Mood:  happy

Today I'm playing around with teff, a.k.a. t'ef, a tiny and vastly underrated Ethiopian grain that is crazy good and happens to be highly nutritious. In Ethiopia they grind it to make their staple pancake-like bread/tablecloth.

I want to spread the word about teff's fine qualities in a magazine article so I'm fooling around with flavor pairings to develop some recipes for dishes made with it. Usually I just simmer it for 15 minutes, one part teff to three parts water and a dash of salt, then douse it with maple syrup for a tasty stick-to-your-ribs breakfast. But I think it would be good as a sort of pilaf with poultry, in a soup, definitely with cookies. I figured that its unique nutty flavor would be enhanced by nuts, so this morning I toasted up an assortment of some I have hanging around the house--pine nuts, pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds, to see what would go best.

My vote was for the hazelnuts. Pine nuts would probably be good, too, but mine were a bit past their prime, so not good. The pecans were excellent but I love pecans with everything--I would sprinkle them in the bath if I could. The walnuts didn't work, too assertive for teff's refined subtleties, the almonds pleasant but almost too mild to stand up to it. So on we go; teff hazelnut cookies anyone? I'll keep you posted.

 
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Well, this is totally OT (off-topic) if I ever heard it, but tonight I'm going to go see the King of the Blues, B.B. King. Wee-haa!

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Ethiopia also gave us coffee when frisky goats were discovered frolicking in a coffee patch, and the shepherd, er, goatherd, said, "I want to get me some of that stuff!"  This fascinating country also produced the Queen of Sheba, and much later, my beautiful son Marco (no, I did it before Angelina). So I'm grateful to the country for many reasons beyond their nutty teff.