Tag Archives: Cooking

Cooking Guide to Grains

IMG_4986-1(Clockwise from Left, Quinoa, Amaranth, Bulgur and Cracked Wheat)

Cooking grains is very easy and it doesn’t take long. Here is a handy cooking guide with some ideas for flavor additions.

QUINOA    (pronounced Keen-Wah)  
A mild yet satisfying flavor, with a texture like pasta. Goes well with anything.
Serve cold or hot
While cooking you can add chopped or pressed garlic, onions, broth, herbs, ginger, sun dried tomatoes, etc.
QUINOA    (Keen-Wah)  
Rinse Quinoa thoroughly
1 C Quinoa
2 Cups liquid (water or broth)
½ to 1 tsp salt
Bring water to boil, add Quinoa and salt
Cook (simmer) 15 minutes, let stand 5 min
Yield 3+ cups
Goes well with anything
MINI DISH  of QUINOA
Rinse thoroughly,
½ Cup Quinoa
1 Cup Water (or broth)
¼ salt
Bring water to boil, add Quinoa and salt. Simmer 10 to 15 min
Let stand 5 min. 

AMARANTH
A great taste, like corn and a silken texture, makes its own silky smooth broth.
While cooking you can add chopped or pressed garlic, onions, unsalted broth, herbs, ginger, sun dried tomatoes, etc. NOTHING with SALT added. I like it plain with chicken flavor broth added at the end.
AMARANTH
Do not rinse, too small. DO NOT SALT WHILE COOKING.
1 C Amaranth
2 ½ Cups Liquid (water or UNsalted broth, Not even tomato juice- too salty)
Bring to boil, Add Amaranth only, cover, 
cook (simmer) 20-25 minutes.
Add ½ to 1 tsp salt after cooking or add broth powder (chicken is good) to flavor.   
Yield 2 Cups
Goes well with beans or red lentils, I don’t mix it together with other grains tho, I like it plain.
MINI DISH of AMARANTH
½ Cup Amaranth
1 ¼ Cup water
Bring water to a boil, add Amaranth, cover, reduce heat
Simmer 15 to 20 min. Add salt or broth powder right after it’s done.

CRACKED WHEAT
Wheat flavor, deep and robust, and chewy, yet still able to blend with many other vegetables, beans and other grains. Good cold or hot. It makes a great cold salad with scallions and chopped fresh tomatoes, lemon juice or a dressing.
While cooking you can add chopped or pressed garlic, onions, broth, herbs, ginger, sun dried tomatoes, etc
Bulgur is cracked wheat but pre-cooked, more processed, cooks faster and is slightly lighter in texture and flavor.
CRACKED WHEAT
Rinse
1 ½ C Cracked Wheat         
3 C Water, stock, or Broth (I use good broth powder)              
½ t salt (If broth is salty cut salt.)
1 clove pressed garlic (optional)
Bring water to boil, add wheat and salt. Cover, simmer until wheat is desired texture, about 20 to 30 min. If too much water left for taste, drain it off.  
Yield About 3 ½ cups
Especially good with onions, tomatoes and good Olive oil
Can be added to other grain or bean and mixed except Amaranth.
Can also add tomato juice to the cooking water to anything but Amaranth (salty)
MINI DISH of CRACKED WHEAT
½ cup Cracked Wheat
1 Cup Water
Pinch Salt
Bring to boil, add wheat and salt, cook covered about 15 min.

COUSCOUS
Whole wheat is best, otherwise you are getting mainly white flour. Couscous is really tiny pieces of pasta. Texture smooth and creamy.
While cooking you can add chopped or pressed garlic, onions, broth, herbs, ginger, sun dried tomatoes, etc
COUSCOUS
1/3 Cup Couscous
2/3 Cup water, milk or broth (tomato juice is good too)
pinch Salt
1 teaspoon (OPTIONAL) Olive oil or butter
In Medium saucepan combine water with any of the optional salt, oil or butter. Bring just to a boil , stir in Couscous and COVER. Remove from heat immediately and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and eat.
Couscous makes a great base for any vegetables, stew or stir-fry. Add parmesan cheese to it with any appropriate meal, really excellent.   
Microwave Couscous
In 2 Quart casserole add water and opt salt. Microwave on high until boiling. Add Couscous and optional oil, stir and cover. Let stand 5 minutes, fluff with fork and eat.

 

Unusual Foods that Freeze Well and a Couple That Don’t.

One thing about living a ways out of town is you learn how to keep food in the house for as long as you can. Since running to the store is not a quick trip for me I have discovered some surprisingly successful things to  freeze. Most people don’t realize that bananas can be frozen, they can, and they hold up pretty well.
Bananas: Peel, cut in half, (so you don’t have to have a whole one every time) throw in a Ziploc and freeze.It’s that easy. Use the oldest first and you will know because after a few weeks they start to turn a little darker. They taste fine, they just don’t store indefinitely. Nice to know when they go on sale too. Now, of course you probably don’t want to eat them naked out of the freezer but they work well for smoothies and desserts.
Canned tomato paste: How many times have you cooked something and didn’t use all the can? I do that a lot. What to do? Freeze it. I just put a baggie over the top and a rubber band and it goes in the freezer door. It doesn’t even freeze solid so it is very usable the next time you need it. Or even better, freeze scoops of the paste in ice cube trays and throw in a Ziploc. A great way to use up tomato paste is in canned soup with a tomato base. Canned soup can be so blah. I deepen the flavor by adding paste.
Wine: leftover wine is a problem in our house. Freeze in ice cube trays and then pop out and put in Ziplocks.Wine cubes are great to add to sauces, stews, gravy and soups.
Instead of freezing your leftover home made soup (or stew) in a big plastic dish and forgetting about it, freeze it in metal muffin tins. You don’t need to grease the tins. After the soup is frozen, just run your warm wet hand on the bottom and then pop right out. (I sometimes use a dull table knife to pop) Freeze in a Ziploc. You have smaller portions that are easily heated up for one or two people and a quick satisfying lunch on a cold winter day.
Peppers: I do a lot of gardening and have these around. I like odd types you can’t get at the grocery store. The surprising thing about peppers is you don’t have to blanch them. Just cut and freeze. They will be ready for cooking though, not eating.
Tomatoes: Another vegetables that doesn’t require blanching, you can even freeze whole in a Ziploc. I prefer to strip the skins off by submerging in a pot of boiling water for a minute and then freezing in dishes because I make a lot of tomato sauce.
Fresh Herbs: Almost all herbs freeze very well. Basil is a little picky because it can turn black. You can freeze basil by chopping by hand or blender/food processor and mixing with oil or water and freezing in ice trays again and then transferring to Ziplocs. 
Mushrooms: You must saute them in a little oil or butter and freeze on a cookie sheet or in little containers. You’ll always have some on hand to add to soups, stews or spaghetti sauce.
Berries of all kinds: No processing required, just freeze on a cookies sheet so they are nice and loose when frozen and throw in a Ziploc. Later, you can dip your hand in the bag and grab any quantity you want.

Now a couple things that don’t freeze well even if they are in the grocery store!
Potatoes are terrible when they have been frozen. They get rubbery. Maybe you can get away with it if they are mixed with a lot of other veggies in a soup but even then, the taste is flat and the texture worse.
Green Beans: Yep, that’s right, even the bags of green beans in the grocery store freezer are awful. Why? Because they never cook right again and when you reheat them they are like hard, spongy, little tubes that taste like grass. The solution I find is to buy French style green beans at the store and add those to my soups and stews. They do not hold that hard shape and the taste is acceptably better. Even when I freeze my beans from the garden I “French” them now.