Jam from dandelions - sunny nectar of health

Dandelion ordinary - this is perhaps the most common and widespread field flower in Russia. It grows almost everywhere except, perhaps, the northernmost latitudes, and due to its unpretentiousness and vitality, it feels equally excellent both in the forest glade and in the city flowerbed. And how much time and effort spend summer residents on the struggle with this "malicious" invader of beds and flower beds, but only without much success. But what we have long been accustomed to consider a "weed", in fact - an inexhaustible fount of natural vitamins, minerals (eg, calcium), trace elements, flavonoids and essential oils. In cooking and in homeopathy the whole plant is used - from roots to flowers. From fresh greens prepare wonderful salads, cabbage soup, okroshki. The root of dandelion has long been used in medicine as a cure for many and many ailments.

Salad of fresh dandelion leaves is undoubtedly very useful, but the real delicacy that this sun flower can give us is dandelion honey. Prepare it from the blooming yellow heads, usually in May, when the dandelion blossoms most actively. In appearance and taste, it really resembles a real honey bee - the same languidly-viscous, sweet, golden color, with a bright floral aroma. But not only the culinary qualities of jam from dandelions are famous . The benefits of this delicious product have long been appreciated by nutritionists and homeopathists. It is used as an additional therapeutic and preventive agent for many diseases of the gastrointestinal tract - cholelithiasis, cholecystitis, hepatitis; As well as with nephrolithiasis and urolithiasis; For the normalization of the thyroid gland. Indispensable dandelion honey for colds - in fact, by its properties, it is very close to natural honey.

And a jam of dandelion - this is a true love potion! True, according to the belief, not for the first flowers caught on the road, but specially collected on the last Thursday of May, with a multiple of thirteen (a dozen dozen) , will do for him . It's enough to treat your honey, cooked from them, your "sweetheart" to forever "pinpoint" her love.

And to prepare a "jam of love" is not so difficult and even inexperienced in culinary affairs hostesses. But first you need to find a quiet and clean place to collect dandelions, as far as possible from the city, roads and railways. This is a very important condition for the collected raw materials to be as clean as possible, since washing the flower heads before cooking is highly undesirable, because then most of the useful pollen and nectar will simply be washed. It is best to harvest in the morning, on a sunny day, because in dull and rainy weather the dandelion does not open its flowers completely.

To prepare jam from dandelions it is desirable right after gathering that heads did not have time to podvyat and to lose a part of useful properties. Collected flowers must be carefully sorted, cleansed of sorines and insects, cut off the green herb and stem.

The fastest and easiest recipe for jam

400-450 collected dandelion heads, pour 400-450 ml of water and put on fire. After the jam boils, reduce the fire and, stirring, cook it for about five minutes. After this, remove the saucepan from the heat and drain the resulting broth thoroughly. In the dandelion juice prepared in this way, pour four cups of sugar and boil again. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula, ten minutes. Everything, honey is ready! It remains to cool it and pour it into jars. Keep the ready-made jam from dandelions preferably in the refrigerator.

Classic Recipe

Collected flower heads (400-450 pieces) are placed in a saucepan, pour a liter of water, add the juice of one lemon (or a teaspoon of citric acid), if desired, you can add several cherry leaves for flavor. Bring to a boil and cook for another twenty minutes. Then remove from heat and leave for a day to insist. At the end of this time, the decoction is filtered from the petals, 800 g of sugar are added to it and again boiled, stirring, from half an hour to an hour - depending on how thick the honey is desired to obtain. The resulting jam is poured into jars.

Jam with petals

Very delicious recipe, however, for its preparation will have to tinker, but as a result, the jam will have a more rich taste and aroma. For its preparation it will be necessary to collect 400-450 pieces. Flowers. First of all, all the heads of dandelion should be "gutted", that is, cleaned of pedicels, leaving one petal. Put the transferred flowers in an enamel saucepan, pour a liter of cold water, put on fire and cook over a small fire for about half an hour. After this time, remove the jam from the plate, close the lid and leave for another six to eight hours. Then pour one kilogram of sugar into a saucepan and put on fire, stirring, until the sand is completely dissolved. To make the dessert softer taste, you can add lemon juice or a teaspoon of citric acid, then cook the jam for another half an hour.

Jam from dandelions can also be used as an independent dessert, it will also be a wonderful addition to pancakes, pancakes, cottage cheese or filling and impregnation of cakes when baking any confectionery.