Chinese cabbage
Peking cabbage ( Brassica pekinensis( Lour.) Rupr) is an annual plant. The family is cruciferous, a plant widespread in China and Japan. In Europe, it was brought in the XVIII century. It is mainly known as a salad crop. In Russia, the most popular variety is Khibiny. Grow it both in open and closed ground. Due to precocity, Peking cabbage can be sown in several terms. To obtain earlier products, cabbage is planted with seedlings. Rodina is a country of the Mediterranean and East Asia. In culture it is common in all regions of the globe.
Leaves are sessile, lower ones are large, numerous, obovate, slightly pubescent. There are forms of leaf and head.
Recently, this delicious, primarily used for the preparation of salads vegetable appears in our market. This kind is resistant to cold, we consume fresh cabbage salad until winter. Harvest the harvest in October - November and, if there are no severe frosts, in December. Often this vegetable is called Chinese cabbage, which is incorrect, because the latter does not form dense long kocheshki, but grows free leaves.
Peking cabbage, ripped off the root, can be stored for up to three months in the basement. Anyone who tasted a delicious, crunchy, delicate salad from Peking cabbage, will cultivate this vegetable annually.
For early growing, early maturing varieties are best suited: Khibiny, Dungan, Fifty days, Kaesong and others. Harvesting can be done 4-5 weeks after sowing. You can sow Peking cabbage every 25 to 35 days.
♦ Location of .In bright rooms, on windows, and in summer on loggias and terraces. .
♦ Planting and care. The best substrate for planting Peking cabbage is a light soil mix consisting of turfy soil, humus and sand( 1: 2: 1).Sowing is carried out in sowing boxes at a distance of 3 - 4 cm from each other. When planting seedlings, plant 10x10 cm with subsequent thinning, 15x15 or 20x20 cm. Watering is moderate, but regular, the soil must be always moist. Once in two weeks, the soil in the box should be loosened. Feeding is carried out once every two to three weeks. The best fertilizer is concentrated fertilizer "Rainbow".
Peking cabbage can be grown twice a year - in early spring( previously sown seeds in February) and in autumn( sowing - around July 15).Peking cabbage has a short vegetation period - two to three months. If the crop is produced at another time, the cabbage will throw out the arrows for flowering and does not form a head. The soil for Peking cabbage can not be re-fertilized with nitrogen, so that an undesirable surplus of nitrates is not formed in the vegetable.
♦ Pests and diseases - cabbage fly, cruciferous fleas, cabbage aphids, rapeseed cvethopod and black leg.
With proper care, pests and diseases usually infrequently infect plants.
Benefits of
Beijing cabbage is used primarily as a delicious salad plant. The cleaned heads are cut across( without spaced leaves) into thin strips. This cabbage can be stewed, boiled, baked, marinated, sour.
Peking cabbage is more tender than a lettuce salad, and less fibrous. It has less sugar, more protein( 1.3%).In the plant there is an important amino acid - lysine. In 100 g contains 40 mg of vitamin C, 0.7 mg of carotene, vitamins B1, B2, enzymes, chlorophyll and other valuable substances. In cabbage, about 90% of water and 3.4% of carbohydrates.
The leaves of this variety of cabbage contain protein, easily digested by the body and therefore especially valuable for nutrition. Of the amino acids contained in this protein, the human body releases a significant amount of a special substance called lysine. The word "lysine" comes from the Greek Lysis - dissolution. Lysine is also called so because it has the ability to dissolve foreign proteins that enter the blood of a person or animal. This means that lysine is the main and very strong fighter with various harmful microbes in our blood. It increases the body's resistance to various diseases and thereby contributes to the prolongation of human life.
How to use
Lysine has been discovered by science relatively recently. But the peoples, who have long been eating leafy cabbage, have long since experienced the beneficial effects of green leaves, not suspecting the existence of lysine.
The special value of this cabbage is that it can be used fresh in off-season for vegetables periods - February, March. From it prepare a variety of dishes: salads, green cabbage soup, cabbage rolls. It is suitable for pickling, quenching, pickling, souring, serves as a seasoning for meat and fish dishes. In food, both leaves and cabbages are used in fresh and processed form.
You can prepare salads from Peking cabbage. To do this, a small rocker( 250 g) is to be dismantled, cut into 2-3 parts of the leaves, folded into a salad bowl, pour with a dressing( a mixture of mayonnaise and vinegar 1: 2), mix and sprinkle with crushed onions( 1 small onion).
Salad from Peking cabbage
3 portions of
1 cabbage of cabbage, 2 onions, 8 tomatoes, 2 tbsp.tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1/4 tsp of sesame seeds, salt, pepper, 10 g of soy sauce.
First cut the Beijing cabbage along, then chop it into thin strips. Onion and tomatoes cut into rings. Mix the vegetables, put in a salad bowl, salt, pepper, sprinkle with sesame seeds, fried without oil. Pour a mixture of vegetable oil and soy sauce.
You can cook Peking cabbage with eggs for breakfast. Leaves of Peking cabbage cut into strips( 400 g), add salt and let it sit in a frying pan in butter. In the middle of the pan, spread cabbage, gently pour the eggs, without violating the yolks( 4 eggs).
Cabbage "Palermo"
4 servings of
450 g of strong shredded green cabbage, Zet.tablespoons butter or margarine, 1 tbsp.spoon of May honey, 1 st.a spoon of lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper, 4 tbsp.tablespoons of water, 275 grams of quarters of tomatoes.
Put cabbage in melted butter( margarine) and fry over moderate heat for 1 minute. Mix honey, lemon juice, a few spices and water. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes under a low boil. Add the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes. In the cooking process, stir two times.
Cabbage with tomatoes
4 servings of
1 bunch of roots for soup( for example, celery, parsley, carrots), 2 small heads of Chinese cabbage( about 300 g each), 2 garlic cloves, 30 grams of dried tomatoes in vegetable oil, 8 table,spoons of olive oil, salt, pepper, 1 table, spoon of capers
1. Roots for soup cut into small cubes. Cut cabbage cabbage into 4 parts, wash and dry. Peel the garlic and cut into thin slices. Drain the dried tomatoes in a colander and cut them into cubes.
2. Preheat the olive oil in a large frying pan with non-stick coating. Fry the cabbage quarters on it. Add the garlic, tomatoes and roots to the soup. Salt and pepper.
3. Pour 2-3 tablespoons of water. Cover and simmer cabbage for about 15 minutes on moderate heat. Add capers and immediately serve.