My article about Gooler, the country fig or the Indian fig was published in
Down to Earth magazine. I am posting the detailed version of the article, the magazine article was a downsized version of all the research I did with gooler and it's properties.
I remember my grandmother telling us bedtime
stories and taking us to unknown lands of fantasy. Her stories involved birds,
jungle animals, trees and their conversations and we grew up considering these
‘characters’ as our companions. One of the stories that stuck in my mind was
when she told about Gooler ke phool
( Fig flowers) in a story, that these flowers are seen by rare lucky
people and whoever is able to see Gooler ke phool finds a treasure or a lost
kingdom. This story stayed with me in my childhood and I often enquired the
wild fig trees around to find a flower. No wonder I could never be lucky, I
came to know later when I studied inflorescences in my biology class much
later. The small figs we saw on the trees were actually inflorescences (cluster
of flowers) and this special type of closed inflorescence is called as
Syconium. There are more reasons why I associate Gooler with my
grandmother, she relished Gooler as food and introduced us with the ways
it can be eaten.
In the last few years we have seen the fresh plump
ripe figs appearing in the upmarket stores, the fruit being sold at a premium
price as it is deemed exotic. These fresh figs are the Ficus carica species,
this fleshy variety of figs is either imported or grown as exotic fruit only in
a few places in India, one variety grown around Maharashtra is called 'Poona
figs' (ref. Handbook of Indian Agriculture). This fruit variety is highly
perishable and hence most of the produce is dehydrated to form discs that can
be re hydrated and used as required. Many of us have been relishing these
figs in the dehydrated form called sookhe anjeer, those flattened
and dried sweet discs filled with crunchy seeds and chewy dry flesh. Many
'sugar free' desserts including the kulfi and ice
creams use sookhe anjeer.
Most of us have forgotten the smaller, more common
variety of figs that grows wild all over India and is seen on roadsides or
along old buildings. This one is called cluster fig or country fig, Ficus
racemosa is the small Indian fig that is equally nourishing as the
fruit fig. Goolar is the more common name it is known as in
north India. The fruits are loved by Macaques, Squirrels and most birds,
particularly Barbets, Tree pies and Parakeets and that is how the seeds get
dispersed and this fig variety propagates easily.
The last time I had the fortune of tasting Goolar
ki subzi was a couple of years ago when I was visiting Banaras. The spicy meaty
Goolar ki subzi has been a family favourite and my mother had cooked that for
us. We miss Goolar here in Delhi though we see it growing around our colony.
Goolar is a great shade tree, home to my favourite birds but the fruits were
never accessible somehow, this time I asked the gardener to bring me some and
he obliged. I cooked chokha and kababs first and then pickled a few for the
first time. The pickle is doubly nourishing as it gets some probiotic flora
along with the naturally occurring prebiotic fiber.
Considered as cooling, blood purifying, anti
inflammatory and healing by Ayurveda practitioners, the raw fruits are valued
as a tasty and healthy vegetable. The fruits contain tannins and the soluble
and insoluble fiber found in the fruit is prebiotic in nature. That is the
reason the raw fruit used as a vegetable was considered extremely good for
stomach ailments. I remember my grandmother who lived a healthy and active 105
years, always brought some goolar whenever she had upset
stomach. She would make goolar ka chokha mostly but she loved the spicy meaty curry
made using goolar as well. People of her generation knew what
to eat day to day ailments.
The goolar ka chokha is considered cooling during summer months, a raita mixed with buttermilk
is cooling too and highly recommended for stomach upset caused due to
amebeosis.
Interestingly, goolar was never
cultivated as vegetable or fruit but the abundant bunches of fruits were
foraged during harsh summers and beginning of monsoons when the green
vegetables would become scarce in the olden days. Ripe fruits used to be
plucked by children as they are quite attractive and aromatic, some children
would eat the fruits but the taste is not as good, so most of the ripe fruit
would get wasted.
Raw fruits are actually an inverted flower filled
with stigma and stamens and hundreds of insects that pollinate this closed
inflorescence called Syconium. These insects would complete their life cycle
till the fruit is ripe and would escape leaving the ripe fruit empty. This is a
great example of symbiosis between a fruit and insect.
To cook the raw goolar, one has to cut
them in quarters, clean the interiors of all the fibrous floral parts and the
insects and the fleshy envelope of the fruit will be parboiled and then either
curried or mashed to make bharta or chokha.
Many vegetable vendors would collect the goolar
from nearby jungles and sell them to earn some profit, there was always a
demand for goolar as folks knew it is good for health. Even dehydrated
raw goolarwould be stored, its powder was used with sugar candy to
cure E. coli infection.
The fresh milky discharge (latex) from the leaves
is considered healing for epidermal wounds when applied 3-4 times a day, it
helps many kinds of infections of the skin (source). The
enzyme ficin present in the fig latex is responsible for
its anthelmintic activity and can be given with great benefit in worm
infestations especially ascaris and tricharus types (source). Apart from the usage in traditional medicine, scientific studies
indicate F. racemosa to posses various biological effects such as hepatoprotective,
chemopreventive, antidiabetic, anti inflammatory, antipyretic, antitussive and
antidiuretic (source).
Gooler ka chokha recipe
ingredients
1.
cleaned, quartered and seed removed goolar 1.5 cup
2.
finely diced onion 1/4 cup
3.
minced garlic 1 tsp
4.
minced green chilly 1/2 tsp or to taste
5.
salt to taste
6.
mustard oil 1 tsp
Procedure
1.
Boil the chopped cleaned goolar in sufficient water
till soft. Strain and reserve the gooler.
2.
Mash with a fork or blend in blender and mix the other
ingredients after blending.
3.
Serve with khichdi, daal rice meals or as a side
dish for any Indian meals.
Gooler ka Kabab recipe
ingredients
1.
cleaned, chopped and seed removed gooler 1 cup
2.
roasted chickpeas flour or sattu 2 tbsp
3.
minced ginger, garlic and green chillies 1 tsp each
4.
garam masala 1 tsp
5.
chopped coriander and mint greens 1/2 cup
6.
salt to taste
7.
ghee to shallow fry
procedure
1.
Boil the cleaned gooler in sufficient water till
soft, drain and cool.
2.
Mash with other ingredients except ghee to make a
dough like mixture.
3.
Shape lime sized balls and flatten them between the
palm. Arrange to be shallow fried in batches.
4.
Shallow fry using ghee or any oil of choice. Serve
hot with green chutney or tamarind chutney.
Gooler pickle recipe
ingredients
1.
cleaned and chopped gooler 1 cup
2.
white vinegar (preferably with mother) 1/2 cup
3.
salt 1 tbsp
4.
chopped green chillies 1/4 cup
5.
crushed mustard seeds 2 tsp
To make the pickle, boil the cleaned gooler till
soft, drain the water and let the gooler cool down. Then mix everything
together and store in a sterile glass jar. The pickle is ready to eat in 3-4
hours and keeps well for a month or so.
