Poppies - and their seeds

5 days ago
5 min read

"Poppy seeds dance the line between decoration and spice."

Pam Corbin/River Cottage A-Z

Above another photo from the past, now for a brief period, my computer's desktop background. Inspiration for today.

I love the fields of poppies that you see everywhere in France. Such a beautiful but fragile flower. So bright and glossy in the sunlight - the Ancient Sumerians called them the 'joy plant' - and yet - today anyway - a symbol of death. And its connection with death goes further than WW1 - in it's opium loaded sap (and sometimes - seeds) - both as a cure and solace, a reliever of pain, and also as an often deathly addiction. It not only reminds us of war and the poppy fields of Flanders in which so many died or were destroyed both mentally and physically, but also of wars whose whole cause was a fight over opium. Another blight of British colonialism - the Opium Wars.

But enough of all that.

Medicinally they have been used since prehistoric times they think and certainly by the time the Sumerians came onto the scene - mostly for sedative purposes, but by the time the Romans ruled the world they were a frequent ingredient in various dishes, both sweet and savoury. Today it seems to me the focal points for the use of poppy seeds (white or black) - in the world are India - and specifically Bengal, and Central and Eastern Europe, although the Italians sometimes join in. The rest of us just scatter them over our bread and buns. Moreover, overwhelmingly they seem to be used in sweet things - cakes, biscuits, and so on, but I searched and found a few - to me anyway - more interesting things - for as Pam Corbin says:

"Combined with a spritz of lemon or a scattering of its zest, they also sing their souls into potato, pasta and vegetable dishes."

But a quick - mildly interesting aside that demonstrates how poppy seeds hover between life and death - before I do my usual selection of recipes from here and there.

In 2022 there was a bit of a fad for poppy seed tea - it was said to calm and soothe. But actually it ended up poisoning a few people - enough to cause the withdrawal of the products from the shelves for a while. Is it still available? I don't know, but the Mayo Clinic is very sure you shouldn't drink it. So if you do drink poppy tea, read their page on the subject. Fundamentally it's a milder form of heroin, because the seeds used are not washed and so still have opium clinging to them.

So what can you do with poppy seeds? Well I should include a couple of cakes. The vast majority are variations on a lemon drizzle cake, but here are some different ones - Orange and poppy seed cake - Nigel Slater; Makowiec - Polish poppy seed cake - Ruby Tandoh's version - this one probably needs a post all of its own; and Apple, honey and poppy seed cake - Rachel Roddy

The sweetness doesn't end there however, from Nik Sharma's Lemon poppy seed buttermilk ice-cream (he also has a recipe for marshmallows); Wattleseed and poppy seed fritters (Posto bora) - Helly Raichura/Gourmet Traveller and a curious savoury sweet kind of pasta - the Czech Nudel s mákem (noodles with poppy seeds) - Taras Multicultural Table, which is very similar to the Friuli Venezia Giulia's Lasagne ai semi di papavero and Irina Georgescu's

Iofcǎ cu mac - noodles with poppy seeds from Romania - for all of them - noodles, poppy seeds but sugar too - and Irina Georgescu's St. Elena Livenci from the Czechs - a kind of yeasted pancake with a poppy seed and honey topping. No recipe online alas.

Salads are a common savoury use of the poppy seed - mostly in the dressing - for which Pam Corbin of River Cottage has a recipe:

"Combine 75ml extra virgin olive or rapeseed oil with the juice of 1 lemon, 2 tsp clear honey and 1 tbsp toasted poppy seeds, adding salt and pepper to taste. This is lovely with soft cheeses or smoked fish, or to dress crisp, peppery salad leaves."

Examples of such salads are: Lime and poppy seed slaw with curry leaf oil - Ottolenghi; Black bean salad with poppy seed vinaigrette - Nik Sharma/The Guardian and Meera Sodha's Grapefruit, avocado, red onion salad with poppy seed dressing - which she adapted from Claire Thompson's Grapefruit, spinach and avocado salad with poppy seed dressing - Claire Thompson

Bread - similar to some of the cakes - but savoury - both of these are from the Taste of Home website in America - Swiss onion bread ring - Judi Messina and Amish onion cake - Mitzi Sentiff

Two savoury pasta kinds of things - from Germany - a kind of gnocchi - Schupfnudeln with browned butter and poppy seeds - Ottolenghi and from Italy - I think from Cortina d'Ampezzo in the Dolomite mountains where they are called casunzièi - Beetroot ravioli with sage and poppy seed burnt butter - delicious. plus one meaty dish from Nigel - Roast poppy seed chicken which also has a chickpea stuffing - looks interesting.

We can't ignore India where the Bengalis in particular cannot live without their posto - a white poppy seed paste which flavours and thickens the sauce for Chingri posto - prawns cooked in poppy seed paste - Gastro Nomad and the apparently ubiquitous Aloo posto - Maunika Gowardhan - a potato version of which a blogger called Bombay Foodie says:

"In my mind, there are two basic flaws with aloo posto. By soaking poppyseeds and making them into a paste, you take away the essential benefit of using them - the crunch they add to a dish. And then the color - except for a rare black nigella seed, the dish is a boring beige all over."

But he thought the fundamental pairing was good and so produced his Upgrading aloo posto which is different - an evolution and shows that the Indians meddle with their traditional dishes too. And just to conclude with India - contemporary, maybe even fusion Indian at that - seeing that Nik Sharma lives in America - Brussels sprouts with poppy seeds black mustard and coconut oil on the Foodwise website.