The Bulgar Bugle

Kitchen Permaculture Online Workshop
Using permaculture design to create ecological, economical, resilient, and socially just household food systems.

Starts February 28, 2010 and runs for ten weeks thereafter, with a 2 week break at Easter.

Study permaculture design and apply it to your household situation in the comfort and convenience of your own home, with an online learning community dedicated to “better times” going forward.

Enroll by January 31, 2010 for a significant tuition discount.

More details at Kitchen Permaculture Online Workshop. Taught by Bob Waldrop.

This is an OKLAHOMA CITY Treat.

So there I was yesterday, thinking about dinner.  Bulgar was on the menu, but it was time for something new.  The coop’s May order is approaching and I need a new recipe for my producer notes this month.

Back when I bought a lot of supermarket foods, one of the staples of my shopping cart was “Rice-a-Roni: the San Francisco Treat!”  Something brought that memory up from the depths of my long-term brain archive, and I thought, “That’s it — I’ll make ‘bulgaroni’”

So I sauteed some onions and shitaake mushrooms and shredded carrots in olive oil in a cast iron skillet.  I added two cups uncooked unsifted bulgar, and 1/2 cup vermicelli broken into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces and sauteed the vegetable/bulgar/pasta mixture a few minutes.  Then I added 5 cups beef broth from the freezer, 2 teaspoons of my infamously Hotter than Hades Habanero Sauce, and brought the mixture to a boil. 

I put the cover on the skillet (it’s actually a “dutch oven skillet” and popped it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Voila, a brand new dish was born – bulgaroni, and it was quite tasty as a side dish with ham and baked carrots.   It would be quite tasty as a main dish.  I can imagine adding some fried hamburger, or cooked turkey or chicken (with turkey or chicken broth instead of the beef), or more assorted vegetables and a vegetable stock for my friends who are vegans or vegetarians.

The next time I do this I am going to increase the amount of pasta.  The original Rice-a-roni version is equal parts rice and pasta.  In my recipe, just as you add twice the amount of broth as you do bulgar, I added twice the amount of broth as I did pasta, so 2 cups unsifted bulgar and 1/2 cup pasta called for 5 cups broth.  I also think it is important to saute the bulgar and pasta.

Perhaps I should call this bulgarcelli, since I used vermicelli pasta.

Anyone of a culture that derives from the American South knows the absolute importance of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day.  Here’s an easy and very tasty way to start the New Year out right that is a bulgarish twist on the traditional “Hoppin’ John recipe.

Before you go out to party on New Year’s Eve, take out your crock pot, and fill it with:

• 1 lb dried black-eyed peas
• 1 cup uncooked bulgar
• Ham bone or chunks of ham or a hamhock or two or some bacon and/or enough broth or stock to fill the pot
• Seasonings to taste — I always add sauteed garlic and onions and my infamous Habanero sauce.

Turn the crockpot on low, cover, and leave it on overnight.  In the morning you wil have wonderfully seasoned, tender, black-eyed peas and bulgar.  If you have some frozen cooked greens in your freezer, heat them up and stir them in with the cooked peas and bulgar and you will double your abundance in 2009, since greens are another Southern tradition for New Year’s eatin’.

This possibly could be the ultimate comfort food for a cold winter night.

• 1-1/2 cups cooked salad bulgar (bulgar that has been cooked in fruit juice),
• 2 cups milk, divided 1-1/2 cups, and 1/2 cup
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2/3 cup dried fruit (I used raisins and cranberries, if you use a larger fruit like apricots, chop into small pieces)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla exrtact
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Put the cooked bulgar in a saucepan with 1-1/2 cups milk.  Add the dried fruit and honey.  Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes.  The fruit will plump and the mixture will become a bit creamy.  In a cup or bowl, beat the eggs with 1/2 cup milk.  Add to the rest of the ingredients, stir well.  Heat until it starts to bubble, then for 2-3 more minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat, add the butter, vanilla, and cinnamon.  Serve hot or cold.

I pulled the ingredients for this soup out of my freezer and pantry and it has simmered to the point delectibility.

• 1 pint beef broth
• 1 pintcabbage broth
• 1 pint bean soup
• 1 quart package of cooked stew meat (left-over from the last stock-making day)
• 1 cup bulgar
• 1 can rotel
• 2 cans diced tomatoes

I add the frozen ingredients to the pot while still frozen, poured in the rotel and diced tomatoes, and turned the burner on low.  I added some garlic and onion powder.  A couple of hours later. . . Voila, cheap, easy, nutritious, and oh-so-tasty soup.

This doesn’t have any bulgar in it, but it is a great recipe.  If you have never made a pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin, you are missing out on a great taste treat.

First, roast the pumpkin.  I cut the pumpkin in half, cleaned out the seeds and “strings” (save the seeds and roast them for a snack).  then I cut it in slices, and placed them on their sides in a baking dish.  I added 2 cups water to the baking dish.  Then I baked them at 350 degrees for about an hour and a half.  Bake them until the pumpkin is soft. 

Peel or cut the rind away from the pumpkin.  Then puree it using a blender, food processor, or mixer. I used a mixer.  You need about 3 cups of this cooked, mashed pumpkin to make 2  nine-inch pies.

Here’s my recipe, as adapted from Pumpkins and More .

• 3 cups cooked mashed pumpkin
• 1 cup sugar (I used brown sugar, you can also use honey)
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/4 cups yogurt
• pumpkin pie seasonings — 1 teaspoon each of ground cloves and allspice, 1-1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Pour into 2 nine-inch pie shells.  Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook for another 45 minutes.  It’s done when a blunt knife inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.

PS.  Make your own pie crust.  Pumpkins and More has great illustrated instructions.  The only way to learn to make great pie crust is to make a lot of pies.  Many years ago I complained to my grandmother Dovie Waldrop that I couldn’t make a good pie crust.  She replied, “Bobby Max, the reason you can’t make a good pie crust is that you haven’t made enough pies.  When you have made 100 pies,  I bet you make a great pie crust.”  And she was right!

This morning’s breakfast — Cream of Bulgar, with a tablespoon of honey, dash of salt, and peanut butter made by an Oklahoma farmer.  I added about 2 tablespoons of peanut butter to 1-1/2 cups of prepared cream of bulgar, which I make with 1/2 cup dry cream of bulgar and 1-1/2 cups water.  This amount is my typical COB breakfast.

I also added a sprinkling of pecans on top.

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.