Amaranth Pudding- An Ancient Grain Re-Imagined

So as I am currently recovering from surgery I am trying my best to eat as cleanly and naturally as possible and this had led me to try out some ingredients I had in my cabinet for a while but had never actually gotten around to using. Today's experiment was Amaranth Flour. Amaranth is actually native to the Americas and can be foraged or grown quite easily. The amaranth I used is from Bob's Red Mill as I have yet to find it out in the wild.

Getting the ingredients out for the pudding

The inspiration for this recipe comes from one of my favorite childhood desserts. When I was little, my parents used to take us to this very fancy old restaurant in Essex called the Griswold Inn. One of their signature desserts at the time was Indian pudding. This was a smooth, warm, creamy, hearty bowl of spiced delight that was served with a little vanilla ice cream--the melting ice-cream and the warm pudding made this rich dessert the perfect conclusion to a wonderful meal. Sadly they no longer serve the Indian pudding.

Today, the Amaranth was calling and told me that I should give it a try, Indian pudding style. So that's what I did. In a small pot, I boiled about 2 cups of water and added in about a teaspoon of molasses, and 6 to 7 small female pitch pinecones and 70g of Amaranth flour.

This I began to stir quite vigorously and added a pinch of salt. This needed to cook for about 20 mins over a low heat and stirred occasionally.

Adding The Pine Pollen & Amaranth Flour To The Boiling Water.

I tasted it and thought it was a little bland and so I added about 2 tablespoons of magnolia syrup. This really brought it to a whole other level and the warm, floral, gingery notes of the magnolia united the toppings of candied rose petals, blueberries, and a dollop of ricotta cheese. I garnished this with a little fresh fennel frond and drizzled a little maple syrup over the top. MMMmmmm good! This really was a delightful little meal for the middle of the day.