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Cayuga Pure Organic's farro for farrotto!

I enjoy using CPO's farro in many dishes, it holds up better than rice in soups and imparts a nutty sweetness and pleasant chewiness.  Italian cuisine has farrotto, a risotto style dish using farro.  I find that it works best to crack the grain gently in a spice grinder or food processor, this helps release the starch to create that creamy risotto like texture.  I've created a nice mushroom farrotto recipe, using wonderful Double E Farms shitake mushrooms and CPO's farmer fresh farro!  Serve this as an awesome side dish or main dish at you holiday table this season!

Shitake Mushroom Farrotto

By Hans Butler

Ingredients

By Hans Butler

I really like using Cayuga Pure Organics farro in savory dishes, but it's also nice to see this whole grain make an appearance in a dessert.  I like the challenge of incorporating the grain in it's whole form, rather than using the flour from the whole grain.  I started looking at rice pudding recipes and decided that farro pudding would be a great locally sourced dessert.  Finally I came up with my version of farro pudding, this one is appropriately spiced for the holiday season!

By Hans Butler

Eating local is a daunting task when we’ve been accustomed to purchase from an out-of-season global selection 365 days a year at most grocery stores and restaurants.   Some of the great local foods available in our community are grains grown by Cayuga Pure Organics in Brooktondale, New York. These unfamiliar grains can be intimidating, with names like freekeh and farro, but they are actually quite simple to prepare, and can be nutritious and tasty alternatives to rice.  They can be added to soups and salads, prepared like risottos and pilafs, sprouted and eaten raw, or simply steamed. Who would have imagined that eating local in upstate New York could mean adding exotic heirloom whole grains to one’s diet! Let’s support our community’s economy and make sure that healthy food continues to be farmed in our state.

Begin with a quick examination of the grain for stones and other foreign materials.  Use a large enough container that the grain fills only a quarter or less. Cover the grain with a generous amount of water, stir, rinse, and drain. Repeat this process twice and then cover with fresh water, removing floating hulls from the surface.  Part of the beauty of using grains from Cayuga Pure Organics is that they are super fresh and haven’t had energy wasted on them from polishing and aseptic packaging.  

Grain should be soaked for at least an hour. Soaking softens the grain, decreases cooking time and also helps break down the phytic acid which is present in most grains.  Phytic acid holds onto certain minerals such as zinc, calcium, iron, and magnesium, preventing them from being absorbed into the body. Longer soaks will result in more sprouting, which also helps break down phytic acid, releases more enzymes and promotes easier digestion.  The only CPO grain that cannot be sprouted is freekeh. Let me tell you about a few of our grains.

Live oats are a medium-sized light brown grain, with a nice rich milk flavor and an earthy finish.  They are hulless oats and can be sprouted since they are still a living grain.  Most whole oats on the shelves have gone through heat and steam treatment to remove hulls and cannot be considered live.  Hulless oats have roots in Ethiopian and European farming and are more nutritious than standard oats.  They cook best with a 1¼:1, water to grain ratio.  For traditional steaming put the soaked grain and water in a pot with any desired seasonings, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 35-45 minutes.  One of my favorite dishes to prepare with live oats is sprouted raw oatmeal: just soak overnight, drain and blend in the morning with dried fruit, water (or milk) and honey, then garnish with seeds or nuts.  These oats, as well as Cayuga Pure Organics’ other grains, work great for hot cereal too, just increase the amount of water to grain (2:1).  

Farro (emmer) is a small grain with a nice firm and chewy texture, it has a sweet taste like honey-roasted nuts.  The word “Farro” is now used to describe several different grains in different parts of the world, but Cayuga Pure Organics’ farro is true emmer wheat.  Emmer is an ancient wheat strain that grows wild and was first farmed in the Fertile Crescent in the Near East.  It cooks best with a  1½:1, water to grain ratio, in 45-60 minutes.  I like to make farrotto, basically risotto using farro instead of Arborio rice.  To produce a risotto-like texture, crack the grain gently in a coffee grinder just before soaking to help release the starches from the farro and encourage a creamy risotto-like consistency.  This same technique can also be used with any of the other grains to produce risotto style dishes.  

Spelt berries are long golden grains with a cleft down the middle, also ancient and with roots in Central Europe.  They have a sweet honey flavor and plump, slightly chewy texture when cooked.  Spelt cooks best with 1½:1, water to grain ratio, in about 45-60 minutes. I like to sauté blanched Brussels sprouts in a smoking hot cast iron skillet with a little oil and butter until they turn golden brown and slightly charred, then add some freshly steamed spelt berries for a simple and toothsome holiday side dish. Again, as with all Cayuga Pure Organics’ grains, this grain will hold up better than rice in soups or stew dishes.

Rye berries are slender grains with an olive green tint that are used widely in Central and Eastern Europe.  They have  an earthy, woodsy flavor almost like mushrooms, with a subtle sour finish and a pleasant chewy texture.  Rye is best known for the breads baked from its flour, but the steamed whole grain is a savory treat.  Basic steamed rye berries work best with 2:1, water to grain ratio, and cook in 45-60 minutes. I like to add it to cabbage salad with caraway seeds, mustard vinaigrette, and apples, and serve it alone or accompanying a bit of cold smoked fish.

Freekeh is an immature spelt berry, roasted in the hull over hot coals to become a smoky green-colored grain.  It has subtle tangy flavor surrounded by the perfume of smoked green tea.  This Middle Eastern preparation of grain lends itself well to that region’s cuisine.  Having been roasted, it cannot be sprouted, and cooks best with 1¼:1, water to grain ratio, in about 25-45 minutes, until the water is absorbed and it’s tender. I love to make salads with freekeh, usually using preserved citrus, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, and some nice dried apple-mint.  Freekeh is also incredible by itself, enhanced with just a touch of good oil, pinch of salt, and few turns of the pepper mill.

Wheat berries are a medium-sized grain with a dusty red and tan color.  They have a nice sweet flavor reminiscent of spring flower honey and a pleasant chewy texture that explodes with flavor on the palate.  Wheat berries are widely used in Europe and the United States.  They cook best with 2:1, water to grain ratio, in 45-60 minutes.  I like to use wheat berries in my winter version of tabbouleh salad, using winter greens julienned and rubbed until tender, and a nice garlic vinaigrette enhanced with some dried mint from the end of summer.  

It should be noted that all of these grains contain gluten, wheat berries having the highest content.  The live oats are not considered gluten-free simply because of their proximity to wheat in the fields and cleaning processes.  Spelt, freekeh, farro (emmer), and rye all have very low gluten content compared with bread and durum wheat that are staples of the typical American diet. These more ancient grains contain gluten in a wilder state, before it was favored by selective farming over the centuries. Sprouting grains will also help reduce gluten levels. People with celiac disease should not eat these grains, but people with mild gluten intolerance will probably be able to enjoy them in moderation. Please have fun trying these in place of rice or pasta – eat local in 2012!


Chef Hans Butler has been working in the restaurant industry for almost 20 years, has a degree in culinary arts from the Art Institute of Houston, owned Watercress Restaurant, and now develops recipes for Cayuga Pure Organics. He is an avid forager and devoted to feeding delicious, healthy food to his family.

This just in; CPO live oats are awesome!  You don't even need to cook them; just soak overnight, drain, and blend them up.  This a delicious and simple powerhouse breakfast...and for those complaining about the chaff in their teeth: please submerge in water and agitate, remove the bits that float to the top (repeat this process at least 3 times)!  It really works; I promise...and it only takes 1 single minute!

Sprouted Raw Oatmeal (aka powerhouse breakfast) By Hans Butler

Ingredients 1 cup CPO live oats ½ cup water 2 tbs real maple syrup ½ tsp sea salt ¼ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp allspice ¼ cup dried figs 2 tbs roasted pumpkins seeds

Directions   The night before submerge oats in water and agitate, remove any pieces that float to the top; repeat this process 3 times (this helps remove most of the chaff).  Cover oats in fresh water and soak (you can soak the oats for 24hrs; if you do, change the water at least every 8 hrs).   Drain the soaking liquid and rinse oats.  Put the oats and all of the other ingredients in the blender; reserve the pumpkin seeds for garnish.  Blend into smooth consistency (it should look like a milk shake); serve room temperature or chilled, garnish with pumpkin seeds and an extra fig.       Serves 2-4 Humans

Sourdough Freekeh Crackers

By Hans Butler

Ingredients

1 cup cooked/left-over whole freekeh

1 cup bubbly sourdough starter*

1 ½ cup warm water

¼ cup sunflower oil (+ ¼ cup for coating purposes)

5 cups freekeh flour(+ 1 cup more for rolling)

1tsp sea salt

Directions

*Make sure your sourdough starter has been active for at least 12 hours before using in this recipe

Make a sponge with cooked freekeh, sourdough starter, water, oil, and 2 cups(10oz) freekeh flour; cover in plastic and let ferment for at least 12 hours (I like to do it for 24hrs) in a warm spot (about 75 degrees) – it’s going to look kind of like a thick and bubbly porridge style batter

Mix in the sea salt and 3 cups of the freekeh flour (do not over mix, this flour is not glutinous, don’t expect it to hold together like pizza dough); gently form the mixture into a ball (you don’t want the ball super tight because it needs breathing room for the fermentation to take place) and coat with about 1 tbs sunflower oil; cover in plastic and let ferment for another 12 hours (I go the distance for 24 hrs; this lets the fermentation get its full workout)

Separate dough and roll into tennis ball size (or even smaller).  Let them rest in the fridge until ready to roll.  Preheat oven to 375 and grease up 2 or 3 sheet pans.  Lay down plastic wrap on a counter and flour.  Place one ball on the floured plastic and cover with another sheet of plastic wrap, roll gently into a thin sheet.  Remove top layer of plastic and cut into 2 or 3 pieces (the more natural looking the better); using a spatula carefully move each piece to the greased sheet pans.  Brush lightly with oil and gently mark the surface with the tines of a fork.   Bake for about 10-15 minutes, turning them over at about 7 minutes, until they are golden brown; transfer to a cooling rack and repeat until all the crackers are baked off.

I had already worked my way through most of a 5# sack of freekeh flour...but I had enough to whip up a batch of freekeh pasta! (the freekeh brownie and cracker recipes are still coming...I just got a little sidetracked)

First a quick description of CPO freekeh:  It is young green spelt berry that has been roasted to produce a slightly smoky tasting grain; I have used it in salads, as a side dish, in risotto, as a hot cereal, pudding...the possibilities are only limited by your palates' imagination.

Erick Smith, the bearded ring-leader of Cayuga Pure Organics, was able to hook me up with a 5 # bag of freshly ground freekeh flour.  Now it was time for me to decipher the code (aka figure out what the hell I was going to do with it).  Erick told me that it is used to thicken soups in Eastern Europe, but other than that I didn't have much of a lead.  The trick when dealing with these fancy flours and grains is not to be intimidated by them;  it's only roasted green spelt that has been milled into flour.  There is the key...spelt!   So I did some research on spelt flour and decided to apply the findings to the freekeh flour.  One important note on freekeh flour:  the gluten levels are low because it is harvested before they have a chance to mature; it is not going to hold together like a high gluten bread flour.  Armed with this information, I developed recipes for freekeh brownies and sourdough freekeh crackers (using whole grain sourdough starter produced from wild i-town yeast); both turned out great and recipes will be arriving here shortly!