Trahanas

Flour and soured milk cooked to a paste, dried hard over several days and broken into grains that keep for a year.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (milk), dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

• 1 litre full-fat milk
• 300 g Greek yoghurt
• about 800 g coarse semolina
• 2 teaspoons salt

Method

1. IT IS DRIED UNTIL IT RATTLES, and that is the only test that matters. Trahanas that is merely dry to the touch still holds enough water to go mouldy in the jar within a month, and the fault shows up long after anyone could connect it to this step. Broken grains should sound like gravel poured into a bowl, and should snap rather than bend between the fingers.
2. THE MILK IS SOURED ON PURPOSE AND THAT IS NOT SPOILAGE. Milk and yoghurt left together at room temperature for a day thicken and turn sharp; this is the whole flavour of the thing and fresh milk gives a bland grain nobody would bother drying.
3. Milk and yoghurt whisked together in a wide bowl, covered with a cloth and left at room temperature 24 hours. It will thicken, separate slightly and smell sharply sour.
4. Whisked smooth again and poured into a heavy pan with the salt. Brought slowly to a bare simmer.
5. Semolina added in handfuls, stirred constantly, until it is a very stiff paste that holds the spoon upright. The quantity is approximate because flours differ; stop when the spoon stands.
6. Cooked 10 minutes more over a low heat, stirring the whole time and scraping the base. It will catch if left.
7. Spread 1 cm thick on trays lined with cloth and left somewhere warm and airy.
8. AFTER A DAY, when the surface is leathery, break it up with the hands into rough lumps and turn them over. This is where a batch is lost: left as a slab it dries on the outside and stays damp in the middle.
9. Broken smaller each day for three or four days, turning, until the pieces are the size of peppercorns or smaller and rattle in the tray.
10. Rubbed through a coarse sieve to even the grain, then stored in jars. It keeps a year.
11. To use: about 60 g a person, simmered in stock or water for 15 minutes until it swells and thickens. It takes up far more liquid than it looks as though it will.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes