Radio stations are brimming with suggestions for Thanksgiving dishes, but none as delicious as our old standby, bulgur pilaf, the food that kept our people alive through the most devastating of circumstances!
Bulgur pilaf -- Marash Girl's favorite dish, both to prepare and to eat! And for Thanksgiving, a quick and tasty alternative to potatoes or rice.
How does she do it? Easy.
Fry up some chopped onions in olive oil or butter or a combination of the two (and if you have the time and the vegetables, chopped green peppers). Add a cup of medium bulgur (not fine, not coarse, but medium bulgur -- available at Middle Eastern grocery stores, but usually not in supermarkets where, if you're lucky, you'll find fine bulgur which is used for tabouleh and coarse bulgur which is used for dolma). Sauté the bulgur with the onions (and peppers, if you've added peppers). For every cup of bulgur, add somewhat less than 1 cup of V-8 Juice (yes, V-8 Juice!) and 7/8 cup water, and a lot less if you've added tomatoes. Or use all V-8 juice and no water . . . your taste! Bring mixture to a boil and turn off the heat. Your bulgur pilaf will be ready in 15 minutes! A time-saving device would be to sauté all of the ingredients the evening before or the morning of your main event. Then 15 minutes before serving time, add the V-8 juice. This is a great and somewhat exotic alternative for those who have vegetarians in the family, but, of course, would not work if your vegetarians or vegans are gluten intolerant!
i remember dad recounting how the poor were left the bulgur or brown rice pilav. for the wealthy was received the gourmet of white rice. of course, the rich now feasted on a nutritionally stripped rice, and the poor became rich in the eating of a nutritionally denser food. interesting, virtually all americans fall into the category of being rich by the standards of world history. and what are we eating? junk. the rich are different, they are the eating poor.
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