Known to many only for its role in bird feed and pig fodder, millet is a gluten-free grain with some amazing health benefits. Notably, it’s rich in iron, hostile to candida, and highly alkalizing (a boon in these over-acidified times). According to Ayurveda, millet counteracts cold and congested conditions by heating and drying the body. Then again, Chinese medicine puts it down as a cooling grain, though surely one with potential for a mid-winter meal.
Unfortunately, most of the time millet’s pretty camel-yellow beads wind up mushy and gluey when cooked. While some insist on defending this “creamy” texture, I find it insipid and incompatible with millet’s metalllic-tinged, subtly bitter flavor profile. In fact, what this grain needs most is fluffiness, nutty and sweet toasted notes, and a tooth-engaging chew. Luckily there’s a pretty easy way to make it so.
The secret is to combine loads of pre-rinsing with some heating action before the actual cooking takes place. The best way, which I first discovered in The Splendid Grain by American natural foods expert Rebecca Wood, involves toasting, then rinsing, then cooking the grains in a covered pot using the absorption method. Another, related, solution is to use several changes of boiling water to give the millet the thorough rinsing it requires. (Obviously when the water is scalding hot, you can’t use your fingers to rub the grains gently together and rid them of their chalky dust; use a wooden spoon.)
To toast the grains lightly in an oven, try 5-10 minutes at 170°C, staying as vigilant as when toasting easy-to-burn nuts and seeds. Or use a skillet over moderate heat, stirring or tossing frequently. It’s important to keep the grains from burning. Three minutes in a cast-iron skillet usually does the trick. If you burn a batch—save it for the birds and start over. Remember, it’s crucial to rinse the toasted grains thoroughly in several changes of cold water. Get in there, use your hands; the water should run clear. To cook, cover the strained grains with nearly double their volume of boiling water, add a fat dash of salt, cover tightly, and simmer for ten short minutes. Remove from heat, but let stand, covered, for another ten minutes. Uncover, fluff, season to taste with ghee or some salty butter and serve.
This is how we make one of the basic morning meals at our house, usually tossing in a few quartered dried figs and several green cardamom pods in with the millet. We then add more ghee, toasted nuts, and honey or maple syrup at the table. Nutmeg and cinnamon work too, alongside a smattering of raisins. Or try chopped dried apricots or pitted dates plus vanilla. For us, millet has become an archetypal breakfast dish, so we don’t experiment with swapping in olive oil and sweated onion for the butter and fruit, or stock for the boiling water, but that’s the way to go if it’s dinner you’re after.
As you can see, making millet edible is not only possible, but quite easy. Though I should probably mention that sometimes it also requires a lot of maple syrup, and maybe also the undivided attention of one who is willing to play Mikado at seven in the morning.