Few people like to cook from such a capricious cereal as millet. Why is she moody? Firstly, often the cereal that we buy by weight is often quite dirty, and millet that has been lying for a long time is sometimes bitter. As a result, it happens that a couple of times it will not be possible to cook this cereal correctly, and any interest in millet porridge will disappear in the future.
But grandmother, I remember, often cooked millet for us, in milk, with the addition of pumpkins, and there was never bitterness. It was also remembered that she always wrapped a saucepan in which she cooked porridge in towels and sent them to hang under pillows. And although in childhood I didn’t really like a pumpkin, now I eat with great pleasure, especially since it, like millet, is very useful.
So how to cook millet porridge?
First of all, millet groats must be very thoroughly washed, changing at least 5 water, and then also doused with boiling water (you can even steam for a couple of minutes, drain the water) and only then start cooking. Now ready-made packages are sold with processed millet freed from bitterness, so there should not be any problems at all.
Porridge (not only millet), as you know, is crumbly, viscous or the so-called porridge-spread. The larger the ratio of cereal: water is added to the liquid, the less crumbly your porridge will be . Loose porridge is usually prepared for side dishes, and porridge as the main dish can be prepared in a more viscous version. It is worth mentioning that if someone has problems with the gastrointestinal tract, then the option of well-boiled cereals is most preferable, since hard cereals, which can be attributed to millet, will only irritate the inflamed parts of your internal organs, and viscous cereals smears, on the contrary, are recommended during an exacerbation of diseases.
So, we washed millet, processed it with boiling water. But for greater reliability, it is better to cook millet in two stages anyway. First, pour the cereal with plenty of water and, bringing to a boil, cook for several minutes, gently salt the water. Now again pour the undercooked cereal with boiling water or hot milk, but so that the liquid is about 1.5 parts per 1 part of the cereal, add salt, mix, cover and, if we want to get friable porridge, do not touch more during the cooking process.
However, when you cook thick porridge exclusively in milk, there is a high probability that it will burn. A delicious porridge will turn out if you take equally water and milk and, reducing the heat to a minimum, cook the cereal with the lid closed for about 15 minutes until the liquid is completely evaporated by adding a spoonful of butter. After that, you need to turn off the fire and leave the pan to pre-heat on a hot stove or send it to go to the oven for about 10 minutes. So you will get pretty crumbly millet porridge, although, to be honest, cook really crumbly millet, "like buckwheat", anyway does not work.
Season the prepared porridge again with butter, you can sugar or add dried apricots, raisins or honey. Thick millet porridge is often used to prepare casseroles, both sweet and savory (but this is a separate issue).
If you are planning to cook millet porridge with pumpkin, it is best to take a pumpkin bright and sweet, just one slice is enough. Peel it, cut into cubes and boil it slightly in milk, and then add prepared millet groats to the pumpkin and milk (with which water is bitterly drained), then cook until millet is ready. Millet porridge with pumpkin is not crumbly, as juice is additionally extracted from the pumpkin during the cooking process.
And if you have a small whole pumpkin, then you can cook millet right in it, cutting off the crown with a tail and freeing the insides from the seeds - you get a pumpkin pot. Pour in millet already cooked until half cooked, add a small amount of hot milk, sugar and chopped pieces of the same pumpkin with raisins. Cover with a cap with a ponytail. Bake everything in the oven for 40 minutes, at the end do not forget to put butter in the porridge. It will turn out very tasty millet porridge, and it will look appetizing - I guarantee!
Bon appetit!