I’ve just found a piece of cardboard, a carefully cut-out rectangle which was the side of a box containing semolina. I know I didn’t cut it out – I can’t remember the last time, if ever, I cooked semolina, so I’m presuming it was in the small handwritten recipe index a friend gave me. It’s a small note-book with alphabetical sections to write recipes in – from friends, copied from newspapers or magazines, or from the backs of packets of ingredients. It also had dozens of recipes like the one I have just found which were saved from foodstuff packaging.
The unfortunate thing is that these days we never have desserts unless we are out – and even then I would more likely opt for a cheese course, the other half would go for anything sweet! It’s a long while ago now, but I think I may have made puddings (i.e. desserts) when our children were young, and I certainly enjoyed them when I was young and then when i was at school. Semolina was one of those puddings, along with sago and tapioca that my school friends were sharply divided over, love it or loathe it to the point of being repulsed and almost nauseous at the thought of consuming! Their disgust was the texture – the mouth-feel, and I can understand that, but fortunately those puddings didn’t have that effect on me, and I would enjoy ‘helping them out’ with their bowls of goo and red sauce.
For a speedy Milk Pudding serves four
- 2 oz semolina
- 1 pint warm milk
- 1 oz sugar
- add the semolina to the warm milk
- bring to the boil, stirring continuously
- cook for 3 mins then add the sugar
- serve hot or cold
Semolina in cooking
- to thicken soups and sauces add 1 oz per pint
- to prevent fruit pies and tarts becoming soggy, sprinkle the bottom layer of uncooked pastry thinly with semolina
Wikipedia tells us “semolina is the name given to roughly milled durum wheat mainly used in making pasta and sweet puddings. The term semolina is also used to designate coarse millings of other varieties of wheat, and sometimes other grains (such as rice or maize) as well.”
Lois Elsden 