Bulgar to the Point of Distraction

What do you cook when it gets hot? Scorchin'

Assuming salad, specifically garden salad and green salad, isn’t cooking – I do the same thing everyone else does: grill, eat out, try to make things that take little effort and less heating - Considering eating out to be a luxury this year, I have been having a romance with bulgar this summer.

Not a Bulgar, in the Bulgarian sense, but the whole-wheat cereal. Sometimes bulghur, occasionally burghul, the word comes from the Turkish language meaning roughly ‘bruised grain’. Bulgaria, which borders Turkey’s European toehold in the west, was part of the Ottoman Empire until about 100 years ago. This region has been the breadbasket for the greater Istanbul area going back to the time that it was Constantinople.

Bulgar, the food, is largely considered a natural or whole food but it is actually processed. Not processed in the Twinkie sense; the product is made by steaming, then drying whole-wheat kernels, usually the durum wheat variety. The result of the steaming and subsequent drying leaves a smooth, hardened interior – similar to parboiled rice. After the surrounding bran and the attached germ are removed, the remaining endosperm is processed into coarse pieces. The smaller pieces are reserved for couscous, puddings and combined with ground fava beans to make a kind of falafel.

For the most part it is the bigger chunks, and here big is relative (3.5 mm), that are sold as bulgar. The cracked wheat can be cooked painlessly on any day. Pour boiling liquid over the grains and cover for 10-20 minutes – but especially noticeable on a hot day, the minimal effort it takes to prepare bulgar might actually require fewer calories than calling for a pizza delivery.

Steamed or sautéed veg served over bulgar that has been flavored with chopped mint and basil is pretty much a meal onto itself. Adding steamed fish or either hot or cold chicken –& don’t sell the rotisserie chicken short on a 100-degree day - isn’t really necessary. I rather go with a side of sliced cucumbers tossed in a mixture of garlic, lemon juice and yogurt but some folks really like their protein.

Mark Bittman recommends breakfast bulgar, he also suggests bulgar can be used in a burrito, which I have no objection to really other than I think the concoction would cease to be a burrito the moment that bulgar was added. Chickpeas and grilled lamb are natural partners, as are mushrooms and soy sauce; the latter in more of a side dish type of way. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention tabbouleh/tabouli, whose constituent parts of scallion, tomato, parsley and mint – combined with bulgar make something less good than they do standing alone, so I will be remiss.