salad or coleslaw.
• Add a pinch to any tomato-based sauce or soup.
• Sprinkle over roasted potatoes or sweet potatoes.
• Mix into cheese dip.
• Sprinkle onto baked apples to enhance the flavor.
• Add to shortbread cookies or Irish soda bread cookies.
• Use to flavor beef goulash or kielbasa stew.
• Add to any recipe that includes cabbage.
• Use with a pork roast or pork chops.