Cooking with millet

About a week or so ago I was reading up on primary grain cultivation from the perspective of 5000 BC and changes in current production.  You can find that here. I was going through a little pasta phase, but the books I was reading on culinary history were speaking about a use of grains and legumes that was common before pasta. Generally speaking, wheat, rye, barley, rice, millet, and who knows what else have been cooked with water in various ways for thousands of years and have included a variety of other ingredients (or not). So, following a habit I have, when encountering new information I begin to experiment and I thought I’d try making something with millet, a grain I’ve never used before.

Millet is not entirely unknown to me. As I’ve mentioned before, I live with two parrots and anywhere from 10-16 parakeets.  The parakeets go absolutely crazy over millet – it’s their very favorite treat. In parakeet form, the little millet seeds are on a stick that is not unlike an 8″ long finger. I clip it in their cage and within 10-15 minutes, they’ve hoovered up the thousand or so little seeds on three sticks.  It’s quite a sight.  I don’t have a picture of the parakeets with a millet stick but here they are at breakfast. This is only ten.  There were two others who were out of range.

The night I wanted to see how to cook millet for myself, I was making a pomegranate and walnut chicken from a central Asian recipe in a cookbook by Elisabeth Rozin. Therefore, I needed to have whatever I was doing with millet complement the chicken. I did an internet search for central Asian cooking and found surprisingly little, but nearly every country in the area has a dish called some variation of “plov.”  It’s rice, cooked with carrots, raisins, and seasonings that vary from country to country, with a meat stew on the top.  I already had the meat (my pomegranate/walnut chicken) but I could substitute millet for rice and I’d be OK.

The basic recipe is to cook the rice/millet the way you are supposed to cook it (and I’d have to figure that out) and while it is cooking, sautè shredded carrots in butter, add raisins, and add seasoning, which in this case was salt, pepper, and ground cumin.  Once the millet/rice is done, add it to the carrots, mix everything up and get it hot, and serve.

Since I’d never cooked millet before, I thought I’d do a little test run a couple of hours before dinner.  If it worked, I’d only have to reheat. If I failed, I could try something else.  I failed. I saw about four different approaches to cooking millet, but they all involved (a) toasting the millet in a dry saucepan, (b) adding water, (c) bringing to boil, and (d) reducing to a simmer until done. The key variable here was part (d).  When I cook rice or quinoa or something along those lines, I usually use 2 parts water to one part grain, bring to a boil, reduce to low, cook for 15 minutes, rest for 5-10 minutes, and serve, so the millet instructions were pretty familiar.  The problem the first time, though, is that after the allotted time, the millet wasn’t anywhere near done and there was lots of unabsorbed water (it also didn’t help that I over-toasted).  When trying again, I adjusted by not toasting as much and by reducing the heat to medium-low and it worked well.

The end result was a success.  The sweetness of the carrots and raisins were balanced well by the cumin and the whole was smoothed out by the millet, which seemed to have a very similar texture to quinoa (and couscous) with a little more pronounced flavor.  In a way, millet could be considered interchangeable with quinoa, couscous, bulgur wheat, or even lentils in many dishes and I’ve provided a few recipes below there the grain (or the lentils) can easily be swapped out for whatever you wish that evening or whatever you have on hand. On advantage of millet is that it is much cheaper than the others, at least in the store where I shop.

Recipe – Millet with carrots and raisins

Ingredients

1 cup of millet (or quinoa, couscous, bulgur wheat, or lentils)

2 tbl butter

2 carrots, grated

1/4 cup raisins

1 tbl cumin, freshly ground

1/2 tsp turmeric

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cook the millet using your favorite technique.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat and add the carrots, stirring frequently  for about 5 minutes.  Add the raisins, cumin, turmeric, a generous pinch of salt, and a couple of grinds of fresh pepper.  Stir again and taste for seasoning.

Add the millet to the skillet and mix thoroughly with the carrot mixture.  Taste again for seasoning and serve.

Recipe – Lentil salad with grapes

Ingredients

1 cup lentils (or millet, quinoa, bulgur wheat, or couscous)

1/2 cup red grapes, halved

1/2 cup green grapes, halved

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

1/2 cup parsley

1 tbl dried oregano (or 1/4 cup fresh oregano)

1 tbl lemon juice

1 tbl extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Directions

Cook the lentils using your favorite technique.  After cooking, cool them under running cold water, drain, and add to a bowl.

Add the other ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Taste for seasonings – you may want to add salt, pepper, lemon juice or oil, depending on your taste.