Forgotten Foods: Cooking with Amaranth

Three cereal grains: Wheat, corn/maize and rice provide most of human calories, and comprise together at least 75% of the world's grain production. Navdanya, the organisation founded by Dr Vandana Shiva promotes the preservation of traditional varieties of seeds, as well as biodiversity of seeds. For this, it is important for people to learn about other cereal grains and vegetables that used to be popular in the past, but are now forgotten foods, as they are rapidly disappearing. Here is a cooking demonstration by Maya Goburdhan, President, Navdanya, showing how 'amaranth' can be used. With this basic introduction to making a cutlet, the viewer is encouraged to use the popped amaranth seeds in a variety of delectable ways in dals, salads, desserts and toppings using his or her own imagination. The book "Forgotten Foods" mentioned at the end of the video also talks about and gives recipes for various pseudo cereals like amaranth and buckwheat, Major millets (Sorghum, Pearl Millet) and Minor Millet( finger millet/ragi, barnyard millet/jhangora, foxtail millet/kauni, kodo millet/kodra, proso millet/barri, little millet/kutki and job's tears/sauku Let's preserve the biodiversity of our food grains by reviving our forgotten foods. Video by http://www.ecowalkthetalk.com taken on 16th March 2011 at Navdanya, Dehradun, India with volunteers, interns and participants of Grandmother's University course Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ecowalkthetalk Twitter: http//www.twitter.com/ecowalkthetalk Additional Note: The book, "Forgotten Foods" mentions a variation of the cutlet made in the demo, the recipe for which is as follows ****For recipe as in the demo, please watch towards the end of the video*** According to "Forgotten Foods" here's a nice variation you could try: 75 gms popped amaranth 200 gms potato (boil hard..not too mushy) 15 gms peas, 15 gms carrot, 3 tbsp garam masala, 2tsp black pepper, 50 gms peanuts, salt to taste, 1 small bunch coriander leaves, 1 green chilli Method: Boil, peel and mash potato and carrot. Boil the peas and mix. Finely chop corainder and green chilli. Add popped amaranth, chopped coraiander, chill and all the other spices. Mix well. The dough is now ready. Make the dough into oval shapes: press them n between your palms to flatten. Heat the oil in medium frying pan and when oil is hot drop a few of the cutlets and fry on medium heat until they turn golden brown. Serve the cutlets hot with chutney or sauce.