I am often appalled at the price of hot cereals, especially gluten-free hot cereals. If you have a blender or a grain mill, you can make them for a fraction of the cost of the commercially produced products and they will be fresher. Rice farina is the perfect example of this. Bob’s Red Mill sells it for $17.72 for 7 pounds, which comes out to $2.53 a pound. You can get whole rice for the normal price of 40 cents a pound around here, probably less if you go to an ethnic market, and then do about 3 minute’s worth of work yourself to save the $2.13 difference. I have also done this with sorghum and had excellent results.
Take your rice and if you are using a grain mill, set it for a coarse grind. You want it to look like grits. If you are using a blender, pulse until you get a grind with a mix of medium and smaller pieces. If you are using a grain that needs to be soaked, you can now soak it with lemon juice, vinegar, whey or the like. Once you are ready to cook it, place it into a fine mesh colander and rinse it thoroughly.
Place your grain in a saucepan and add 3 parts water for every 1 part grain. Use more water if you like it to be thinner, you can cook it a little longer if needed to get the consistency right. I normally use a scant 1/3 cup rice and 1 cup water, add 2 Tbs coconut oil or butter and a generous dash of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes, depending on the consistency you like. Once it is cooked, you can add any additions such as rapadura, maple syrup, dried fruit, cream, nut butter, coconut milk and the like. I often use this as a way to use up the little bits of coconut milk left when a recipe calls for less than a full can and the little bits of nut butter left in the bottom of the jar, using a spatula to scrape the last little bits out.
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KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has ten years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Read about KerryAnn’s journey to health through celiac disease, food allergies, obesity, adrenal fatigue and heavy metals.
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