Spelt Berries

As my husband was helping me start packing up my apartment yesterday, he ran across a couple bags of spelt berries that I had received from the CSA.  I hadn't thought about them for a while and John was complaining that I didn't have enough carby things in my apartment.  I suppose that I should explain that I finally came to the conclusion that bread, pasta and rice are dangerous to people who have had gastric surgery.  All of these foods expand in your stomach after you eat them, so it is easy to overeat them.  Not to mention the fact that if you fill your stomach with carbohydrates, you may have difficulty eating enough protein in your day.  So, I just have not been buying things..

I took some time online to get some ideas for spelt berries.  I have only used wheat berries in the past in a dish called Kutya, a wheat dish served on Christmas eve in Ukrainian households.  So, I really was not sure what we could do with them.  There were a lot of suggestions for making breakfast with yogurt and fruit.  So, here is what I made for my husband:

Spelt Berry Breakfast

• 1 cup Fage 0% Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 cup cooked spelt berries*
• 1/2 cup blackberries* 
• honey* (optional)

Layer yogurt, spelt berries and blackberries in a bowl.  If desired, sweeten with honey.

Note: to cook the spelt berries, I rinsed 2 cups berries and placed them in the bowl of my rice cooker.  I added 4 1/2 cups water and cooked, on sprouted setting, until cooked.  My rice cooker has fuzzy logic, so when the spelt berries were cooked, it switched to warm until I was ready to use them.

*CSA ingredients

Ramps and berries

If you have never tried ramps, you are in for a treat.  Ramps are wild leeks with an onion/garlic/leek flavor.  I was a little concerned at first because I am not terribly fond of either onions or leeks, however, there is a sweetness in ramps that you don't find in any of the three.  Since we had gotten frozen pizza dough and fresh mozzarella in the last CSA package, I thought I would try the ramps on pizza.

White Ramp and Garlic Pizza

• Frozen pizza crust, thawed*
• Olive Oil
• 4 oz fresh mozzarella, shredded*
• 6 roasted garlic cloves, sliced
• 6 ramps*
• 1/4 cup parmesan-reggiano, grated

Wash ramps, cut off root ends and remove outer coating.  Bring water to boil in a medium saucepan.  Add ramps and blanch for 2 minutes.  Remove ramps from water and drain well.  Cut into 1-inch pieces; set aside.

Sprinkle pizza pan with cornmeal.  Stretch pizza dough to fit pan.  Brush with olive oil and sprinkle garlic slices over pizza.

Sprinkle with fresh mozzarella, then ramps and finally parmesan-reggiano.

Bake at 475 for 8-10 minutes until crust is browned.

Makes 6 slices.

VARIATION:

Ramp, Feta, tomato, garlic white pizza

Same as above, but add wedged tomatoes and sprinkle with Feta instead of parmesan-reggiano.

Also makes 6 slices.

Bonus Recipe:

Berry Custard Pie

Adapted from Allrecipes.com recipe:

• 1 cup baking mix
• 1 1/2 Tbsp white sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups raspberries
• 1 cup blackberries
• 3 Tbsp white wheat flour*
• 1/2 cup fresh plain yogurt*
• 2 egg whites*
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a small bowl, mix together baking mix, 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar and milk.  Press into prepared pie plate with flour coated fingers. Sprinkle berries onto crust.

In another bowl, combine flour, yogurt, egg whites, sugar, nutmeg and vanilla.  Pour over berries. Cover edges of crust with foil.

Bake at 450F for 10 minutes.  Turn heat down to 350F and bake for 30 minutes or until center is set.

Makes 8 servings

*CSA ingredients