I wanted to prepare some wheat berries for use over the next few days, and on this occasion I used White Sonora Wheat Berries, which are produced in Arizona by Ramona Farms, and which I purchased at Whole Foods.  This type of wheat was actually brought here by Padre Kino and first distributed to the Pima Indians (Akimel O'Odham).

I wanted to allow for further cooking once I used them, so instead of cooking for the full hour, I cooked them for 45 minutes.  My first taste suggests that they are already edible, but this way I can add them to curries or other dishes and cook them another 15 minutes without cause them to dissolve.  After 45 minutes I rinsed them with cold water, drained them for 5 minutes in a sieve, and then stored them in the fridge.

This recipe is different from my other wheat berry recipes in that the kamut was pre-steamed and so cooked very quickly.  Not sure at the moment how I would adjust it for regular wheat berries.

Ingredients

• Some vegetable oil
• Some butter
• 1 cup pre-processed kamut. (If the bag says it takes only 10 minutes to prepare, it's pre-processed.  If you use unprocessed whole wheat, you will have to drastically expand the cooking time.)
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 3/4 of a large, yellow onion
• some granulated garlic
• 24 oz of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Method

1. Put the vegetable oil and butter in the pan. Head to medium high.
2. Add the onions. Cook till transucent.
3. Add the mushrooms and then the garlic. Mix. Cook till softened.
4. Add the kamut and the water. Do not cover.
5. Add the salt, pepper and soy sauce.
6. Slow boil until the loose liquid is gone.

Notes for next time

• This was too salty.  Next time add the soy sauce and the pepper, then wait till 3/4 of the liquid is gone and taste to figure out how much salt too add.
• I like the beef broth version better.
• If I make this for vegetarian friends again, I think I'll add a cube of vegetable boullion.

Ingredients

• Some vegetable oil
• Some butter
• 1 cup pre-processed kamut. (If the bag says it takes only 10 minutes to prepare, it's pre-processed.  If you use unprocessed whole wheat, you will have to drastically expand the cooking time.)
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 3/4 of a large, yellow onion
• a couple of cloves of minced garlic
• 24 oz of beef broth
• salt and pepper to taste later in the cooking process

Method

1. Put the vegetable oil and butter in the pan. Head to medium high.
2. Add the onions. Cook till transucent.
3. Add the mushrooms and then the garlic. Mix. Cook till softened.
4. Add the kamut and the beef broth. Cover till soft.
5. Uncover until the loose liquid is gone.

Notes for next time

• Cooking covered was a mistake: it retained too much broth too long. Next time boil completely uncovered.
• Next time try it without the beef broth to see if it's still any good.

I had about a fourth of a recipe of cornmeal crust left over. Didn't want to throw it out. So I mixed it with an egg, two cups of milk, sugar and some almond extract. Put it in a pyrex pan in a 325°F oven for about 30 minutes. Really tasty.

• 2 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp brewers yeast
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup of hot seasoned stock (or enough to make a stiff batter)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix and pat into an oiled deep 9-inch pie pan or cake dish. Bake for ten minutes before filling.

From "Diet for a small planet" by Frances Moore Lappé

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2020-01-28: This is the first time I'm trying this crust. Truth to tell, I didn't think it would work. I didn't really believe the corn meal would hold together without an egg, but it did.

I didn't add brewer's yeast. By mistake I used an entire teaspoon of salt. I kept adding liquid until all the loose corn meal was gathered up, which probably took one cup or one and a quarter cups of water in total. One recipe I saw suggested that if you were cooking in a glass dish (as opposed to a metal pie pan) that you should reduce the cooking time by one quarter or one fifth. That sort of made sense to me since it would continue cooking for a bit when you took it out of the oven, so my 8.5 x 8.5 inch square Pyrex dish I put in for only 8 minutes. When it came out of the oven, it hadn't browned, but it looked like it would work. I was quite surprised.

The crust worked well. I made it too thick on the sides, so cutting the driest top part took some elbow grease.

Ingredients

• 1 Pomegranate
• 2 Cups Rice
• 1 lb (454g) Chicken Drumsticks
• 1 oz (28g) Cilantro
• 1/2 Cup Raisins
• 1/4 Cup Sliced Pistachios
• 1 Tsp Ground Coriander Seeds
• 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
• 1 Tsp Saffron
• Turmeric
• Salt

Preparations

1. Soak the rice in water and 1 tbsp salt for 4 hours.
2. Deseed the pomegranate
3. Mince the cilantro.
4. Soak the saffron in 1 tbsp water for 20 minutes.

Directions

1. Transfer the drumsticks onto a small pot.
2. Add as much turmeric and salt as you would prefer.
3. Add enough water to cover the drumsticks.
4. Cover the pot with a lid (leave a crack open), simmer for 40 minutes or until cooked.
5. Boil the soaked rice for 10 to 15 minutes over medium heat or until tender.
6. Transfer the cooked chicken drumsticks over to a large bowl.
7. Debone and shred the drumsticks.
8. Stir in pomegranate, raisins, cilantro, and ground coriander seeds.
9. Drain the rice.
10. Remove half of the rice from the pot.
11. Stir in one tablespoon vegetable oil.
12. Add the chicken mixture over the rice and cover with the half (rest) of the rice.
13. Combine a tablespoon vegetable oil with one tablespoon water and add to the rice.
14. Cover the pot with a napkin and a lid.
15. Over medium heat, cook the rice for 30 minutes.
16. Remove the napkin, pour the saffron over the rice and place the lid back on the pot.
17. Continue heating for another 5 minutes.

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2018-09-15: first attempt

Okay, there is a lot about this recipe that sounds ridiculous. First off, why the hell would you soak rice for five hours? My rise is usually done in 20 minutes. So here's what I did differently.

Rice: I cooked it via my regular 20 minute route with a scant teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder in it. Plus I'm thinking this should be not two cups of raw rice, but two cups of cooked rice. Next time: a tablespoon.

The store had no sliced pistachios. I used half a cup of sliced almonds instead of a quarter cup of sliced pistachios.

I used 2 lbs of drum sticks. I used 1 tsp of turmeric and 1 tsp of salt. Next time probably a tbsp of turmeric would be better.

I skipped the cilantro, of course. It's the herb of the antichrist.

Once I added the chicken to the rice, I cooked it on low for 25 minutes. Once I added the saffron water, I cooked another 5 minutes.

I have the feeling that the purpose of the later cooking is to partially dry out the rice and separate it. If so, my approach failed.

On the whole the result was entirely edible. I look foerward to improving it next time.

Haven't tried this yet.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups (1 lb / 453g) Rice
• 8 oz (227g) Stew Beef
• 1/2 Cup (3.5 oz / 100g) Lentils
• 4.5 oz (127g) Cabbage
• 1 Bunch (2 oz / 57g) Parsley
• 1 Bunch (2 oz / 57g) Cilantro
• 1 Bunch (1 oz / 28g) Leek
• 1 Small Onion
• Vegetable Oil
• Turmeric
• Salt

Pre-preparation

1. Soak the rice in water and 1/2 Tbsp Salt for 2 hours.
2. Dice the Onion and cabbage.
3. Mince the herbs (parsley, cilantro, leek).

Method

1. Place the lentils in a small pot.
2. Add salt (Approx. 1 Tsp) and enough water to cover the lentils in one inch deep.
3. Cover with a lid (leave a crack open), and simmer for 25 minutes over medium-low heat.
4. Meanwhile, fry the dice onion with vegetable oil until translucent.
5. Stir in turmeric.
6. Add stew beef and stir to mix. Continue the heat for 10 more minutes until the beef turns brown.
7. Add water and a pinch of salt.
8. Cover the pot and cook for 30 minutes.
9. Fry the diced cabbage in a separate bowl for 5 minutes.
10. Stir in the minced parsley, cilantro and leek to the pot and continue frying for 5 more minutes.
11. Simmer the rice for 10 minutes until tender.
12. Drain the rice and rinse with cold water.
13. Add the beefs and lentils to the cabbage and herb mixture and stir thoroughly.
14. Transfer 2/3 of the rice out of the pot to a container.
15. Add 1 tbsp vegetable oil.
16. Add a layer of the mixture and top with a layer of the rice (1/3) from the container.
17. Repeat step 16 until all the ingredients are added to the pot.
18. Pour another tbsp of vegetable oil on top.
19. Cover the pot with a napkin and a lid.
20. Cook the rice for 20 minutes (over medium-low heat).
21. Stir before serving.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

2 boneless / skinless chicken breasts
1 cup white rice
1 can Cream of Celery soup
2 soup cans of water
1 pkt French onion packet soup mix
2 onions chopped roughly
salt and pepper to taste

In the oven for two hours at 320°.

Notes: the French onion soup Nicko used was a Continental French Onion cup of soup packet. We didn't have that at the store, so I bought Lipton Beefy Onion instead. Each packet is meant to be combined with 4 cups of water, so I'm hoping the tastes won't be too strong with the substitution.

Buckwheat with onions and mushrooms is a beloved Russian side dish. Decided to make it tonight. Below you will find not a standard recipe, but what I simply experimented with.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups of buckwheat groats
• 2 2/3 cups of boiling water
• 1 astonishing chunk of butter
• 4 small onions, sliced in thin half circles
• 250 g (1/2 pound) of button mushrooms (шампиньоны), sliced about 1/4 inch thick

Method

1. I boiled the water in my electric teapot. Added it plus a bouillon cube to a pan that had the buckwheat. Put that over a low flame. Covered the pan.
2. Melted the butter in a heavy-bottomed frying pan. Threw in the onions. Cooked till translucent. I didn't add the mushrooms at the beginning of this step because I wanted the onions to carmelize as the mushrooms where added in the next step, but I didn't want them to burn.
3. Added the mushrooms to the frying pan.
4. When the buckwheat was still just a bit tougher than I wanted to eat, I turned off the heat and uncovered it.
5. I had some extra chicken fat and juice in the fridge from a previous recipe, probably about a quarter cup's worth. I added this to the frying pan. Wow, what a great smell.
6. By this stage there was no free water in the pan with the buckwheat. Once the mushrooms seemed done, I added the buckwheat to the frying pan, along with half a cup of water to complete the cooking process. Once the water was gone, I considered the dish done.

Turned out quite well.

Comments

• In retrospect I shouldn't have added the bouillon cube or chicken stuff later. Instead I should have cooked it so that the flavors of the buckwheat, butter, onions and mushrooms were clear, along with nothing else. My reasoning is that the first time you make something, you should do the really basic version so that you later understand why people do the more complex versions.
• If you don't use bouillon in the buckwheat, you will need to add salt to the water that boils the buckwheat.
• You should also probably add a bit of salt and some black pepper to the frying pan for the last minute or two before adding the buckwheat.
• There are lots of variations on this recipe, but if you are using it as a basic side dish to complement an interesting main dish, then why make it more complex? Not too surprisingly, there are variations that add a bit of sour cream.

Damn, this is simple.

• Vegetable oil
• 2 cups of buckwheat
• 4 cups of boiling water
• 1 cube of chicken bouillon

Pour vegetable oil in pan. Turn on low heat. Pour in buckwheat. Turn on your hot water pot to boil. In the meantime with a spatula mix the buckwheat so that all the grains are covered with a bit of oil. You could toast it a bit if you wanted. Pour the boiling water over it when ready. Drop in the cube. Put a lid on it. Cook till the water is gone. Don't stir.

I suspect you could skip the oil step.

Turned out fine. In the past I've had buckwheat with a much stronger taste, but this time it was pretty mild. I wonder why?

Variations:

• I think this would be accompaniment to strong-tasting main dishes.
• It would also be good with some brown gravy and a poached egg or two on top.
• It would also be good to reheat the cold buckwheat in butter, but it aside, and serve up a couple fried eggs with it.

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2014-07-12: I've tried a couple more variations.

• Mix the buckwheat with some hot mustard, throw it in the microwave. Good.
• Mix the buckwheat with some soy sauce, throw it in the microwave. Good.