I hope you all haven’t been holding your breath, waiting for the answer to the mystery I left you with a month ago. I really intended to let you in on the secret two weeks ago but I was called away to the Monastery in Cottonwood to have a glorious weekend with my friends and figured you could wait.
As you may recall, I left off my last article with a cliffhanger, the unanswered question of why, if it’s so unhealthy, do we refine much of the grains we eat. The answer is pretty straightforward, but lengthy, and I should have told you then but I had exceeded my word count. Plus I wanted to pique your interest so you would come back and read more of the interesting stuff I had learned about grains that definitely wasn’t going to fit in the previous article.
First, the reasons why we refine so much of the grains we eat:
Refined grains are prettier. Humans prefer their food white and not brown. The reason we still want our food white is not clear. Historically, white food was very expensive so only the rich could afford it and everyone else coveted it. White also symbolizes purity and I guess it’s easier to spot contaminants in white food than it is in brown food.
Refined grains cook faster. Removing the outer seed coat, whose purpose in life is to regulate the passage of water into the seed so that it germinates but doesn’t drown, makes the seed cook much faster. This is well illustrated in the cooking times of brown versus white rice; white rice takes half the time to cook.
Refining also extends the shelf life of grains. Most of the fats in grain are stored in the germ and aleurone layer (which I know you remember from last month is the layer just under the seed coat). Removing these reduces the risk that the fats will oxidize and become rancid, allowing for much longer storage times.
And lastly, refined grains are easier to chew and easier to digest. Maybe too easy. Refined grains are almost all starch. The vitamins, minerals, fiber and enzymes have been removed. During digestion, all this starch is converted to sugar, which quickly raises blood sugar levels and may contribute to increased risk of diabetes.
I’m not sure any of these reasons is good enough to make up for the lack of nutritional value in refined grains. You can always pretty up brown grains with bright colored vegetables. You can cut down on cooking time by planning ahead and soaking your grains overnight. Modern refrigeration takes care of storage issues. And you’re probably better off chewing your food longer and dealing with a bit of flatulence than eating a bunch of empty calories.
Besides, there are way more interesting whole grains than there are refined grains.
Take wheat for example.
There is the most ancient form called Einkorn. It has two chromosomes and has a flowing form of gluten that makes it sticky. It’s great for porridge but not so good for bread.
When Einkorn crossed with a wild goat grass about a million years ago, it led to various species of four chromosome wheat including Emmer (also known as Farro), and Durum. Durum is still one of the most important species of wheat and is used to make bread, bulgur, and couscous. If you want to eat local Durum wheat you could try Kamut, which is a registered name for a variety of Durum that originated in Egypt but was developed in Fort Benton, Montana.
Then about 8000 years ago, a four chromosome wheat crossed with goat grass again and yielded a bunch of six chromosome wheats that include modern bread wheats, and Spelt.
All of these varieties of wheat are available in their whole grain form (only bread wheat is readily available in a refined form).
If you think that’s a lot of different kinds of wheat, it’s nothing compared to the diversities in rice. There may be as many as 100,000 different varieties of rice in the world.
There are four major categories of rice: Indica, Japonica, Aromatic and Glutinous. Within these categories the size, shape and color range from tiny, thin, blond grains to fat, short black grains with pink, purple, red and green colors in between. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, since we might not have time to try any other grains), we don’t have access to all 100,000 in the US but there is still a wide selection to choose from (I especially recommend trying forbidden black rice, it’s delicious and beautiful).
While corn, the last of the big three grains, does have lots of unrefined varieties, in this country we feed almost half of what we grow to animals (5.25 billion bushels in 2008 as compared to feeding only 325 million bushels to humans) and it’s mostly one variety.
I’ll just skip over corn and move on to the lesser known but no less delicious minor grains.
Amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, sorghum and teff are not widely eaten or available in the US. When they are available they are not refined and therefore can make an interesting addition to your whole grain repertoire.
My favorite of the bunch is quinoa, which cooks as fast as white rice and can be used anywhere you would use rice. It’s high in protein, cool looking, and quite tasty. All of them are worth trying and are a great way to get yourself out of a grain cooking rut.
I could go on and on about grains (and you may, at this point think I already have) but instead I’ll leave it to you to do more exploring and next month I’ll talk about making organic Twinkies instead.
Millet Patties
Makes 6-8 patties
If you've tried millet before and been disappointed, give these patties a try. They will change your mind. They did mine.
1 c. millet
3 T. olive oil, divided
2 c. water
1 T. minced garlic
¼ c. finely chopped red pepper
2 T. finely chopped green onion
¼ c. peanut butter
1 T. soy sauce
2-3 dashes of Brother Bru Bru (other hot sauces will suffice but the Brother is the best)
1 T. chopped pickled ginger
Heat a small saucepan with a tight fitting lid over medium-high heat. Add the millet and stir constantly until it is lightly toasted and fragrant. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil and the water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, add the chopped garlic, and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes until the millet is soft and somewhat creamy. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Place still warm millet in a bowl and add the peanut butter. Stir to combine. Add the pepper, green onion, soy sauce, hot sauce and pickled ginger.
Heat the remaining olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Form the millet mixture into 3” patties, about ½” thick. Saute the patties, browning them well on both sides. Serve immediately.
Serve straight up or as a substitute for a burger patty or like falafel with a tangy sauce.
