The New Grain Game

Finally, grains have escaped their outdated reputation of being flat and flavorless and are now being touted for their exotic tastes and mysterious textures. Rice, quinoa, barley, corn, wheat and other grains are being featured in everything from cereals and salads to frozen pizza, organic crackers and even cocktails and desserts.

Grain Evolution. Amaranth, quinoa, farro and grain and sprouted grain bread are on the rise. King Arthur Flour Company, Norwich, Vt., added a line of whole-grain mixes, and its latest cookbook, King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, showcases an array of desserts such Tropical Quinoa Custard and Brown Rice Pancakes.

Lesser-Known Grains. Farro, teff and freekeh are increasingly prevalent on menus and in stores. New York City's Gramercy Tavern restaurant offers a warm salad of vegetables and farro. Teff pancakes can be found on the catering menu of Barraud, Ltd., which also offers spiced teff-crusted scallops with a sweet chile sauce. Freekeh is a Middle Eastern grain made from fire roasting spring green baby wheat. Ziyad brand was a 2008 NASFT sofi^TM Silver Winner for its Roasted Green Wheat Pilaf, better known as Freekeh Pilaf. The baby green wheat cooks in its bag in five minutes and has a smoky and exotic flavor.

Staple Grains. Elusive, exotic varieties aren't the only grains getting attention. Barley, the staple whose claim to fame is beef barley soup, is getting a makeover. Jehangir Mehta, inventive New York City chef-owner of Graffiti and cookbook author of Mantra, The Rules of Indulgence, has created the Barley Legal, a cocktail that pairs barley with Johnny Walker, ginger and orange juice.

Varying Shades of Rice. U.S.-grown specialty rice includes basmati, jasmine, black japonica, aromatic red and sweet, among others. Lundberg Family Farms touts its Wild Blend® with flavorful mixes of long grain brown rice, brown sweet rice, Wehani®, Black Japonica^TM and wild rice as its most popular variety.

Annie Chun's new Rice Express Multi Grain Rice contains a combination of healthy sprouted brown rice, black Pearl rice and Indian millet. Or try Lotus Foods' Organic Jade Pearl Rice, which is infused with BamBoom! extract, made from the Moso species of bamboo that grows in the highland forest of south central China. When cooked, the rice gives off a bamboo aroma and has a light vanilla taste.-Nicole Denis and Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.
Nicole Denis is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s foodie-mom blog.

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