Thanks to the kind of friends you can make and ask for help in the same breath, the 5th annual Peace, Justice and You(th) camp featured freshly made millet salad. On one day notice Sireesha got foxtail millet and garbanzo beans, cooked them and brought them to the Kiddie Camp (yes that is what it is called) and on site, several parents jumped in to chop the veggies. Lo and behold by noon lunch was ready. Apart from the millet salad we had hummus, bread sliced tomato, cucumber and carrot and plenty of fruit.
I think 2018 will have to be remembered as the year of Einkorn. Recently when trying to convey to my sister how ravenously exhilarated, how irrationally exuberant, how transcendentally euphoric I had become in the sannidhi of einkorn, Khiyali said, “I think it has replaced Taoism as her new religion.”
She said this because just a few months ago I was transported, I was understood, I was spoken to, by a verse from the Tao the Ching.
All the world talks about my Tao with such familiarity — What folly! Tao is not something found at the marketplace or passed on from father to son It is not something gained by knowing or lost by forgetting If Tao were like this It would have been lost and forgotten long ago
Let us simply say, I exhaled.
A sigh of such satisfaction, of longed-for understanding, such sense of being found, being at once remembered without ever having been forgotten, a reassurance of trust in the world, a touch of the ancients, the likes of which I had not felt before or since … until I found einkorn.
Is there anything like einkorn? No there is not.
To think I stumbled upon it almost by accident. For introducing me to einkorn I must thank my friend Lisa Kinney, who has been purveying the goods of the Amish to me … when I asked her if she could bring me some wheat berries, she also brought einkorn. Not knowing what to do with einkorn I used up all the wheat berries first. Having resolved not to buy flour, back in my early days of milling when such resolutions were required to prevent me from taking the benighted way of seeking things that are to be found in the marketplace, I one day found myself out of wheat berries.
Freshly milled einkorn!
And so the einkorn pulled up to the front of the pantry and made its way into the mill. Now, for a recipe. I found one that said “if the thought of baking is daunting …” I thought, no, the thought of baking bread is not daunting, give me a recipe for the undaunted. Nonetheless, since this was the only recipe for plain wholegrain einkorn bread I could find, I followed it and found that there is little that can say “Tu Zinda Hai” with the wisdom and confidence of fresh baked einkorn.
Moreover, I can also attest that, for those daunted by baking, the process is simpler than baking with modern wheat, as there is little or no kneading involved.
Step 1 – Mix water, honey and yeast. Let sit for 5-8 minutes as the yeast proofs.
Note: If you know your yeast is active you can go directly to step 2 without waiting for visual proof. If you do opt to confirm, or have littles who want to see the yeasties plunge down into the sweet water and foam up to the top, here is what it will look like after a few minutes:
Yeast after a few minutes in sweet warm water will look like this. If nothing like this happens, your yeast is probably inactive and you need to get new yeast.
Step 2: Add flour and salt. Mix with a fork until all the flour is wet. No need to knead einkorn. In fact, after mixing, the dough gets half an hour to rest and rise. Don’t wait for it to double in bulk, just let it start rising and move to step 3.
All five ingredients for einkorn bread are mixed. The dough is too wet to roll or shape. But it will rise.
Step 3: Stir down and transfer dough to oiled baking pan. Keep in a warm place and allow to rise again for 30 minutes. Don’t expect it to double in bulk. If you let it rise until it doubles in bulk, it might collapse while baking. Note that I am speaking from experience. If this happens though, all is not lost. The bread will still taste good, get eaten, and you can try again in a couple of days.
Step 4: Preheat oven to 375 °F and then put the pan in the oven to bake for 35 – 40 minutes.
It usually rises a bit more than what you see in the above pictures (will try to remember to take pictures again and put them in here for comparison) but even so the texture will be more dense than bread made with modern wheat.
I found these proportions on the Jovial website and I have been using them ever since. So simple – one pound einkorn flour , one ounce honey, half a teaspoon salt, half a tablespoon of yeast, and 350 grams of water. Here it is in grams (mostly):
456 grams whole grain einkorn flour 350 grams water 28 grams honey 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp yeast
Basically – stir everything together, let rest for 30 minutes. By this time it should start rising but not double in bulk. Stir down and transfer to an oiled baking pan. Let rise 30 minutes. Again, don’t wait for it to double. Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes.
Don’t forget to preheat the oven so that it is ready at 375 by the time the 30 minutes are up. Otherwise the dough will keep rising while you wait for the oven. Timing is important in yeast-based baking, and especially so with einkorn where the rising time is short to begin with.
Well well well, aren’t we getting adventurous? These Swanky Little Millet Idlis have no rice at all, not that we don’t love rice, but if you were looking for ways to eat more millets (aren’t we all?) I can’t say enough about సామలు known in English as Little Millet and in Punjabi as Swank. Yes, Swank. So here are the names in various languages – check if your store has them so that you can get your swank on!
The idlis are very easy to prepare. Note that the grey color comes from the chilka (peel) of the urad and not from the millet which is an off-white or beige color. You can use the same batter to make dosas or uttappams. Read the rest of this entry »
As always, Amma promises you simple recipes, the kind that you will actually make and not longingly admire on the page. Considering how easy it is to get actually ripe tomatoes in India, it is a wonder that dry soup mixes even make it to market. Their appeal could be that they are popular in Western countries where the growing season is shorter and “vine ripened” tomatoes merit special announcement in the grocery store. Here we get tomatoes that are heavy with juice, red through and through and bursting with flavor.
Soup simmers in iron wok
The yumminess of this soup depends on the tomato so don’t try this if the inside of your tomato looks pale and hollow. Most of the soup mixes and cans use an inferior quality of tomato and add sugar, fat and artificial flavor to compensate. A fresh, ripe tomato Read the rest of this entry »
We are certainly not the first to post a recipe for కొర్ర పులిహార, but we just may be the most popular – that depends on you 😉 Fortunately we have millet champion Sunitha from Seattle who has a direct link to the Millets Initiative in Ananthapur and brought home a variety of millets last time she went to visit the farmers there. Foxtail Millet is a small grain that cooks easily. Just as we eat different vegetables every day, why not different grains? asks Dinesh of village Kadri. Dinesh coordinates the Millets Initiative in Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh. As someone who eats rice every day, all I can say is, “what a concept!”
Made with whole wheat, sprouted ragi and dates, these chocolate muffins are wholesome enough to have for breakfast! Or any time of day – not to mention they are so easy to pack for travel. Stun your friends at the next potluck. When we saw Chef Disha proudly display her creation, we asked her Amma to share the recipe.
Basic Vegan Chocolate Muffins (recipe adapted from Veganosaurus)
Sejal, Amma to 1 year-old Shaurya in Hyderabad, shares her story of pregnancy and birth. Sejal is vegan and active in raising awareness about the benefits of a vegan diet for the health of ourselves and the environment.
Recently I overheard a mother talk about having her children have one turn a week to plan the meals, as long as they were healthy. As an example of what would not do, she stated,”It can’t be pizza!” Pizza is however, one of the healthiest dinners I know. Using whole wheat dough to make the crust, and plenty of vegetables for the topping, I don’t see where you can go wrong! Read the rest of this entry »
Ever since Sejal posted her recipe for Coconut-fig ice-cream, there has been a flurry of interest in vegan food. With the new year coming, one of the resolutions some of us toy with is to try to reduce our dependence on animal products, or eliminate them from our diet altogether. Cause we’re cool like that.
Whether for health, ethical or environmental reasons, or just to spruce up our foodie stripes, most of us could diversify our diets by bringing in some vegan items onto our menus. Here are some fun ones to get the ball rolling.
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