Bulgur wheat/ tabouli/ soft white wheat

[jenn]

I had made bulgur wheat in the past by boiling hard red wheat, crushing the still squishy (drained but not dried out) wheat loosely in the steel millstones to get basicly curlicued squished wheat which dried up nicely like 1-2 mm bulgur. I have not had any luck using whole hard red wheat in bread etc- I boil it, but any on outside of loaf get rock hard teeth breaker tough from baking so we now only use crushed hard red. Just broke out some soft white wheat (SWW) and it boils up softer, like the ''rubber crunchies'' cereal Mom used to make for us. After boiling it stays soft enough in baked bread to be used whole, and no need for the sunflower seeds we love in our bread.

I just returned my Retsel Mill for a 23 year tune up when I got some parsley in my farm co-op package, and then heard the mill would be another month or two to return. I boiled up some of the SWW and dried it, then tried crushing it into official bulgur with the food processor and the rolling pin and mortar and pestle. Very inefficient so I gave up and decided to try mostly whole grain bulgur in tabouli. Just made it and let it marinate a few hours and quite happy with it- the 'rubber crunchies' are soft as bulgur and don't make the tabouli annoying to eat. Might not even break up SWW in future, or break it prior to boiling though then I have to sift out the flour dust. Wonder if I can directly use 'rubber crunchies' in tabouli with only one boiling.

[mogal]

Hey, Jenn! We bought our Retsel mill in the early 80's and it's still going strong. It's a WORK HOSS if ever there was one.

You're a better woman than I am trying to crush bulgur with a mortal and pestle!

[Cabin Fever]

This is a little off topic, put we make our tabouli with quinoa. We stuff our tabouli into whole wheat pita pockets. We figure why use two wheat products in one meal. Besides, quinoa is higher in protein, antioxidants, and good fats (omegas). This way we get the benefits of whole wheat and quinoa.

[jenn]

Gave up on the mortar and pestle. Will use quinoa next recipe- thanks for the tip! (Now do I have some... )