(If you love trying out something new, then do prepare something ethnic for breakfast, something different from your own culture and send it across to Glenna for WBB #14 by 27th August, 10 pm Central Time, details here).
Picking a recipe from a place I’ve never visited and preparing it to the best possible level using locally available ingredients gives me a kick of experiencing at least part of the culture of the place. After all, food is a large part of one’s culture.
Ever since Glenna announced an ethnic theme for WBB, but different from your own culture, I have been doing searches and looking up a couple of world cuisine books to see what vegetarian breakfast I can make.
All the research narrowed down to a North African breakfast dish from Tunisia called Farka. According to Wiki Cookbook –
Tunisian meals have shown to incorporate various traditional cuisines from the surrounding ares of the Mediterranean, North Africa, and many Arab countries. For this reason, it is no surprise that Tunisian recipes incorporate many of these traditions including couscous and generous amounts of seasonings and spices. It goes without saying that it is almost guaranteed that any single Tunisian entree will be prepared with peppers, since the Tunisians enjoy a rather spicy meal. Also, Tunisian meals are considered social events, so expect a typical collection of dinner recipes to contain several appetizers, a selection of main dishes, and a vast array of desserts.
Traditionally Farka is cooked with couscous, sugar, oil water – enriched with nuts and dates, the mix is baked off in an oven and served with extra milk and sugar. While you would think, this seems like dessert, Tunisians actually have it for breakfast. And you could too….reduce the sweetness a bit and it is actually a healthy whole grain breakfast, high in fiber and protein.
I have modified the recipe to suit the availability of ingredients and the time on hand.
Tunisian Farka
Category – Breakfast porridge, Whole grains
Time taken – Under 30 minutes
Serves – 2
Prepared ingredients for Farka
Farka - a Tunisian breakfast porridge
Ingredients
Method
- Take ghee in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the broken wheat along with chopped nuts to the pan and saute on low flame for 3-4 minutes. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, keep 1 1/2 cups water to boil adding in the sugar, jaggery and grated ginger.
- Once the water has come to a boil and the broken wheat has turned golden brown, add the sweetened water to wok over the wheat. Close the wok with a lid and let this simmer (on a low flame) till wheat is cooked and the water is absorbed. This will take 5-10 minutes depending on the size of the broken wheat particles. (See pressure cooking shortcut in notes).
- Once the wheat is dry and almost cooked, add in 1/2 cup milk, stir well and keep covered for 2 minutes until it is absorbed and the grains are fluffed up. Switch off the stove and keep this covered for another 10 minutes, till all the moisture is absorbed and the porridge is dry.
- Serve warm with some extra milk by the side to add if necessary.
bookmarked – must try this one. sounds like its somewhere between cornflakes and upma. btw any good resources that you can point me to to figure what body type i am? google will of course come to my aid but nothing can beat a good recommendation. 🙂
Nice recipe nandita… but Glenna’s page isn’t opening yet and the mail I sent her bounced. So need help.
Wow, Nandita,what a great twist on cous cous or bulgur. I only cook them savory. THis will be a new thing for me to try.
Nanditha,seems so delicious, adding ginger I think takes it to a different level.should try this some time
Sounds like a sweet lapsi upma 🙂
Lakshmi -Will mention the link on the post…I did it using Dr. Deepak Chopra’s book, the service is available on his website tooRaaga- she recd my mail and replied back , went to her website too…but will forward her ur entry-Zlamushka- Hey nice that you are game to try out a non-spicy recipe LOL!Sreelu- i love ginger in anythingJyothsana – Surprising how the farthest of cuisines will have some similarity with each other 🙂
have added the body dosha link to the post, but here it is anywayhttp://store.chopra.com/dosha-survey.asp
This is similar to our lapsi!! Looks yum!!
Thats a great idea. I have a tendency to mark all recipes with broken wheat in it. 🙂 This sounds like a must try.Does your blog have a new look?? How is your TV show going on? I will have to check if you have uploaded any new videos. 🙂
This sounds like one of those breakfast dishes that will satisfy you way past lunch time. Thanks for sharing.
One word: sumptuous!
What an amazing dish! I love the flavours you’ve incorporated. So wholesome and delicious.
Manasi- it does! But the original recipe is with couscous -so it would be quite different i guess! With the baking and all, it did sound elaborate butI saw the same recipe in recipezaar where many people commented that it did not really need the baking. So the lazy cook in me simply cut short all those steps. Next time will make it directly in the small pressure cooker…then its a five minute job!RP- Hey thanks for noticing…just change the header off and on…no more new shows- have given a break after shooting some 12 episodes, it takes a lot of planning and time, and there are too many things on hand now 🙂 Cynthia-it did feel like its going to keep me going way past lunch time, but my stomach was growling at 1pm hehehe!!Musical- It was…nice for a festive breakfast, like apna diwali /new year etc 🙂 This was a treat for me as I was home alone yesterday, i made half the recipe for one- hubby doesn’t like anything sweet in the morn…and not like I have a sweettooth, but i like a change once in a while!Truffle-Thanks a lot for your kind words and ofcourse for dropping by…do give it a try if you’ve liked it 🙂
I love yr version. Wheat should give that bite. In those lines, flax seeds may also be a nice and healthy addition. Thanks for introducing this dish to us. Dried fruits, nuts, wheat and milk, what more can you ask for in bfast. Far better than any cereal.
Hi Nandita,THankss for sharing that quiz..Am a Kapha too!Today this is going to be my breakfast :)P.s: I am not able to log comments in your blog with reference to my blog..Is there any reason for this?Cheers,Kavitha.
Thanks 🙂
hi It is really different than the normal dalia we make …..’ll surely try itwww.sofeminine.blogspot.com