Curse of the teeeeny-tiny GRAIN! Dunt Dunt DUNNNNNN!

I spent 3 weeks in Colorado and the food scene out there is a foodies dream. Every little town has a little shop that has homemade, organic, local, special something out there and every coffee shop does too.

Typical convo:
-"Would you like to try our breakfast burrtios?"
-"Hmm What's in it?"
-"Farm fresh brown eggs, homemade elk chorizo, local sharp cheddar, organic red skin potatos, in a full lard homemade tortilla, and any of that you want"  (Pointing to a homemade salsa bar)
-"*SLLLLUUURRRP!* YES PLEASE!"
-"Would you like a cup of Durango roast coffee with local honey and half-n-half? Or a piece of homemade pie to go?"
-"Am I dead? Is this heaven? Will you adopt me?!?!"

While out there, a little old lady told me that women of my 'age (early twenties) and generation need natural sources of iron and calcium and not taking those evil man made supplements.' And since I totally agree and the fact that this lady look like she had never been told 'No' in her life.... I ended up buy half a pound of a very fine grain that was only a few bucks.

Amaranth

Its a teeny tiny grain the size of poppy seed that the Ancient Central and South American empires thrived on.. Then the Spanish came... outlawed it and killed everybody off.. THE END.. Sad...

The Spanish didn't like the grain because the Aztecs considered it holy and used it in human sacrifice rituals.  Mixing it with honey and human blood making little figures out of it, then eating it. EWWWWW!

The grain is said to be CURSED to make sick any descendants of the Spanish that outlawed it.

Almost extinct, the grain has made a serious recovery in the last few years once it was recognized as a SUPER GRAIN. Loaded with butt-kicking calcium, iron, fiber, protein, magnesium and 3 essential amino acids that corn, wheat, rice and potatoes don't even have. .25 cup of amaranth has a crazy %60 percent of you daily iron! No wonder it was given to people as a cure for 'laziness' and woman after their 'monthly time' or pregnancy! Developing treatments for anemia without modern medicine!! That's amazing!

Cooking this stuff up...
No one seem to have any real instructions. Alot of 'boil it' and 'pop it and mix with honey' ... Ok How am I supposed to do that?!?!

Boiling it like couscous with about the same 1:2 grain to water ratio seems to work well. I added a little cut chicken sausage and it was really great. The consistency takes some getting used to and its kinda like oatmeal in that you feel like you have to chew but it doesn't do much and you don't really need to.

I next tried 'popping' it. I had no idea what to expect. BUT it really does pop! In to tiny little white popcorn looking beads. I tried a few methods without alot of success. Adding oil just made all the little seeds jump from the pan!

Oil burns, dry burns, water doesn't work at all.

I went for half popped half toasted and then added honey. Cooked it down slightly then poured it out on some parchment and let it cool. Instead of forming a little person to eat I went with a round ball and had it with my coffee.

Very toasty, not crazy sweet, and ultimately really good. It reminded me of some middle-eastern desserts made with sesame seeds. I'm thinking of a shortbread cookie with a thin honey and toasted amaranth mixture poured over for something different at Christmas. The little old lady in Colorado suggested toasting them and sprinkling them on salads which sounds great!