Chinese Box-Orange, Tsau Ping Lak
Atalantia buxifolia: Wine-Cake Thorn
The Chinese Box-Orange is one of my botanical mysteries. I know it is edible but I don’t know how… But I may still figure it out. I still have a few universities to visit.
If you Google the Atalantia buxifolia (formerly Severinia buxifolia) you will find several credentialed sites and publications with degreed authors saying the tree has an edible part. That makes sense. It’s in the greater citrus family. Most if not almost all the experts say the leaves are used to make a yeast roll in Chinese cooking. At least one book says the berries are used to make the yeast rolls. So I decided to ask some experts. I have a friend who’s Chinese and owns a Chinese restaurant and has several Chinese chefs. They had no idea. The leaves may be fermented, the berries may be fermented, or they may use one or the other totally differently. ‘Tis mine still to discover.
The Chinese box-orange is native to Southeast Asia, Taiwan and southern China. In Cantonese know it as Tsau Ping Lak because they use some part of it to make a yeast cake. So, how did it get from there to here? It’s resistant to many of the diseases that attack citrus so it makes good root stock. It is also an ornamental. You’ll find it where citrus grows. A close relative, A. monophylla, has a lot of medicinal uses in India including using berry oil for relief of rheumatism and paralysis, a root preparation as an antiseptic and stimulant, and the leaves are used against snake bite. A. buxifolia has two close look alikes, the Japanese Box (Buxus microphylla var. japonica) except the Buxus has no thorns, and the Bumelia retusa, which looks very similar but has red hair on the bottom of young leaves and not all the leaves are notched at the end.
Atalantia (at-uh-LAN-tee-uh) is from Greek mythology. She was daughter of King Schoeneus of Scyros and one of the Hesperides, the nymphs who guarded the garden where grew the golden apples Gaea gave to Hera as a wedding gift. Buxifolia (buks-siff-FOH-lee-uh) means foliage like the box wood which is a Buxus (BUK-sus) the Roman name for the Box Wood. The Chinese Box-Orange is still called Severinia buxifolia (sev-ver-RIN-nee-uh buks-siff-FOH-lee-uh) which honored M. A. Severino (1580-1656) an anatomy lecturer at Naples.
Orange Yeast Rolls
Ingredients
* 4 1-ounce yeast cakes (refrigerated section of your market)
* 1 1/3 cups warm water (105-115 degrees F)
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1/4 cup shortening
* 1 egg, room temperature
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3 1/4 cups flour
* 1 cup butter, room temperature
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
Directions
1. For Dough: Crumble yeast into large bowl. Stir in water and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes
2. Stir shortening, egg and salt into yeast mixture. Add flour 1/4 cup at a time, stirring until mixture is smooth. Grease bowl. Add dough, turning to coat entire surface. Cover and let rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.
3. For filling: Beat butter and sugar to blend well. Stir in orange peel.
4. To assemble: Roll dough out on generously floured surface to thickness of 3/16 inch. Spread filling evenly over dough. Roll dough up into cylinder, as for jelly roll. Cut into 1 1/2 inch-thick slices. Set each slice in paper muffin cup. Arrange on baking sheet. Cover with towel and let rise in warm draft-free area for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 400. Bake rolls until lightly browned on top, about 12 minutes.
Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile
IDENTIFICATION:
A low growing, irregular spreading shrub that grows to about four feet high and around. It’s dense and compact, with small, glossy, rounded dark green leaves about a half inch across and an inch long, indented at the tip. Young leaves are bronze. Older leaves are covered with glans on the underside. When crushed the leaf smells of oranges. Flowers are clusters of small, white, fragrant citrus-like flowers that appear near the end of the branch. Blooms all year. Fruit is a small black 1/4 inch berry, one or two seeds.
TIME OF YEAR:
Throughout the year but locally tends to follow the citrus cycle.
ENVIRONMENT:
Likes cool, moist, sunny or shady conditions. Locally it is found under the shade of larger trees.
METHOD OF PREPARATION:
As of yet unknown.
