Category: World

Spiced Roti with Fermented Millet

10/24/2016

Revisionist Baking Monday

Millet is a delicious and nutritious grain if a bit mysterious. I’ve been working with it lately, cooking the grain up into pilafs, making porridges, fermenting it, making it into milk, desserts, and working with the flour in baking.

Several Ah Ha’s I’d like to pass along about millet flour:

Start with the whole grain and toast it. It’s easy to mill into flour, at home with a spice grinder, for the amounts you’ll need for a baking recipe. Toasting millet radically improves its flavor, and helps to open up the nutritional content of the grain.
Make it into a Protein/Starch/Gum mix. Millet flour is fairly high in protein but lacks gluten. It tends to be dry tasting on its own, so I realized that it’s best to buddy it up with a starch and a gum. I chose potato starch for its ability to hold moisture, but other starches could be used to suit where you live and what’s available. I used ground flaxseed for the gum, because it’s nutritious in its own right, easy to buy, and grows traditionally in the same areas as millet.
Let it ferment. Letting millet go through a fermentation process, like sourdough will increase its nutritional bioavailability, help it to retain more moisture, and heighten its flavor profile.
Use it for baking that naturally carries moisture like dosas, idli, muffins, fritters…
Use it with a fat to help offset its dry nature.

My Millet Flour Blend
1 ¾ cup /344g whole proso millet
Toast and grind into flour using a spice grinder
1 cup /172g potato starch
2 tablespoons /13g flaxseed ground
This mix is 2 parts millet to 1 part starch and 2 tablespoons flax per 500g of mix
I haven’t tried other millets because
they’re unavailable in the USA !!!

More Fermented Flatbreads

Food For Thought

It takes me into my heart when
I really consider millet.
How long people and millet
have been together, 10,000 years?
How it's one of the
five sacred grains of China.
How it's this hard working grain that takes less water,
and will grow in poorer soils.
How it feeds the poor.
That there are places in Africa where it's eaten three times a day.
How in my country it's used as bird seed, and most people have never tasted it.
How it's so nutritious, and all of us-- rich and poor are so in need of nourishment.
Nourishment for our bodies and our hearts. I've been meeting good people, people who care a lot, and are working to bring millet to us. This grain that will grow in drier and hotter conditions.
A grain full of health.
I go deep into my heart when I think of these things, standing at my stove toasting millet seed, pressing millet roti, smelling the baked bread, breaking it and bringing it to my mouth to eat.

Spiced Millet Roti

Ingredients
Use all of the millet flour blend
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon toasted whole cumin ground
1 teaspoon toasted whole coriander ground
¼ cup /55g ghee or coconut oil
2 teaspoons pickled jalapenos minced
¾ cup /100g minced onion
½ cup+/ 4oz/ 114g water kefir, kefir or yogurt
You can also use 1/2 cup of sourdough starter
They may need a little more liquid

Instructions for Making Dough
I use a food processor but this can be done by hand.

Toast whole millet on medium heat in a heavy bottomed skillet until it begins to pop and smells toasty about 4-5 minutes.
Let cool. Grind millet in a spice grinder in several batches until flour consistency.
Add millet flour, and all other dry ingredients to the food processor.
Spin to combine.
Add ghee and spin to incorporate into flour.
Add jalapenos, and onion combine briefly.
Add liquid with the machine running until it becomes a thick dough.
Put batter into a bowl and ferment with a towel over at room temperature for 4 to 8 hours or until slightly sour.

Instructions for the griddle
Preheat a griddle on medium heat.
I use cast iron.
Separate the dough into 14 balls of 65g each
Press the balls with a tortilla press lined with parchment paper
Griddle the roti for 2 minutes with a lid covering it,
Flip the roti and cook for another 2 minutes with the lid on. Cook as many roti as needed.
Remaining dough balls can be stored in the fridge in a mason jar for up to a week to use as needed. Roti are delicious by themselves, or with a topping, dal, chutney. They're like a corn tortilla except better.
With Love EnJoy!

Roti Technique

Dough balls will ferment in the fridge and can be used as needed. They'll last several weeks slowly fermenting.
You can also save dough balls that are already fermented, and use as needed. This is a fab fast food. Just press and griddle!

A Couple Cool Millet Activists

Dwiddly-- Working towards improving millet cultivation practices in India
The Millet Project-- Rediscovering the traditions of cultivating and consuming millets.

Flaky Moist Rollable Masa Dough

10/10/2016

Revisionist Baking Monday Dedicated to Mateo for his 23rd Birthday

hands-on Lesson in recipe development

Orion, my apprentice wanted to know how I develop recipes, because it's an interest area of his. I’ve been trying to slow down and articulate the process I go through for him. It’s difficult, because it’s a lifetime of interwoven processes, mixtures of science, common sense, inspiration, art, and intuition….
I was making refried pinto beans for lunch. I had the last zucchini from the garden, plus onions and dried chilies. Orion was roasting the zucchini with onions, toasted cumin and coriander.
I thought I was just making tortillas, but then the whisper happened. "What if you added potato starch for more moisture?" Then it evolved into a pastry using butter, because Orion remembered that I use butter for my tamales. I glanced at my frequently used fridge magnet recipes, and noticed that Grandma’s corn bread used the same ratios I was working with. Wonderful, because I wanted to add baking powder to lighten up the masa with the butter. I knew it was going to happen in the food processor because it’s excellent for making doughs. I asked Orion to estimate for me how much liquid it would need to pull it all together? He thought ½ cup of water, and he was right.
I felt that this dough was going to work out. We made it up into tartlets, chilled them and then prebaked. We taste tested with some of the roasted zucchini, onions and cheese. Approval. I tested the dough again the next day for a tamale pie, and I'll definitely be making it again. I like this dough.

Flaky Moist Rollable Masa Dough
Makes enough for one 9 inch pie with lattice top
This masa dough is light and moist, but with a full corn taste, flaky like pastry yet reminds me of a really good tamale. It’s super easy to make, and can be formed into all kinds of shapes. Try it for pies and tarts, stuff it with a filling, layer for a tamale pie, or fold into a gordita. You can bake it in the oven, or on the griddle like a tortilla.

Ingredients
1 cup /117g masa harina
½ cup /80g potato starch
2 tablespoons/12 g ground flaxseed
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup /113 g/1 stick cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes
½ cup/ 115g water

Method
Using A Food Processor
Measure all dry ingredients into food processor and spin
Add cold butter pulse 7-8 times or until butter is the size of small peas
Add water while the machine is running
Let dough spin to clear the sides of the bowl and knead together

For Tartlets
Measure 1 rounded tablespoon dough per tartlet tin
Press evenly in oiled tins
Chill dough in tartlet tins for 1 hour before blind baking
Bake Chilled Tartlets at 425F/ 220C for 10-12 minutes
Fill prebaked tartlets and return to the oven for 12 minutes
for pre-cooked fillings.

For Tamale Pie
Split dough in half
Roll bottom on floured parchment and lift into a removable bottom tin
Roll top as for a pie and cut out shapes.
Chill filled pie with top pieces on for ½ hour before baking
Bake at 425F/220C for 30-40 minutes.

Pre-cooked Filling Ideas
Refried beans & cheese
Spicy carnitas
Roasted veggies with green chilies
Chicken chili verde
Black beans and mole sauce
Picadillo with olives

Uncooked filling Ideas
Chocolate/Cinnamon/ Custard
Pumpkin or Sweet Potato Pie
South of the border quiche

Other Ideas
Masa Pockets/Tetelas
Gorditas
Tamale Pies
Pupusas
Arepas

Why this dough works

Masa creates the base taste and textures of hearty corn
Potato starch adds moisture to the masa which can be dry and crumbly
Ground flaxseed adds binding power and extra nutrition
Butter creates flakiness
Baking powder and soda help to separate and lift the butter layers making the dough lighter

Sensational Svaneti Salt Blend

10/3/2016

Local Food Friday

In the Svaneti region of Georgia, with the highest mountains in Europe, live the Svans. The story goes that the Svans prized salt so much that in olden times a measure of salt was worth as much as a cow in trade. Valuable salt couldn’t be wasted and so it was parsed, and stretched by adding in herbs and spices. Svaneti salt has become much beloved throughout Georgia and perhaps the world, where it is offered in little bowls to be sprinkled on salads, sides, beans, grains, potatoes and meats.

Village of Adishi, Flag of The Republic of Georgia, Svaneti Region

Svanetian salt
(Georgian: სვანური მარილი), from Svaneti region in the mountainous north-western part of Georgia, has a unique fragrance and taste and is traditionally used as a flavoring for a variety of meat, fish, potato and soup dishes as well as a condiment instead of table salt. The salt mixture is made from a minimum of 8 ingredients, including regular salt, ground caraway seeds, garlic, marigold, coriander and blue fenugreek.

Svaneti Salt Blend

Makes 2 cups /278g
Ingredients
1 cup /218g coarse sea salt
1 T + 1½ t /18g crushed garlic
2 T /14g caraway seeds
1 T + 1½ t /8g coriander seeds
2 t /5g whole black peppercorns
2 t /8g whole fenugreek seeds
2 t /4g dill seeds
1 T /6g Aleppo pepper
or 1T /6g paprika with ¼ t (pinch) cayenne

Method
Pre-measure all ingredients into four bowls: whole spices, powdered spices, garlic, salt
In a spice grinder grind the whole spices and set aside, then grind salt with the powdered spices and garlic.
In 2-3 batches
grind all spices together until everything is evenly combined.
Store in a jar and keep where you will use it often. It will last until you are done with it.
With Love Enjoy

Favorite Salt Mix

This is one of my all time favorite salt mixes and I’m so happy to share it with you. I first discovered it in the back pages of Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean. A cookbook I use a lot especially for teaching and catering. There’s also a recipe for it in Tony Hill’s The Contemporary Encyclopedia of Herbs and Spices, also an excellent reference, well loved and used. Their recipes are different, as is to be expected. Paula Wolfert’s doesn’t contain dill or Aleppo pepper. I love Aleppo pepper but haven’t had the heart to buy any in recent years. It would bring tears into my food, I hope this changes soon [ moment of silence ].
I’ve tried both of their recipes, and have settled on using Paula Wolfert’s ratios with the addition of dill and paprika which Tony Hill’s include. I’m happy with the outcome.

Spices and Herbs used in Georgian Cuisine

Several years ago a food passionate young man, Sam, helped me cook for the Copper Canyon Press Holiday Party. He was an intern there, but was much more enlivened by the poetry of food than pages.
I think my party-food theme was Turkish but wandered over towards Georgia, a cuisine I hold in great esteem. The fresh herb sauces, use of red peppers, spicing; such simple, bold, and vibrant food with an inner grace and wisdom.
To be wrapped up into that much culinary tradition, I envy it. I had Sam make a batch of Svaneti salt, and he was all over it, enraptured as cooks get.
Sharing that winter afternoon with Sam, making fabulous food, food poetry together, always brings me back to Svaneti salt, and the spice of life.
I made Sam a jar of Svaneti salt, and hand wrote the recipe for him when he moved away, on to his next adventure.

Georgian recipes

Posts to enjoy

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Spiced Roti with Fermented Millet

Revisionist Baking Monday

More Fermented Flatbreads

Food For Thought

Spiced Millet Roti

Roti Technique

A Couple Cool Millet Activists

Flaky Moist Rollable Masa Dough

Revisionist Baking Monday Dedicated to Mateo for his 23rd Birthday

hands-on Lesson in recipe development

Other Revisionist Pastry Posts

Sensational Svaneti Salt Blend

Local Food Friday

Svaneti Salt Blend

Favorite Salt Mix

Posts to enjoy

Categories

Archives

Author

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

​​

Spiced Roti with Fermented Millet

Revisionist Baking Monday

More Fermented Flatbreads

Food For Thought

Spiced Millet Roti

Roti Technique

A Couple Cool Millet Activists

Flaky Moist Rollable Masa Dough

Revisionist Baking Monday Dedicated to Mateo for his 23rd Birthday

hands-on Lesson in recipe development

Other Revisionist Pastry Posts

Sensational Svaneti Salt Blend

Local Food Friday

Svaneti Salt Blend

Favorite Salt Mix

Posts to enjoy

Categories

Archives

Author

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” ― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own