Water Chestnuts

Salaam Everyone!

How are you all? It’s Monday! For many it’s an end of Sunday:-> and some have a thought that it’s the beginning of a new week. Ah well, that’s how the life keeps on. As you can see from the title of my post that it’s time to tickle the taste buds.

By the way, does anyone know about Water Chestnuts? It’s an aquatic fruit found in lakes and ponds. It has a sweet taste and is famously known as water chestnut in English and Singhara in Urdu. The Chinese call it ‘ling ko’. It is believed to have its home somewhere in Sountheast Asia.

It is grown in fresh water ponds, marshes, seasonal and perennial lakes that are not used for fish farming. About two thirds of the plant floats beneath the water surface. It has both floating and submerged leaves and no primamry roots. The flowers open above water. After pollination the flowers submerge to fecilitate the formation of the fruit.

Its cultivation takes place from natural seeding from the previous crops. Health concious people in many countries use water chestnuts as nutritious snacks. It is a good source of calcium, iron, potassium and zinc. One cup of water chestnuts gives as much as 135 calories.

In view of its nutritive value, crispiness,unique taste and diversity it can be consumed in many ways. In my home it is eaten in all forms, fresh, dried and powdered. We eat fresh ones steamed or boiled. The dried form is usually grinded into fine powder and boiled with milk with few cardamom pods for aroma. This thickens the milk and it tastes delicious.

Water chestnuts requre full sun and a good supply of organic manure for growth. The fruit has an odd shape due to its two-horned nut and is enclosed in a hard covering. The nut is found under the leaves and drops off when ripen and is scooped up with the help of a net. Its outer shell becomes hard when ripen and is not easily removed by the fingers.

They are divided into three types – one that’s completely green, the second that’s red and the third type has brownish skin. The flesh is white in colour and is crunchy and juicy. I have only tasted its third type so far and it’s delicious. It is widely cultivated in tropical countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Southern China, Taiwan, and Australia.

I have gathered all the information about water chestnuts from a local weekly review. I hope it enriched you knowledge. Sorry friends! I'm just unable to post the pictures of water chestnut due to the poor speed of the internet.

Hello Anita, thank you so much for sharing such beautiful pictures. My younger sister is also into handicrafts so when she saw the pictures, she asked me to post the photos of her work, too. I will share somw pictures of her work in my tomorrow’s post. I liked your daughter’s work especially the patchwork blanket, this work is called ‘Rilli’ here in Pakistan. As for crochet, I like crochetting very much. I had learnt it from my cousin. It’s easy you will learn the basics in a day.

James, It’s always interesting to read your posts.

Hello Tomo, thank you for the haiku. I will be writing mine in tomorrow’s post or on Wednesday. It’s really nice to see your comment. Hey, don’t say you are getting older. I know you are in your early thirties and we never get old it’s our thought that makes us think that way.

Hello Benka, I would have to say one thing that our interests are quite similar. I also like watching travel programmes on TV and also about animals. We can make good friends.

G’day Rachel! How are you? It’s really really great to see you again and Happy New Year! We really missed you. It was a great time with you. Your little prince looks very cute in the picture (hmm..chef in the making).

Hello teacher Stephen! It’s always good to see your interesting posts. I have always learned so much from your writing style. I would like to say few words about ‘Stephen Keeler’s Column’, it’s been your great work. I have got to learn so much from it, especially, how to put humour in writing and your grammar tips.

That’s all for now. See you tomorrow :->

Naheed

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