during milling. Also called kibbled wheat, it is added, soaked, to bread.
Bulgar wheat Hulled wheat grains, steamed, dried, then crushed in coarse or fine grades. A Middle Eastern staple, also known as burghul, bulgur, pourgouri and pligouri, it is the basis of tabbouleh and kibbeh.
Atta flour A fine wholemeal flour made from soft, low gluten wheat. Used to make Indian flatbreads, it is also called chapati flour.
Trahana A Greek pasta of dough made from flour and milk (sometimes sour), grated into tiny barley-shaped pellets, then dried. Traditionally it is used in soups and porridge.
ARAB SPECIALITIES
Two wheat products little known beyond Arab countries, where they are specialties, are Freekah and Moghrabbiyeh.
Freekah, or ferek, is roasted green wheat. Bunches of freshly harvested green wheat stalks are roasted over an open fire and the cooled ears shucked. The grain is either left whole or coarsely cracked: when cracked it is greenish-brown with a distinct smoky taste; whole it is brown and relatively bland. Both forms are cooked like rice or bulgar.
Moghrabbiyeh (maghrebia, Israeli couscous), is flour and water hand-rolled into balls the size of small peas, then dried. Typically they are cooked in broth.
Couscous Tiny pellets made from semolina flour, moistened with salted water and hand-rubbed with flour until coated, then dried. To cook, the granules are steamed until swollen and fluffy, with each granule separate. The staple dish of the Maghreb (Northwest Africa), it is traditionally cooked in a couscoussier over a fruity, spicy meat stew with which it is served. Elsewhere, couscous is likely to be pre-cooked and requires only swelling in boiling water.
Semolina flour Semolina is the coarsely ground endosperm of hard wheat, usually durum wheat. Semolina flour is a finer ground version, sometimes called durum flour. With its high protein content, semolina flour is characteristically tough. Its granularity gives a light, crumbly texture to baked goods. Because it does not become a starchy paste when cooked, it is used to make dried pasta, yet it is also used as a thickener.
Oats
Groats Grain which has been hulled and, usually, coarsely crushed. While ‘groats’ can denote any such grain, unqualified in the UK it generally refers to oats. In the USA ‘grits’ is the more common term. High protein and fat content make oats among the most nutritious of cereals. However, unless steam-treated, the fat, combined with an enzyme in the bran, rapidly causes rancidity. Groats can be prepared as porridge or like rice.
Rolled oats Oats which have been hulled, steam-softened, then rolled flat. The heating destroys the enzymes in the bran which would otherwise cause the fat in the germ to go rancid. Rolled oats therefore keep well. The various sizes of flakes depend upon whether the whole groat or pinhead oatmeal was rolled. As well as relatively fast-cooking porridge, rolled oats are used in muesli and biscuits.
Oat bran Fine pale-brown flakes of the thin, fibre-rich layer of cells located under the rough outer hull of the groat, more accurately named oat fibre. Because the adherent layer is impossible to remove cleanly, small creamy fragments of the nutritious centre of the grain speckle the fibre. Containing significant water-soluble dietary fibre, oat bran is consumed for its cholesterol-reducing properties and added to baked goods.
Oat flour A fine powder ground from husked oats, distinct from superfine oatmeal which still has a granule. It is used for general baking but, with no gluten-forming proteins of its own, for risen baked goods it must be combined with another flour that contains gluten-forming proteins. Because oat flour includes the germ and the bran, which together rapidly go rancid, it does not keep well and should be freshly ground.
Oatmeal Granules of milled oat grains processed to varying grades of fineness. For the coarsest, pinhead meal, the groat is cut into several pieces. When ground, pinhead progressively becomes rough, medium-rough, medium, fine and super-fine oatmeal. Unless heat-treated, oatmeal does not keep well, rapidly going rancid. An historical staple of Scotland, oatmeal is primarily used in porridge and oatcakes, and is a key ingredient in Atholl brose and haggis.
Cereals and Starches
Buckwheat Though botanically not a true cereal, buckwheat is treated as such. Once husked, the whole seeds, which are triangular in cross section with pointed ends, may be cooked in the same way as rice, most famously in kasha, the porridge-like dish of Russia. Ground into a black-flecked greyish flour, it is made into pancakes, notably Russian blini and Breton galettes, noodles, especially the Japanese speciality soba, and cakes. It has a strong, distinctive taste.
Quinoa Pronounced ‘keen wa’, these are tiny discs of grain girded by a small band of bran. A staple of the Andes, this pseudo-cereal has a high concentration of amino acids so, unlike other grains, it is a complete protein. When cooked it expands to four times its original volume and becomes translucent, the bran visible as a curly tail. Cooked quinoa has a delicate flavour and a texture akin to caviar, and can be served like rice, couscous or millet. The uncooked seeds can be ground into flour.
Sago The virtually pure starch extracted from the sago palm, which is made into a paste and dried to become sago flour or pressed through a sieve, then dried, to become pellets known as pearl sago. Cooked, sago turns from white to transparent, and is bland, its texture resiliently squishy. The basis of British nursery puddings, sago is now little used in Western cooking. In Asia, sago is used in both forms, notably with coconut milk and palm sugar in the dessert gula melaka.
Tapioca The starch extracted from the roots of cassava or manioc plants, which are refined to a paste, dried, then heated to form flakes or pellets, called pearls, or ground into flour. Used in puddings and to thicken soups and stews, tapioca becomes translucent when cooked, gelatinously chewy in texture and has a subtle taste. In some Asian countries, it is much used in sweets and drinks. In the UK, it is historically known as the ingredient in a milk pudding.