Under Rated, Farina

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Most of us have ahd Mat-O-Meal, or cream Of Wheat. They are both made from a wheat product called Farina. But have you seen it used in other dishes besides hot cereal?

Over many long years, I have explored this versatile, and wonderful product and have some ideas that I have used to share with you.

1. Flavored Hot Cereal - I have made my hot farina cereal using, instead of water as the base liquid, chocolate milk, egg nog, and various fruit juices. As long as you keep the liquid to farina ratio correct, you can make any flavor hot cereal you desire. Or you can make it with water and flavor with brown sugar butter, and vanilla to make a butterscotch flavored hot cereal.

2. Shrimp and Farina - Like shrimp and grits, but made with farina instead of corn meal. To make this, I like to peel the shrimp and boil the peelings to obtain a tasty shrim broth. Season he broth, and add the uncooked shrimp, and farina, with the correct ratio of liquid to broth (about 1 cup broth to /2 tbs. farina. The cereal is milder in flavor that corn meal, letting the full shrimp flavor shine. You can also do this with clams, crab meat, lobster, or any combination of the above. When serving, add butter

3. Light Coating - .Sometimes I will use half flour, and half farina to make my dredging coat for fish, chicken, or pork. The farina adds a soft crunch without adding flavors that will mask whatever seasonings, or meat I'm using it with.

4. Thickener - farina can be used to thicken soups, sauces, and gravies. Though, you have to be careful with it as if too much is used, it can turn paste-like and ruin what you are trying to make. Bu it doesn't have that raw flour flavor either.

in summation, farina can be used for many things besides a simple ot cereal. It has very little, if any flavor of its own, and so can be altered to fit any flavor profile you want.

Give some of these ideas a try. If you have other ways you have used farina in your recipes, please post them, as i'm always looking for ways to expand my cooking knowledge.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[pepperhead212]

Great thread, Chief! Farina is a relatively unknown product in this country, except, as you noted, hot cereal.

Many other countries use it much more in their cuisines, but none more than India. It is used more in Northern India, where it is known as sooji, but also in Southern regions, where it is known as rava, where it is used in some dosas (thin, crepe like pancakes), idlis (steamed breads, usually made with lentils and rice), and upmas. This is the one I've made the most - it's sort of like a polenta, made with coarse rava, and bunch of seasonings. And in the upma, the rava is often dry-roasted in a skillet, to lightly brown, before using, to add flavor. Many deep fried Indian street breads are made with rava - think hush puppies or hoecakes with farina instead of cornmeal! And funny you should mention shrimp, as I once made a version of karwari shrimp, in which the shrimp is marinated in a tarka like mix of spices and shallots, that was ground into a paste. The rava is added, to make a batter on the shrimp, and this is deep-fried (I actually shallow fried it).

In Indian markets there are many grades, of different coarseness, like with cornmeals, as well as how much of the bran and germ is milled out of them.