How to cook and eat borages

Contents

1 COOKING BORAGES

COOKING BORAGES

How to clean borage, remove the hairs and save them before cooking

Before cooking borages, they must be prepared. The problem is that these plants are very hispid, especially the wild varieties. So, before eating them, we must remove their annoying hairs.

To collect and prepare them, we will protect our hands with gloves. Later with a plastic bristle brush (one of these that are used for brushing clothes) we will brush the leaves and specially the stems. Then, we will take the stems and leaves and rub them well with our hands to remove all the hairs.

Once well rubbed, we will introduce them in a plastic bowl with tap water and clean up all the leaves well to loosen the soil and the last hairs. We will finally rinse them with tap water.

Rubbed and cleaned borages can be stored in the refrigerator for about three days. To do this, place them in a plastic bag to which we will do a few holes. Before four days, they should be eaten or stewed since they turn black because of loss of chlorophyll that breaks down vitamin C and vitamin B.

How to eat borages

Borages can be eaten raw, preferably in salads. In this case, we will eat the tender leaves that have previously been brushed to remove the hairs. Besides the leaves, the flowers may be added, because they will provide its delicate flavor and serve as decoration.

Cooked borage can be prepared in many ways:

Boiled borages: The easiest way is to boil them in a saucepan with water. You need not be too long because they get very soft. Once cooked, you will add a few drops of olive oil and vinegar.

The cooked stems are very rich when eaten with a little butter or stir-fried briefly with a few cloves of garlic.

Borage chips: Like many vegetables, borage can be fried. In this case, so as not to desegregate them, you should roll with flour or cornstarch. To do this, we will smear them with some flour and fry them in olive oil. You have to enter them in the pan when the oil is very hot and fry them lightly. To enhance the flavor, it is desirable to add a few cloves of garlic.
Borage gratin: To cook au gratin, after boiling them slightly, we’ll add some cheese to brown on top and place them in the oven for about 5 minutes at 200 º C.
Borage gratin with bechamel: Borages cooked in this way are also very tasty. To do this, after cleaning, cooking and draining the borages, we shall put them on a platter and cover them with the bechamel sauce. We will place the tray in the hot oven and we will cook them au gratin for about 5 minutes.
Borage soup (Borage water). It is prepared by boiling the borage in a pot with other vegetables like potatoes. After these ingredients are well boiled, crush them well to form a soup. You can add some bread dumplings, previously fried.