The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
3 ways to enjoy grains this fall
A hot bowl of rice or a cold grain salad — either, cooked with local vegetable stock, sounds like the basis for a great fall meal.
Bulgur salad mix
If you walk into the Vom Fass shop in downtown Duluth, prepare to feel like a kid in a candy store. It’s more than an olive oil and vinegar store, although there’s lots of those to choose from. The store’s shelves are lined with spices and spice blends, pasta, honey and jam, and baskets full of grain mixes. You easily could spend an hour looking at everything, choosing what you need for your kitchen, or searching for the perfect gift. We were taken with all the rice and grain mixes, and finally settled on the bulgur salad. You can serve it hot (warming 1¾ cups of vegetable stock and simmering the mix until the bulgur is softened) or let it cool and mix it with oil, vinegar and vegetables, like tomatoes and cucumber, for a cold salad. The mixes are produced in Germany, so expect metric measurements in the directions.
$9.99 per 7-ounce bag that serves four to six. Available at Vom Fass, 3131 Main St., Duluth. facebook.com/Vomfassduluth.
Gold rice from South Carolina
I’ve heard some from South Carolina say they can’t enjoy a meal if there’s no rice on the table. Rice has been grown in South Carolina, and particularly in the area around Charleston, since colonists first arrived in the late 1600s. At Plumfield Plantation, in Darlington, Campbell Coxe has been growing rice for more than 20 years and offering it under the Carolina Plantation Rice brand. They offer white rice, brown rice and two varieties of gold rice — Charleston Gold and Carolina Gold. Both are particularly aromatic, with a light golden color and a nutty, sweet taste. No mushy rice here. It’s substantial enough to hold up to saucy dishes, like shrimp in tomato gravy, but delicious enough that you’d be happy eating a bowl all on its own.
$9.82 per 2-pound bag. Available at carolinaplantationrice.com.
Mad Mama’s versatile vegetable stock
Mad Mama Gourmet is the creation of Amy Smith, who took her husband’s San Marzano tomato soup and turned it into a soup empire. Visit her booth at local farmers markets, and you might find Smith herself ladling out samples. Maybe it’s her mushroom Madeira, or her new nonoodle scratch chicken. The selection varies, depending on the season and the temperature. Her versatile vegetable stock could be the backbone for much of the cooking you’ll be doing this holiday
season. Smith roasts onions, carrots, celery, fennel and mushrooms, then simmers the vegetables with other aromatics and seasonings, and distills it into a celeryforward stock. Use it in any recipe that calls for stock, and rest easy knowing it’s been very lightly salted, so it won’t overwhelm whatever you’re cooking.
$13.99 to $16 per 31-ounce container. Available at the Brookhaven and Grant Park farmers markets, Lucy’s Market, Nuts n’ Berries, Buford Highway Farmers Market and at madmamagourmet.com.