MILLET—AN ALTERNATIVE GRAIN

Whatever am I going to do with a heaping basket of thumb-sized carrots? Pulled from a garden patch that hadn’t been thinned, they never got a chance to be grown-up roots. Scrubbed, they’re great for eating raw. But, still, that’s a lot of infant carrots.

I decided the carrots—tiny ones left whole, larger ones lopped into two or three pieces—needed to be cooked with grains, rice or bulgur, maybe, for a vegetarian dish that could be a substantial side or even a main dish. Or, how about some alternatives?

Which is how I came to make millet and carrot pilaf.

Millet pilaf with carrots, peppers and zucchini.

Pearl millet.

Millet (mijo in Spanish) is the seed of a type of cultivated grass. It may be familiar as bird seed, but in many parts of the world (Africa and India) millet is an important food crop. The most common variety, pearl millet, once hulled, is a tiny round, pale golden grain. It is gluten free, but has a protein content similar to wheat. Once cooked, it makes a good substitute for rice, for bulgur, for cous cous, for small pasta such as orzo.

I made a large quantity of millet pilaf with carrots. I served it as a vegetarian main dish, topped with grated cheese.

Pilaf as a side with lamb kebabs.

I used leftovers, reheated, as a side for lamb and vegetable kebabs. I recycled the cold pilaf as tabouleh salad. I’m thinking it also would be good for stuffing eggplant and zucchini, with a cheesy topping.

Where to go next with millet? Paella?

Millet pilaf, a vegetarian main or side dish.

Turn left-over pilaf into tabouleh salad. Garnish with ripe figs.

Millet and Carrot Pilaf

The quantity of liquid in this recipe makes millet that is al dente. If you want a creamier grain, use ½ cup more liquid and cook an additional 4 minutes. Allow to set 10 minutes. Chicken stock can be used instead of water—but I preferred to keep the dish vegetarian.

Serves 6 as a side dish.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup diced carrots
¼ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped red bell pepper
1 clove chopped garlic
Red pepper flakes (optional)
½ cup diced zucchini
1 cup pearl millet
2 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon salt
Chopped pistachios (optional)
Chopped parsley to serve

Sauté carrots and millet.

Heat oil in a medium skillet. Add the carrots, onion, bell pepper, garlic and red pepper flakes, if using. Sauté on medium heat 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and millet and sauté a few minutes more. Pour in the boiling water and salt. Bring to a boil, then cover and lower heat to a simmer. Cook 16 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Remove the pan from heat and allow to set 10 minutes. Fluff the millet with a fork. Serve, hot or room temperature, sprinkled with chopped pistachios, if desired, and chopped parsley.

Millet Tabouleh Salad

Serves 4.

1 ½ cups cold millet pilaf (recipe above)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped preserved lemon or olives
1 cup cooked, drained chickpeas
1 tablespoon chopped scallions
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped mint
Salt and pepper to taste
Salad greens to serve
Figs or cherry tomatoes to garnish

Add the lemon juice and oil to the millet pilaf. Use a fork to combine, breaking up any lumps. Stir in the chopped preserved lemon, chickpeas, scallions, parsley and mint. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the salad with greens. Garnish with quartered figs or cherry tomatoes.

Cold grain salad with carrots, garnished with summer figs.

TWO WAYS WITH TUNA

Summertime is tuna time. Both the Atlantic bluefin tuna, atún rojo, (Thunnus thynnus) and the albacore tuna, called in Spanish bonito del norte or atún blanco, (Thunnus alalunga) are fished off Spanish coasts. The bluefin are captured as they head for the Mediterranean (see more about the almadraba tuna fishing here ) while the albacore are caught on the northern Cantabrian coast and Bay of Biscay.

A great price for bonito del norte--albacore tuna.

It was albacore, or bonito del norte, that I found at a local market at a really good price for either the whole fish (big, but not as big as bluefin) or a thick steak.  I’ve been buying canned bonito del norte instead of tuna for a long time, as the albacore, with catch quotas in place, is less threatened than the bluefin. But I had never cooked it fresh before.

Albacore is "white tuna."

Albacore, which can legally be called “white tuna,” really is much lighter-fleshed than the deep red tuna. Less fatty, it can be dry if overcooked. I tried it two ways—quickly grilled on a plancha and cooked in a traditional Basque stew.

Bluefin tuna has red flesh.

Grilled Albacore Tuna with Garlic-Crumb Topping
Bonito del Norte a la Plancha con Migas

Grilled tuna has a crispy topping of garlicky breadcrumbs.

 The bonito steaks can be grilled on a plancha, over coals (a la parilla) or baked in the oven. If baking the fish, mix the crumb topping ingredients and spread them on top of the fish without first sautéing them.

4 (6-ounce) albacore steaks, about 1-inch thick
Salt and pepper
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Thyme
1 small red chile, minced
½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/3 cup chopped parsley
Coarse salt

Sprinkle the fish steaks with salt and pepper and allow to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Brush them with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil.

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a small skillet. Add the garlic, thyme and chile. Sauté until the garlic begins to turn golden. Add the lemon zest and bread crumbs. Toss the crumbs in the oil until they are golden and crisped. Remove from heat and stir in the parsley.

Ridged grill pan marks the steaks.

Heat a ridged grill pan on high heat. Brush the grill with remaining oil and sprinkle it with coarse salt. Place the bonito steaks on the grill. Cook 2 minutes and turn the steaks a quarter turn (in order to get cross-hatch grill marks). Grill 2 minutes longer. Flip the steaks and cook the reverse side in the same manner.

Remove to a platter and spread the garlic-crumbs on top of the steaks.

Basque Albacore Tuna and Potato Stew
Marmitako  

Chunks of white tuna simmer in a flavorful sauce with potatoes.

Marmitako—from the word marmite, a cooking pot—was traditionally made aboard Basque fishing trawlers. Originally, it was a stew of bonito boiled with bread and a chunk of salt pork. Once it became part of home cooking, potatoes, peppers and olive oil became standard ingredients.

This recipe is  based on one in Cocina Vasca en Bizkaia, by Jesús Llona Larrauri, Garbiñe Badiola and the Escuela Superior Hostelería Artxanda. It substitutes roasted red bell pepper for the usual pimiento choricero, a dry red pepper that has to be soaked and scraped.  Typically, the potatoes are not cut with a knife, but broken into uneven pieces. Insert knife tip into the potato, twist it to break off a chunk. The broken surfaces release starch that helps to thicken the stew.

A frugal home cook would use the bones and trimmings of the bonito to make a simple fish stock. (Cook the trimmings in 4 cups of water with salt and a slice of onion.) Use any fish stock or, simply, water.

Marmitako--a Basque dish of white tuna, potatoes and peppers.

1 ½ pounds bonito
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 ounce chopped bacon (optional)
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup peeled and chopped tomatoes
¼ cup white wine
1 bay leaf
2 pounds potatoes, cut up
1 roasted and peeled red bell pepper, pureed
Pinch of hot pimentón (optional)
2 ½- 3 cups fish stock or water
Chopped parsley to serve

Remove all skin and bones from the bonito. Cut the fish into 1 ½-inch chunks. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper and set aside, refrigerated.

Heat the oil in a lidded cazuela or skillet with the bacon, if using. Add the green pepper, onion and garlic and sauté gently 5 minutes. Turn up the heat and add the tomatoes. Fry them until they begin to thicken and stick on the pan bottom. Add the wine and let it cook off.

Add the potatoes, 1 teaspoon salt and the bay leaf. Put the pepper pulp and hot pimentón, if using, on top of the potatoes and pour over enough stock or water to nearly cover the potatoes.  Bring to a boil, cover and turn down the heat so the liquid just simmers. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.

Add the chunks of bonito. Cook until fish is just cooked, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow the stew to set for 10 minutes. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

SCALLOPS FOR THE PILGRIM SHELLS

Last week, to mark the festival of Santiago, I showed a heap of scallop shells, symbol of the pilgrims to the shrine of St. James in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, northwest Spain). Since medieval times, pilgrims collected the scallop shells to wear on their belts to show they had completed the arduous journey.

All those empty shells made me want to fill them up! I used to buy fresh scallops at my local Mediterranean fish market (and saved many of the shells). But, locally-fished scallops are a rarity nowadays. So I bought frozen scallops at a big supermarket.

Frozen scallops include the white muscle and red coral.

They came in 250-gram packets (about seven to a package), cleaned and including both the white muscle and the red coral. The label indicated the scallops were distributed by a Galician outfit—but their source was the Irish Sea in the northeast Atlantic.

Top scallops with a sofrito and crumbs and cook under the broiler until browned.

This is a typical Galician way with scallops, which are called conchas peregrinas or vieiras in Spanish (in French, they are coquilles St. Jacques, or St. James’s shells). Put two or three scallops in each shell. Top with a savory onion-bacon mixture and breadcrumbs, then gratin them under the broiler. (If you haven’t got scallop shells, place the scallops in small ramekins.)

Serve, accompanied by bread, as a starter. Serve scallops with a crisp white wine from Rias Baixas, Galicia, made with Albariño grapes.

Serve scallops with a crisp Albariño wine.

Scallops, Galician Style
Vieiras a la Gallega

Serves 6 as a first course.

1 pound frozen scallops, thawed
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove minced garlic
3 slices bacon, chopped (2 ounces)
¼ cup white wine
2 teaspoons pimentón (paprika)
Pinch of hot pimentón
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
2/3 cup fresh bread crumbs

Pat the scallops dry. If they are very large, they can be sliced in half. Place them in a bowl with the lemon juice.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a skillet and sauté the onion, garlic and bacon on a medium heat until onion is softened, about 10 minutes.

Add the wine and cook until partially reduced. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the two kinds of pimentón, parsley, salt and pepper.

Drizzle oil over crumbs before broiling.

Divide the scallops between 6 scallop shells or individual ramekins. Put a spoonful of the onion mixture on top of the scallops in each shell. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs. Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over the scallops.

Set the shells or ramekins on a broiler pan and place the pan under the broiler until scallops are bubbling and tops lightly browned, about 6 minutes.