is a regularly scheduled Relief Society meeting our ward puts on once a month. Last month they did a whole class about crock pot cooking that got my wheels turning, but I've yet to put it into practice. Two months ago they did a whole class about everything one can make using a basic bread recipe [dinner rolls, cinnamon/orange rolls, pizza crust, etc]. Last night was all about grains. I am fascinated. I am intrigued. I am going to tell you the single, most doable, thing that had the biggest impact on me and leave the rest for another day:
Soak grains before cooking.
Apparently this makes the grains more digestible and activates the grain enzymes which increases their nutritional value and flavor. Who knew? So, going to make wheat pancakes for breakfast? Put the wheat to soak the night before. Rice with dinner? Put it to soak in the morning.
Easy peasy.
ps. I don't think you've heard the last from me on this subject... I just requested three books from the library about grains. Consider yourself warned. :)
Thursday, August 25, 2011
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Ooo, I am interested. I would love to go to those classes with you. Those topics have all been on my mind lately too. Keep sharing, I won't get sick of it.
ReplyDeleteWhaHoo! Captive audience! I knew I'd find something interesting to talk about... eventually.
ReplyDeleteSounds easy enough - I can do that! I'm going to show my complete ignorance here - but how does it work with the wheat? I have a grinder - do you run it through semi-wet after soaking or dry first? Trying to wrap my brain around the wheat idea - now, rice - I can do that. :) Please inform. :)
ReplyDeleteHey Becky! As far as I can tell, if you're grinding the wheat for flour you wouldn't soak it. You could soak/sprout some and add it to your bread or whatever if you wanted, but otherwise I wouldn't worry about the soaking for flours. If I come across anything that mentions otherwise I'll be sure to pass it on.
ReplyDeleteI also forgot to mention that the grain to water ratio will change once it has been soaked [because it has already taken on quite a bit of water]. The teacher lady said she drains the soak water and measures the grains then adds the that same amount of water. 1:1. Be warned that this make take a bit of trial and error. I did this with beans and rice the other night and the rice came out perfectly for chinese sticky rice, but that's not necessarily how I like my beans and rice. It still tasted/cooked up fine, but certain foods lend themselves to certain textures better.
ps. I promise I haven't forgotten about my desire to share what I learn! I'm still waiting on a few books. The one I got didn't cover quite what I was hoping - though it did have loads of recipes I don't think I'll ever try :).
That makes a lot more sense. ;) I have never baked/cooked with sprouted wheat - but I hear it's lots healthier for the body. Good to know about the soaking/water ratio too. Thank you!
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