If only true love were so simple.
Do you maybe have a finicky eater in your household, who looks at bulgar with suspicion and disdain as a “new food”?
Try mixing uncooked rice and uncooked bulgar in equal parts. Cook it like a pilaf, with 2 cups rich and seasoned broth per cup of uncooked grain.
This is a great way to introduce bulgar to people who are habitually suspicious of “new foods”.
Two days ago I made “pork steak delight”. The involves browning pork steaks and cooking them in the oven on a bed of rice, with a rich gravy.
+ Brown pork steaks and remove from pan (this works nice with pork chops too).
+ Saute chopped onions, celery, mushrooms, hot peppers if you like ‘em, until the onions are clear and remove from pan.
+ Make a brown roux (equal parts flour and oil), I was making a lot, so I used 8 tablespoons oil and 8 tablespoons flour. The rule of thumb is 1 tb oil and 1 tb flour per cup of liquid to be thickened, for a “thin sauce”. A thicker sauce, like a gravy, calls for 2 tb oil and 2 tb flour per cup. I wanted a thinner sauce since the rice/bulgar mixture would be cooked in it.
+ When the roux is nicely browned, add 8 cups broth, mix thoroughly, then add the sauted veggies, and salt/black pepper to your personal taste. Cook until the liquid starts to thicken a bit.
+ In a large roasting pan, put 2 cups uncooked rice and 2 cups uncooked bulgar. Add the liquid and veggies and mix thoroughly. Lay the browned pork steaks or chops on top and cover tightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Don’t peek.
The combination of rice and bulgar has a great taste and texture! The bulgar adds a lot of nutrition and fiber.
This particular recipe, in these quantitites, makes a lot of rice and bulgar. This is good, because as I always say, Always Make Extra Bulgar. Last night I made a casserole by adding some cooked veggies, cooked hamburger, and a new pan of gravy to some of the leftover bulgar rice. I have enough bugar/rice left over for two more meals, so that’s going into the freezer today.
OK, so you followed my frequent admonition to Always Make Extra Bulgar, and you went even further and made Extra Jenks Church Salad (which is another good admonition). Here’s some variations on that theme to keep things from getting boring.
Bulgar Salad AND Ranch Dressing. How Oklahoma is this? We had a meeting at church, and I brought the Jenks Church salad, and someone else brought some carrot sticks and ranch dressing. And so it came to pass that some of the ranch dressing for the carrot sticks got mixed with the Jenks salad, and I thought, “Hey, this is pretty good”, so I went back and got more ranch dressing. I think ranch dressing should probably be nominated as the alternative Oklahoma summer “cold gravy”, as it is showing up on so many things these days. I like the ranch dressing made by Wagon Creek Creamery, which is made from yogurt and is much less calorific than the store brands.
Bulgar Salad on a Cracker. This is a great 10 second treat. Just grab a cracker or maybe you should grab two or three, reach into the ice box, and put a little Jenks Salad on the crackers and voila, quick, chewy, great-tasting treat. Much better than a store-bought candy bar.
Jenks Salad and Yogurt Cheese. Another one of my favorite local products is Wagon Creek Creamery’s yogurt cheese. I pretty much use it as a substitute for mayo and sour cream these days. Anyway, after I tried the ranch dressing on the Jenks Salad, I thought, “Why not yogurt cheese?” Why not indeed. A perfect complement.
Bulgar, in all its forms, has great “mouth feel”, as the foodie experts would say. A bit more chewy than rice, the grains nicely hold their texture, even after a couple of days in the fridge or after being frozen.
I made this for the Oklahoma Food Coop’s “Meet, Greet, and Eat” event at the Jenks Churh, and it was a big hit with those who tasted it. Most people liked it better than the classic tabouli I also had on hand, so I named this “Jenks Bulgar Summer Salad” in honor of its debut.
orange juice 1 cup
water 1 cup
bulgur, uncooked 1 cup
cranberries, chopped 1/2 cup
raisins, ½ cup
celery diced 1/2 cup
cuke seeded 1/2 cup
onion minced 1/4 cup
pecans 1/4 cup
parsley 1/3 cup
chopped mint leaves 2 tbsp
olive oil 1 tbsp
lemon juice 1 tbsp
grated lemon zest 1 tsp
salt 1/4 tsp
black pepper 1/8 tsp
cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp (optional, leave out or increase depending on your taste)
Mix water and orange juice and add the bulgar. Bring to a boil, and then pour into a baking dish, cover, and bake in a 350 degree oven until the bulgar has absorbed the liquid (about 30 minutes). Let cool a bit.
Meanwhile, combine the celery, cucumber, pecans, onion, raisins, and cranberries. Then add the lemon zest, salt, pepper, cayenne, olive oil, lemon juice, mint, and parsley. Combine everything, and then add the cooked bulgar and mix thoroughly. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving. This can be made a day in advance.
My friend and fellow Oklahoma Food cooperator Jacki Morton sent me this recipe, which she developed herself.
Berry Banana Bulgar Breakfast”
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup cream of bulgar wheat
1 banana
1 handful blueberries or other berries
1T sugar or equivalent Stevia
Bring milk and water to a boil. Turn off heat, stir in cream of bulgar wheat and sweetener. Mush up banana with a fork and stir it into mixture. Add Berries.
I made my first loaf of no-knead bread today, using a variation of the recipe at http://www.breadtopia.com/bread-recipes-dry-yeast/#Rick_s_Whole_Wheat .
The no-knead bread process is simple! First you make the dough, then you let it rise for 18 hours. You shape the dough into a ball, and let it rise for about 1-1/2 hours. Meanwhile, you preheat the oven and the baking dish to 500 degrees F. The site recommends a dutch oven, covered pyrex baking dish, or a clay cloche, I used a ceramic crockpot insert with a pyrex lid. After the final raising, you put the dough into the baking dish, cover it, and bake it for 30 minutes at 500 degrees. Then you take the cover off, and bake it for 15 minutes.
Voila! Excellent artisan whole-wheat/oatmeal bread with a great texture and an even better crust!
I followed his recipe exactly except:
+ Instead of using 1-1/2 cups of water, I used 1-1/2 cups of “Broth of Wheat”, which is water that I boil the wheat in to make bulgar.
+ Instead of using 2 tablespoons of milk, I used 2 tablespoons of yogurt. I have always used either yogurt or buttermilk when making whole wheat bread.
+ I didn’t have any instant yeast so I used 1-1/2 teaspoons of Fleishman’s yeast.
+ I didn’t have any demerara sugar so I just used regular sugar, and I didn’t have any sea salt so I used pickling salt.
+ I also added 1/2 cup cooked whole bulgar to the dough (that is, wheat that has been through the bulgar process — boiled and then dehydrated, but not cracked) to the dough. This adds a nice chewiness to the texture. I boiled the whole bulgar for 15 minutes and let it cool before adding it to the dough.
This may be the best loaf of whole wheat bread I have ever baked.
I was making whole wheat pancake batter this morning, and the batter looked a little thin. I was in a rush and wasn’t measuring precisely. So I added 1/4 cup of uncooked Cream of Bulgar, and they came out nice and light — even though I had also forgotten to add an egg.
How American is this? We had frozen home-made “TV dinners” tonight, which included bulgar pilaf. There was a bottle of ketchup sitting on the counter, and I thought, “Why not?” So I dashed a good portion of ketchup onto the pilaf, mixed it in, and it was very good.
Yesterday I mixed some left-over bulgar pilaf with a can of carrots (drained). Heated it up, and voila, quick and easy side dish for the meatloaf. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this. Carrots in general — shredded, cooked, canned, however — are a good match with bulgar.
Cook some sausage and scramble some eggs (however much you need for those you’re feeding).
After the eggs are scrambled, add cooked bulgar pilaf (about 1/4 cup per person).
Combine all ingredients in skillet. Voila, quick and nutritious “stick to your ribs” breakfast.