Returning to Ancient Grains with Sorghum

I'm a SoCal gal. So, when I hear the word sorghum, my head immediately pulls up an image of Gone with the Wind. Isn't it some kind of Southern molasses?

Well, yes and no. One type, sweet sorghum, is a tall cereal grain that has, in fact, served as the source of an inexpensive syrup and as feed in the form of the whole plant for animals. But in the U.S. a second, shorter variety is grown for animal feed. And ethanol. And, get this, fencing, pet food, building material, and floral arrangements. Its great quality is that it's drought tolerant (anyone growing it in California?) and very hardy. In fact, it requires a third less water to grow than corn. And that's why, in thirsty parts of the U.S., sorghum is making a comeback. According to United Sorghum Checkoff, in 2013 8.06 million acres of sorghum were planted in the U.S.--primarily in Kansas, Texas, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Colorado on dryland areas.

Originating from northeastern Africa, where it's been growing for at least 4,000 years, sorghum spread to the rest of Africa, as well as India and China. It's thought to have been introduced to North America in cargo ships that carried African slaves.

While corn is still king in the U.S., farmers are experiencing greater demand for sorghum and not just because of water scarcity. Because it's an ancient grain and a gluten-free grain, increasingly people are showing a culinary interest in it. It's ground into flour for baking but I have been enjoying the whole grains themselves--which look like pale little ballbearings with a black dot in center.

Sorghum is not difficult to find in San Diego. I found Bob's Red Mill packages of it at Whole Foods. Like any whole grain it's endlessly versatile. Boil it like rice and enjoy it as a side dish. Create risotto with it. Make a hot cereal with it. Or, you can even pop it like popcorn.

I kept it simple just to try it out. The water to grain ratio with sorghum is 3 to 1 and it takes close to an hour to cook. The grains plump up, but they still are small and have a chewy consistency.

I first ate the cooked sorghum with a tomato-based chicken stew. Then I turned the leftovers into a sorghum and cherry tomato salad, basically rummaging through my refrigerator to use ingredients like sliced kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, diced red onion, garbanzo beans, parsley from my garden, currants, and toasted pine nuts. I tossed all of it together in a light vinaigrette I made. Day one it was a solid B. The textures were good--some crunch, some chew. The flavors were, too--sweet, herbaceous, briny, salty, garlicky (from the vinaigrette). But day two it all came together. So, make this a day in advance so the flavors can really meld.

I also heard that sorghum can be popped and thought that sounded like a hoot. So, I pulled out a tall pot and gave it a try. I'd read instructions that you can put the grains in a pot and cover it, shaking the pot over high heat until all the kernels are transformed. But these little guys are so tiny I wasn't convinced I'd hear what was happening inside. They just didn't seem robust enough. And, based on that I also didn't think they jump too high. So, I just used an open pot that was very tall.

My first go round wasn't successful. I added too much olive oil in and they drowned. Just turned brown. So, I emptied the pot, used just the slightest amount of oil to a quarter cup of sorghum and tried again with higher heat. By now the pot was quite hot and the action started immediately. And stirring with a wooden spoon seemed more useful than shaking the pot. The grains won't all pop but even the orphans can be enjoyed without worry of cracking your teeth.

What to do with them? Other than snacking, of course. They make a great garnish. The popped kernels are petite and delicate looking. Use them to top a creamy soup or a platter of roasted vegetables. Add them to a salad. Make little sweet balls (a la popcorn balls) to garnish a dessert. They're just fun!

Print Page

My Bread Baking Revival, Reinhart-Style

Until summer hit, I had been on a bread baking tear. Not all of it was very good. I was trying to accomplish too many things at once. On my own. I wanted breads with a crispy crust. That had a light interior texture. Lots of holes. Lots more flavor, especially my sour dough loaves. After all, I'd been nursing a starter for over a year. I was inspired by my friend Nicole Hamaker and her Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge, but for whatever reason I just wasn't paying attention to author Peter Reinhart. I was reading Joe Ortiz's The Village Baker, trying out Jim Lahey's My Bread (his no-knead tome and the ultimate bust for me), and then attempting to adapt my go-to King Arthur Flour sourdough recipe to Lahey. Wet dough, lots of proofing time (as in days), a cast iron Dutch oven. Well, it worked. Sometimes. But I couldn't figure out what I was doing that made it work or fail.

And then came summer and it was just too warm for me to bake bread. Sadly, I also let my starter languish. So, by the time I was re-energized to start again, I needed a new starter (I like the King Arthur Classic Fresh Sourdough Starter). And, I definitely was ready for a new approach.

Enter Peter Reinhart. I have both the Bread Baker's Apprentice and Artisan Breads Every Day. For whatever reason, I just hadn't really dipped into them and never got around to baking from them. My bad.

But, I picked up the latter a couple of weeks before my starter arrived and found his 50 Percent Whole Grain Rustic Bread and Pizza Dough recipe. Perfect! My mom adores whole wheat bread and I could bring it to our Thanksgiving dinner. It calls for a combination of whole wheat and unbleached bread flours, kosher salt, instant yeast, honey, water, and olive oil. That's it. Except that Reinhart offers a formula for turning the whole grain into a multigrain. I picked up a package of Bob's Red Mill Five Grain Cereal and, following Reinhart's instruction, substituted 20 percent of the whole wheat flour with the cereal. And, I think one of the keys to success with this and all other bread baking was that I measured the ingredients by weight not volume.

The loaves, which are baked to his Pain a l'Ancienne Rustic Bread -- essentially a ciabatta -- were easy to make and delicious, even though the dough for this and all the others are wet and sticky. But Reinhart has figured out the best and easiest ways to work with them so the results are a cause for celebration not frustration or heartache. These loaves were light and full of complex flavors. My mom ate half a loaf at one sitting, so I consider them a success.

It was time to move onto another recipe.

Of course, it had to be a sourdough. By now I had my starter made -- although I will also try Reinhart's version in the future. I picked his San Francisco Sourdough Bread. He has two options here: one with just his wild yeast starter (which includes the mother starter) and the other that also includes instant yeast. I went purist because I wanted a more complex, tart flavor. Adding commercial yeast would produce the bread more quickly but with that reduced time for the bread to ferment, you lose some flavor.

Now my only complaint about this book is that you start out using one recipe but you end up directed to other recipes in the book for further instructions for shaping the breads, sometimes directed from one to another to yet another -- so keep some paper bookmarks handy. You'll need them. But that's my only quibble. Reinhart's instructions are clear, the processes are simple and there's almost no kneading; instead, easy turning and then proofing -- and the results are fabulous. See?

This shot was taken when the loaves were just out of the oven. I was tickled at the rise and the apparent crispiness of the crust. But how would they taste and what would the texture be? It was a long 45 minutes of letting them cool before I could cut into one of them. But, I was delighted with the results.

I so appreciate many of Reinhart's tips. He sprinkles olive oil on his work surface instead of flour to keep the dough from sticking but without adding more flour to the dough. He keeps a bowl of water by his work surface and dips his bench scraper and hands into it to keep the dough from sticking to them. Instead of sprinkling cornmeal on a pizza peel, he uses parchment paper on the back of a cookie sheet and the bread just slides with the paper onto the preheated baking stone in the oven. Marvelous!

So, I'll be making many more recipes from this book and trying out those in The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I can't wait to try making his bagels!

Print Page

The Yin and Yang of Walmart: Meet Marketside

We've heard a lot in recent years about Walmart's efforts to get their supercenters into communities, some of which have been resistant. Well, last October, Walmart launched a new approach to bringing groceries to the masses who may not have time to do big shopping in a supermarket. It opened four Marketside grocery stores in the Phoenix area: the cities of Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, and Chandler.

The markets are said to be a pilot project to gauge customer response to a smaller, neighborhood market. It's no doubt a direct challenge to Tesco's Fresh & Easy shops. At about 15,000 square feet, they're about the same size with similar merchandise, and pint-sized compared to the supercenters, which tend to be more than 180,000 square feet.

Recently I was in Tempe and visited the store on the corner of Rural Road and Eliot. It had taken over the building that had previously housed an Osco drugstore. That gives you an idea of the size we're talking about.

Inside, the store is a tiny version of a supermarket. You'll find a petite produce department called, ahem, "the garden," at the entrance. It pretty much has all the basics, something to fill the fridge without much fuss.


Behind that section is a deli counter with Dietz & Watson meats called "the kitchen." The section also has prepared foods, which are cooked off site, and include sushi, rotisserie chicken, meatballs, BBQ chicken, quiche Lorraine, and flat bread pizzas.


My niece, Samantha, and I picked out a Mediterranean flat bread pizza with spinach, tomatoes, feta, and Romano cheeses. The pizza can be cooked in the oven at Marketside or you can take it home and heat it up it in your oven (350 for about 20 minutes). We chose the latter. It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't bad.


Chanel, a young woman helping us at "the kitchen" counter, told us that she and her co-workers are trained in wine, meat, produce, and prepared foods. "Everyone has to be able to do everything," she said.

There are aisles of additional packaged prepared foods. Teriyaki chicken was alongside lasagna and spaghetti and meatballs. There was crusted flounder fillet, grilled vegetables, pasta, salads, soups. Basically, many of the items you'd expect if you wanted something quick to take home for dinner. We bought a private label medium salsa and tzatziki. Both were actually pretty good.


From there, you get into the basics. There was fresh meat and poultry -- but no fresh fish. Lotsa pasta, including Barilla Plus, the whole wheat pasta by Barilla. There's a pretty good dairy and cheese selection, lots of snack items, of course, and a variety of breads and desserts.

In the baking aisle were all the usual suspects, but the surprise was seeing a nice array of Bob's Red Mill baking products, including soy flour, vital wheat gluten, and dark rye flour.

In fact, there was a surprising selection of healthy food products. Kashi cereals, organic granolas, agave nectar, and a display of gluten-free products took up what looks like valuable shelf space for a small market.


Marketside has a few aisles of wines, beers, and spirits.


And, there's a household section with detergents, TP, and health and beauty aids.

One of the attractions of Marketside, at least according to Samantha and her mother, is the Redbox movie machine. For $1 a night you have immediate access to a variety of rentals.


So, is Marketside coming to a location near you? That remains to be seen. For obvious reasons, they'll site future locations near current Walmart stores to take advantage of product transport. But, it's not even a sure thing that more stores will open. In a June Reuters story, it was reported that given the economy, Walmart isn't planning on accelerating the pilot and is waiting to have more data before proceeding with opening more stores.

Gluten-Free Eating in San Diego

When I was about 12 years old, I launched into a weird period in which if I ate spicy food and then I ate chocolate my upper lip began to itch and would then swell up to look like what today we would call a horrifying Botox moment. Think Goldie Hawn in The First Wives Club. It was embarrassing and uncomfortable and to this day I try to avoid that combination.

But, lucky me, that—I think—has been the extent of troubles I’ve had with food, beyond loving it too much, of course. Unfortunately, a growing number of people in the U.S.—some 2 million, or one in 133—are having to live and deal with something far worse and debilitating: celiac disease. For these folks, eating habits must be reinvented. They must live without gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley, because their small intestine can’t tolerate it, causing a variety of health problems including gastro-intestinal distress, bloating, fatigue and muscle aches. It’s not easy and not straightforward. They’re giving up more than conventional bread, cookies and pasta. In a world in which so much of what we eat is processed, we don’t know for sure what is added by manufacturers to seemingly safe items. Every purchase of packaged goods at a grocery store can be a potential disaster for someone suffering from celiac disease.

And, of course, for years people suffering from this disease—or from wheat allergies—have either had to avoid dining out or become a server’s worst nightmare, carefully ordering at best a grilled chicken breast and steamed vegetables or something equally innocuous and then still worrying because gluten can show up in the oddest places—bread crumbs that extend tuna salad or chicken salad or a slight teaspoon of flour in an omelet. There can be cross-contamination in a kitchen and the restaurant may use packaged products that contain gluten, including items like soy sauce.

Happily, that’s changing, especially in California. It would be coy to describe this phenomenon as celiac chic, but gluten-free menus are popping up in restaurants throughout San Diego. We’re talking Pizza Fusion and Terra in Hillcrest, Urban Solace in North Park and chains like P. F. Chang's and Sammy's Woodfired Pizza. Markets like Henry’s, Trader Joe's, OB People’s Co-Op and Whole Foods have a large selection of boldly marked gluten-free products. Additionally, we have websites and bloggers focusing on this issue and offering plenty of useful resources and recipes for those whose diet is constrained.

I was on KPBS radio’s weekday morning show These Days on Tuesday, May 26 at 10 a.m. to discuss gluten-free eating, as well as vegan and sugar-free diets. With me was Erin McKenna, a former San Diegan who now operates BabyCakes, a New York City bakery on the Lower East Side that specializes in alternative baked goods. Her new book, BabyCakes, has just been published, so talked about that as well as the new bakery she's opening in downtown L.A.

I’ve been doing a fair amount of research for this so I thought I’d share my findings, although I don't pretend that this is comprehensive. If you or a loved one are newly diagnosed with celiac disease or have wheat allergies, I hope you find it helpful. And if you’ve got a great resource I’ve missed, please leave a comment so others can benefit from your knowledge.

Restaurants with Gluten-Free Menu Items

Urban Solace (printed menu of options)

Sammy's Woodfired Pizza (offers gluten-free pizza)

Ritual Tavern (has gluten-free vegan or meat shepherd's pie and many gluten-free appetizers, entrees, cider and beer)

Pizza Fusion (has gluten-free and vegan options)

PF Chang’s (has gluten-free menu available)

Terra (Chef Jeff Rossman's menu is full of wonderful, clearly-marked gluten-free dishes)

Del Mar Rendezvous (has gluten-free menu with over 40 items)

For more restaurants, check out the lists at Urban Spoon and Gluten-Free SD.

Markets with Gluten-Free Products

I spent some time at Henry’s and found what looks to me to be a wealth of different items, from salad dressings to frozen meals. Everything is well marked by the store and stocked with similar conventional products. In other words, there’s no special GF section you have to find. Here are some examples of products I found:

Frozen foods: Gluten-Free Café’s Lemon-Basil Chicken, Amy’s Asian Noodle Stir Fry and Indian Paneer Tika. Bagels, bread, pizza crusts

Baking: Pamela’s Cake Mix (chocolate and vanilla), Pamela’s Frosting (chocolate and vanilla), Pamela’s Brownie Mix, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Bread Mix, Baking and Pancake Mix. Arrowhead Mills Brownie Mix, All-Purpose Baking Mix, Pancake & Baking Mix. Four Sisters & A Brother Italian Herbed Breadcrumbs. Red Mill’s vast selection of flours, a baking mix and chocolate cake mix.

Pasta: De Boles rice lasagna noodles, multi-grain angel hair, penne and spaghetti noodles. Ancient Quinoa Harvest spaghetti noodles and shells.

Gluten-free penne with string beans, parsley, toasted pine nuts, French feta and Spanish olive oil

Cookies: Pamela’s chocolate chip mini cookies. Mi-Del ginger snaps

Salad Dressing: There was too much here to list, but included a vast array of Annie’s brand, including Natural Raspberry Vinaigrette, Red Wine and Olive Oil Vinaigrette and Artichoke Parmesan Dressing

Ethnic Foods: Thai Kitchen has a large selection of sauces and rice noodles. Patak has some Indian-style sauces including the Korma Curry, which I’ve used in the past and enjoyed.

Trader Joe’s has a wide assortment of gluten-free products. Their house products are labeled and throughout the store I found some surprising gluten-free options, including salad dressings, chutney, marinara and other tomato sauces, dips, brown rice penne pasta, brownie mix, pancake/waffle mix, granola, sausages and flourless chocolate walnut cookies. I saw the same brown rice bread I bought at Henry's, only on the shelf, not frozen, and less expensive. Look on the shelves for blue tags with a "G" "Gluten-Free" on them. And, here is their list of gluten-free store items, edited as of May 20, 2009.

Whole Foods has its Gluten-Free Bakehouse, which they describe here, along with useful links to other resources.

OB People’s Co-Op has a wide variety of gluten-free products and a staff well-versed in helping customers identify what will work for them.

Jimbo’s is another great place to buy gluten-free products and offers an online list of items.

GNI Bakery in Escondido makes a variety of gluten-free bread products that can be bought online or found at Whole Foods, Major Market and Seaside Market.

thepurepantry.com is a website launched by a San Diegan selling gluten-free baking mixes.

Gluten-Free Mall offers a vast selection of products for celiac diets.

Take a look at the big supermarkets, too, but you'll have to look hard. I spent some time at the Ralphs in Hillcrest. They carry a wide selection of Bob's Red Mill products and some Arrowhead Mills gluten-free products. But only one Thai Kitchen packaged meal is labeled gluten-free. Be careful with the Annie's condiments. While the selection that Henry's carries has a number of gluten-free products, read the labels carefully at Ralphs.

Websites

For basic information on celiac disease:

Celiac.com

National Foundation for Celiac Awareness

NIH Celiac Awareness Campaign

Celiac Sprue Association

On Being Gluten Free:

Living Without magazine

WheatFreeAmerica.com

Gluten Intolerance Group of North American

Blogs

Gluten Free in San Diego

Karina’s Kitchen

Artist and cookbook writer Karina Allrich has become a friend and is one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve come to know in this arena. Her blog is filled with wonderful recipes and resources, like her gluten-free cheat-sheet. She recently launched a gluten-free recipe search engine on Google and has put together and hosted a marathon gluten-free Twitter party, which you can find on Twitter by searching #gfree.

Gluten-Free Girl

Shauna Ahern has also been at the forefront of blogging about being gluten free. She’s the author of the book, Gluten-Free Girl. Her blog has a wealth of information and online resources for those with celiac disease. Definitely worth bookmarking.

Vegetarian/Vegan: Some people who are gluten free are also exploring vegetarian and vegan options. Many of these same San Diego markets and restaurants also have vegan options. You can find lists of these at:

All Vegan Shopping website (includes a downloadable PDF of a vegetarian dining guide)

Urban Spoon (includes reader reviews and blog resources)

Happy Cow Compassionate Eating Guide (includes reader reviews)

Basic Tips:

1. Read labels carefully and be on the lookout for wheat, rye, barley, spelt, wheat starch and commercial oats, according to Karina Allrich. “Oats themselves are okay, but those that are commercially grown tend to contain gluten because of cross-contamination,” she explains. “Some small farmers like Bob’s Red Mill are carefully growing oats to give people the option of eating them.”
2. When in doubt about a packaged product, look on the label for the customer care or information number for the manufacturer and call to find out if the product is truly gluten free.
   
3. Shop the perimeter of the supermarket. That’s where you’ll find produce, dairy and meats. It’s the center aisles with processed foods that prove difficult and dangerous.
4. Enjoy grains like quinoa and buckwheat. Try sorghum flour with its lovely, grassy flavor.
5. Ask questions when dining out. Find out if the chef adds anything like flour to egg dishes or breadcrumbs to tuna salad or chicken salad. Many restaurants now have gluten-free menus on request, so be sure to ask if they're available.
6. Don’t assume that because spelt is low in gluten that you can eat it or that someone with celiac disease or a wheat allergy can. Allrich says that the equivalent of 1/10^th of a grain of rice could set off a sensitive auto-immune system. Low gluten isn't no gluten; it doesn’t help and could make someone very ill.
7. Make sure you keep gluten-free items and conventional items completely separate and well labeled so you don’t inadvertently cross-contaminate the gluten-free products.

Note: If you'd like a copy of BabyCakes, please leave a comment below. I have two copies to give two readers. Tell me your experiences with gluten-free, vegan or sugar-free eating, shopping for food and dining out. More resources? Let us know! The deadline is Friday, June 5 at 5 p.m. PDT. I'll randomly select two readers who have left a comment.



Print Page

Food and Respecting the Body

I'm sure I'm not the only one who keeps getting questioned about New Year's resolutions. I hate them, to be honest, so I like the response Will Shortz gave Liane Hanson this morning on NPR's Morning Edition Sunday. He doesn't do them because he can improve himself year round.

But, of course, after weeks of indulging over the holidays it's time to recalibrate the eating impulses, get back to exercising and create a little more balance between the two. As a friend of mine said to me at lunch last week, she's not interested in dieting but in respecting her body. I love that approach. And, actually, throughout these weeks I tried to create some healthful meals to keep me from going completely over the edge and I also sought some ways to insert some extra nutrients into dishes I already enjoy.

One of the easiest ways to do this in cold weather is through soups. The tendency, of course, is to go for hearty, heavy, meaty soups, but one of my favorites, along with roasted squash soup, is red pepper soup. The recipe is something I rediscovered in a book I've had for about 25 years, "Martha Stewart's Quick Cook." The book dates back to before Martha Stewart was an empire and household name. But, it holds up and the soup is one I used to make with friends I cooked with in L.A. It's creamy but there's no cream involved; in fact, this is a very healthy soup but packed with flavor. And very easy to make. It actually was the perfect solution for me to make use of the half dozen gorgeous red, orange and yellow peppers my mom gave me after a trip to Costco.


The recipe calls for butter but you can easily skip that and just add more olive oil. I, of course, also add several more cloves of garlic. I also skipped step 4 and simply used a jar of roasted red peppers I had bought at Trader Joe's.

Red Pepper Soup
from Martha Stewart's Quick Cook

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
8 red peppers
3 carrots, peeled
3 shallots, peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 pear, peeled and quartered
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 quart chicken stock
1 teaspoon crushed dried red pepper
Dash of cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
Sprigs of fresh tarragon to taste

1. Slice thinly 6 of the peppers, the carrots, shallots, garlic, and pear.
2. Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet and saute the sliced vegetables and pear over medium-low heat until tender, 8 to 10 minutes.



3. Add the stock, dried red pepper, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 25 to 30 minutes.


4. While the soup is cooking, roast the remaining red peppers directly on the gas flame (or under a hot broiler), rotating them with tongs until completely charred. Put them in a paper bag for 5 minutes to sweat. Wash off the blackened skin under cold running water and remove seeds. Drain on paper towels.
5. Puree the soup in a food processor or blender, adding one of the roasted red peppers. Pour the pureed soup back into the pan and reheat over low flame. (Note, I used my KitchenAid immersion blender instead, directly in the pot of soup. No muss; no fuss.)
6. Julienne the remaining red pepper into fine strips and add them to the soup. Garnish with tarragon and serve with French bread. (Note: As you can see, I left out the tarragon, opting instead for a dollop of low-fat soup cream.)


I'm also incorporating some interesting products into my dishes that give an extra punch of nutrition.

Bob's Red Mill has several interesting products. For awhile now I've been adding their flaxseed to cereal, soups, stews, salads and bread. They're a great source of protein, fiber and minerals like magnesium and copper. They have a new product, hulled hemp seed, which looks similar to sesame seeds, has no discernable flavor and yet apparently contains all 20 known amino acids, is high in protein and contains Omega-3 and Omega-6 essential fatty acids.


I've been adding it to oatmeal, yogurt and tossing it on salads. Bob's Red Mill also introduced a hemp protein powder, but I haven't tried that yet since it's been too chilly for me to enjoy smoothies or shakes.

To add flavor to dishes without much fat, I've long been enjoying Majestic Garlic's line of spreads. I've written about them before, but it's a favorite of mine that you can find at various local farmers markets.


It's great in baked potatoes, with a vegetable saute, tossed with pasta, spread on toasted bread (and eaten with the red pepper soup above), even incorporated with scrambled eggs. In short, it's very versatile and delicious.

As I think about it, I'll add more suggestions, including interesting things I find at the markets that you might not have considered. The idea, of course, is not to diet but to enjoy really good food that's also good for you.

Happy New Year!

Print Page