Grain

These days we are often told to stop and think about where our food comes from. At the same time, it has become fashionable for restaurants, butcheries and delis to recognise the origins of their ingredients.

For those serious about good food, these sources are important and in some parts of the world, the producers of ingredients are almost as big celebrities as the world-renowned chefs whose restaurants they supply. Perhaps the biggest tip of the hat to the importance of producers and their products is to include them in the holy tomb of high-end cooking, the restaurant cookbook.

We care a lot about where some of our foods such as meat, fish, cheese, chicken, vegetables and fruit come from. We are aware that organically raised beef is better than meat that is mass-produced in feedlots. Fish needs to be harvested in a sustainable manner.

We prefer (if we can find it) fresh vegetables that come from fields on farms that are close by and that did not have to make their way onto our plates on the back of lorries or in the cargo hulls of airplanes.

As they say: ‘local is lekker’.

One food that we seem to care less about, here locally in Namibia is grain. Grain can be defined as “a small, hard, dry seed, with or without an attached hull or fruit layer, harvested for human or animal consumption”.

There are two main commercial grain crops: cereal and legumes. All cereal crops are members of the grass family (Poaceae) and they all contain substantive amounts of starch, a carbohydrate that provide dietary energy.

Both cereal and legumes are durable which makes them ideal industrial crops. They can be mechanically harvested, transported in bulk by ship, or truck or rail, stored for a long time, milled for flour and pressed for oil.

Local subsistence farmers produce pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum or mahangu), maize and some sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) for their own use or for generating an income through sale on local markets or to individual customers. Maize and millet are also produced commercially. These are grown during the warm months and mostly sold in milled form, which means they are consumed as porridge (pap). Both mahangu and sorgum are used for the homemade fermented beverages. These include both non-alcoholic – oshikundu – and alcoholic beverages such as omalodu, otombo, oshafuluka, okatokele, epwaka, and /Ho ≠Goas. Maxau is a maize-based non-alcoholic beverage enjoyed in Southern Namibia.

In recent years, Namibia’s largest brewery, Namibia Breweries Ltd (NBL), started cultivating its own barley at a project in northern Namibia. This barley is used to produce one of its new beer brands, King Lager.

Pulses or grain legumes are members of the pea family. They have higher protein content than most other plant food and thus form a big part of vegan or vegetarian diets. The proteins contained in these legumes are incomplete which means that they are not all amino acids. They also contain carbohydrate and fat. Common examples include lentils, chickpeas, common beans, garden peas, peanuts and soybeans.

Oilseed grains are grown primarily for the extraction of their edible oil. Examples of oilseeds include rapeseed, mustard seed, sunflower seeds, flax seeds and hemp seeds.

Cereals and legumes are mostly sold in dried form and most varietals require quite a bit of cooking time. It starts by soaking the cereal or legume overnight in cold, clean water. Thereafter it is cooked in a liquid (mostly water or stock) after which it is seasoned and served. Cooked legumes such as beans and lentils are often added as an ingredient to other dishes such as casseroles or stews.

It is not common in Namibia to use cereals (other than wheat) in baked applications such as bread, cookies or pancakes.

Cereals and legumes are excellent salad ingredients. This week’s recipe is for a barley and pomegranate salad. It is both easy to make and quite delicious, especially with fatty cuts of meat.

Ideal for a Namibian braai, don’t you think?

• 200 grams of pearl barley

• 6 sticks of celery, leaves picked and reserved, stems cut into small dice

• 60 mililitres of olive oil

• 3 tablespoons of sherry or dry white wine vinegar

• 2 small of garlic cloves, crushed

• 2/3 teaspoons of ground allspice

• 3 tablespoons of fresh dill, chopped

• 3 tablespoons of fresh (flat-leaf) parsley, chopped

• 300 grams of pomegranate seeds

• Rinse the barley under cold water. Place it in a pot with enough clean water to cover it

completely. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer. Cook for 30 to 35 minutes until