Food, cooking, eating, and me

There’s a lot of information out there about buckwheat. For instance, I’ve heard it said that it’s not a grain (so far so good), but a fruit?? Just let’s use a wee bit of logic here, folks. Buckwheat is the seed of an herb, not a fruit. It’s also not even remotely related to wheat. Therefore, there is no gluten in it and it should be safe for celiacs.

In fact, it’s a triangular sort of a seed that is ground for flour or cooked into a pilaf called kasha – which I will soon post my favorite recipe for. As you can see in this picture, the whole seeds, also called groats, are greenish when raw and tan when toasted. I prefer the toasted flavor. I was previously able to buy mine pre-toasted, but they were never toasted dark enough for me, so I do my own, stirring over a low flame in a frying pan.

It is also possible to buy them coarsely ground for kasha, but I’ve never purchased them, so I can’t comment on it.

The seeds are also available with the hard black hulls on for sprouting. I tried sprouting buckwheat years ago, when I was in my al natural mode. I vaguely recall that the hulls remained hard after sprouting and were difficult to remove. I’d have included this in the photo, but I was unable to find a sample. Maybe nobody else liked it, either.
Most buckwheat flour I have seen is ground from whole unhulled seeds. Looking at the photo to the left here, you can see how dark the hulls make the flour. Most dark buckwheat flour I have used is full of gritty hull particles, and I find it an unpleasant feeling on my teeth. Very fine sifting can remove the coarse ones, but this takes a fair amount of time.

I buy white buckwheat flour and add a small amount of the dark flour for color and flavor. You’ll see when I put up photos of pancakes how dark a little bit of dark buckwheat flour can make the pancakes. Back when I used to make pumpernickel bread with rye, I used half buckwheat and half whole rye, and the bread was almost black, without any coloring added.

Be careful buying buckwheat flour if you are gluten-free! Often it is produced on the same equipment as wheat and rye flour, which means it is thoroughly contaminated. Read the labels carefully.

Next: kasha with sausage and onions, or buckwheat pancakes…