Millet: the forgotten grain

I started my exploration of millet when I bought my first bag of organic millet grown in Sterling Colorado. I quickly learned the basic method of cooking, which I have mentioned in another post but will repeat below. Once you have cooked millet on hand, it can be used in a number of ways.

One big surprise to me is that millet was the original polenta in Italy, before corn came from the New World. I'm making millet polenta frequently now; I use it in meals and also as a nice quick snack, just cut out of the pan (kind of like a cookie or fudge, but not sweet).

Millet is also one of the grains used to make injera, the Ethiopian universal bread and eating utensil. The traditional Ethiopian dinner has a stack of big pancakes, made of millet or teff which was lightly fermented. You take a spoonful of a meat or vegetable dish (usually spicy), tear off a little piece of pancake, and pop the whole thing in your mouth. Delicious. No forks required.

Millet was the staple grain in northern China, before the shipment of rice from the south became common. So it fits well under stir-fries and sauced Chinese dishes, including spicy ones.

And millet is an obvious substitute for couscous, which is a pasta-type product made from wheat. Since I have celiac disease, wheat is out for me, but millet fits the bill perfectly as a substitute.

Millet is inexpensive too. You will want hulled millet (unhulled millet is good as birdseed). Bought in a 25-lb bag, I worked out that my millet is 18 cents a cup, therefore 6 cents a serving. It is a highly digestible grain, with a mild pleasant flavor.

Time for some recipes.

Basic Millet
Put one cup millet in saucepan. Cover with boiling water. Allow to soak one hour or more, or overnight. In the morning, rinse the grain twice; the water will look a little cloudy. There is a slight natural bitter coating on millet that you want to remove (just like quinoa). I don't bother with a colander, just carefully pour the water off the grain. Now add a little over one cup of fresh water, and salt to taste (I use about 1/2 tsp). Bring to boil and simmer 20 minutes. If you drain in a colander, you will need just a little more water. Cook until water is absorbed, and you see those little holes (just like cooked rice).

Using Cooked Millet

• When fresh cooked, add a little butter or olive oil, and enjoy.


• Or you can fry a couple of eggs and put over a dish of hot millet for a very tasty and easy breakfast


• You can use it as a base for spaghetti sauce, chili, ragout, ratatouille, etc. etc. etc.


• You can use it as a base for stir-fries and Asian type dishes


• You can fix tabbouli with millet in place of the bulgur wheat: with chopped tomatoes, loads of chopped parsley, lemon juice and olive oil.
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Ukrainian Millet Dish
You can modify ingredients to suit yourself on this, following the same basic cooking technique. I often eat it for breakfast.

Have cooked millet on hand.
Choose one or more of the following:

• sliced non-cured cruelty-free bacon (locals can buy it at Rocky Plains or Windsor Dairy)


• chopped onion or leek (from your local CSA, farmers market or garden)


• chopped mushrooms (Portabellos are good, from Hazel Dell)

If you don't use the bacon, use olive oil or butter in the pan. Saute your basic ingredients till done to your taste. Pour a bit of water into the pan, then stir in the (already cooked) millet. Add a bit of salt if needed. Let the millet steam with the other ingredients for a minute or two, then stir and serve.

Millet Polenta
Start the same as for the Basic Cooked Millet, but after draining, add a little over 2 cups of water, and cook for 30 minutes. It gets very soft by then. Grease an 8x8 pan with olive oil, turn the millet into it, and smooth with a spoon until uniform in thickness. After it cools for 30 minutes or so, you should be able to cut it with a spatula, like brownies. After a few hours of settling, you can take those squares and brown them in a little butter or olive oil, just like polenta, and serve as a side dish or with a pasta sauce. Keeps well on the kitchen counter, loosely covered, for several days, if you can stay away from it that long.

You could add grated parmesan cheese at the end of cooking, or herbs either fresh or dried, for a different flavor. Finely diced dried tomatoes would be good too.

Millet Flour
For this you need millet flour, of course. Millet is easy to grind in a grain mill, or you could grind it in a blender or food mill. You don't want to grind millet too far ahead unless you refrigerate it, since the flour gets stale-tasting in a few weeks. Millet flour is available commercially, but I haven't tried it since I have many pounds of millet at home. I think fresh is best for this grain.

You can use millet flour in pancakes or biscuits, popovers, pizza crust, anything you'd like a little crunch in. I have used it alone in pancakes, but for most baking you would want to mix it with at least one more flour.

Those who can eat wheat, can mix it with wheat flour in baked goods. For gluten-free baking, mixing half millet flour and half buckwheat flour makes a wonderful pancake. I haven't tried popovers, but I think they'd be good with 1/2 millet, 1/4 potato starch and 1/4 tapioca flour. For pizza dough, mix with 1/3 garfava flour and 1/3 oat flour. Experiment!

My Favorite Millet Pancakes
For 1 serving. Double as needed.
1 egg beaten
1/3 cup millet flour
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
salt to taste
1/2 tsp baking powder
enough water to make your batter (something around 1/2 cup) or you could use milk or other liquid
1 tbs melted lard (HOMEMADE only) or your choice of oil or butter

Mix well. Pour batter into greased skillet or griddle, to make cakes 4-5" wide. When bubbles cover the top, turn and cook for a couple of minutes on the other side. Serving for one makes about 3 cakes.

I like them plain or with pepper jelly. I'm not a syrup enthusiast. Apple butter would be good too, or a savory curry paste or thick salsa. You can use them like injera, tearing off bits like impromptu edible spoons or mini-wraps, with savory meat or vegetables dishes or seasoned cottage cheese inside.

(Side note on lard: if you get really fine quality pork scraps, from free-range pastured pigs, you can make your own lard. Cut into small pieces and cook slowly in a kettle. Keep the temperature just high enough to keep it bubbling, as the water is driven off. Lower temperature as it gets closer to done. When it is almost done bubbling, strain out the crackling and pour the lard into freezer jars. The cracklings are delicious! You can use them in top of cornbread, or eat with a spoon, or sprinkle on top of mashed potatoes, etc. I keep my rendered lard in the freezer until I'm ready to use it. Then you can keep it in the frig or on the counter for a few weeks. DO NOT buy commercial chemicalized deodorized icky white lard. That stuff is not good for your health. Lard from healthy pigs has a different lipid profile, and has more unsaturated fat than saturated. You can tell because it is still soft in the frig.)

Overnight Millet, Buckwheat and Coconut Waffles

1 cup millet, lightly toasted in dry skillet and rinsed
1 cup buckwheat, lightly toasted in dry skillet
2 1/2 cups liquid: milk, soy milk, or water
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tablespoons cooking oil or butter
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
salt to taste

Prepare millet and buckwheat, put in blender with liquid. Let soak in frig overnight. Heat waffle iron (or you can make pancakes). Now add remaining ingredients into blender jar. Blend to make a batter. Bake waffles on your waffle iron as usual. Or make pancakes on a lightly greased griddle or skillet. Serves 4.

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Millet is also fermented to make a sour porridge, or to make beer. Ethiopian injera is often fermented before baking too; I haven't tried that so can't tell you exactly how to do it. Injera is also made with teff flour or with combinations of grains.

Experiment! Write in your recipes for millet, if I have gotten you enthused about the possibilities.