I remember that in my childhood I was always interested in the question: what kind of beast (or not) such a mysterious beast - spelled, which was used by the priest's worker Balda? At school, the teachers told us that this is porridge. Well, in the kindergarten, the teachers repeated the same thing. Parents shrugged their shoulders, their origin was of little concern.
Later I read in one of the reference books - spelled, this is, in fact, the progenitor of wheat, but wheat. Other biological details did not interest me, I have always leaned towards culinary exploration of the world.
And, when spelled appeared on sale, of course, immediately bought it.
In those days, there were no mass recipes from this cereal yet - even on the Internet. I had to conjure, invent, guided by brief information taken out of the context of the literary king or recipes from old culinary publications.
The first dish, of course, was very literary - boiled spelled, the same one that Balda asked the priest as a contentment.
And you know, I didn't like it. Well, I didn't like it at all. Just boiled grains. None of the delicious nutty flavor promised by the dish's descriptors was observed. Elastic boiled grains. All.
I thought - I probably didn't cook much (only 25 minutes), and I didn't cook the spelled. The next time I increased the cooking time. The result is elastic watery boiled grains.
After that, as soon as I didn’t cook it - in milk, and in a mixture of water and butter, and stewed it with vegetables... I came to the conclusion that spelled sounds good only in salads, or in soups - as a substitute for pearl barley in pickles, eg. Sometimes you can replace rice in stuffed cabbage with half a batch.
But as a side dish it is... fresh, flat and absolutely not interesting. The situation can be corrected with a demi glaze or a very greasy crust of a dish, to which spelled is an accompaniment, but this is still not the same.
And for me there is only one way to make the taste of spelled play with really bright colors: to make a dessert out of it. Rather, dessert porridge.
So let's take
- Spelled 200 grams
- Water 250 milliliters
- Cream, milk with a fat content of at least 6 percent, or even almond milk - 250 milliliters (water and milk component in half)
- Maca 4 tablespoons
- Dried fruits - a couple of handfuls
- Honey - to taste
- Walnuts, almonds or peanuts - to taste
How we cook:
We wash the spelled itself and fill it with water for a couple of hours (water is not included in the main volume). After that we drain the water, pour 250 milliliters of "prescription" water and cook for about half an hour.
At the same time, we wash the dried fruits, pour boiling water over to steam.
When the water in the spelled is almost completely absorbed or boiled away, pour milk or cream into the pan, add ak and continue to cook almost until tender, stirring occasionally.
Squeeze dried fruits, cut them into smaller pieces, if necessary.
When the porridge is ready, turn off the heating, add honey and dried fruits, stir thoroughly. When serving, sprinkle with chopped nuts.
The dish turns out really "lick your fingers"
Bon Appetit!