Unusual flours

[Mad Cook]

On Saturday on my increasingly desperate search for medium oatmeal (an-whole-other issue), I went to the little "health food" shop in the village and discovered Kamut bread flour and decided to pick some up to try. It's made from a very ancient variety of wheat called Khorosan - apparentlt known to and used by the Ancient Egyptians.

Haven't tried it yet but wondered if any of my DC colleagues had used it. I'm a seasoned breadmaker of over 50 years practice - I was a bored 12 year old on a wet winter's afternoon and decided to experiment with Mother's old cookery book and have never looked back!- so technique is only important if the Kamut dough needs handling differently. Does it?

Co-incidentally, I've just received "All You Knead is Bread" byJane Mason. It mentions Kamut in the intro but I haven't found a recipe yet. (Incidentally if you have gluten problems this book isn't for you - she says in the intro that there are no suitable recipes in her book). Lots of interesting recipes but the fist chapter needs some proof reading as she contradicts herself a couple of times.

 

[menumaker]

Can I ask you mad cook, Is medium oatmeal what I think of as Quaker porridge oats? If so, that is what I use!
Also, your Kamut flour sounds interesting and I wonder if it is a flour that is fine enough and would make nice, light flatbreads. I use Farine de Sarrasin here in France for them as it is a very fine wholemeal type flour that is actually used for Galettes( for savory crepes ) and is similar to chapati flour, impossible to get here.

 

[Mad Cook]

Can I ask you mad cook, Is medium oatmeal what I think of as Quaker porridge oats? If so, that is what I use!
Also, your Kamut flour sounds interesting and I wonder if it is a flour that is fine enough and would make nice, light flatbreads. I use Farine de Sarrasin here in France for them as it is a very fine wholemeal type flour that is actually used for Galettes( for savory crepes ) and is similar to chapati flour, impossible to get here.

My reply to this has disappeared but I'll try and remember most of what it was.

Kamut is wheat flour so it wouldn't be suitable for you if you have gluten problems. I don't know if it's as fine as sarrasin as I haven't opened the packet yet.

If you can't get chapatti flower what about gram/chick pea flour? I know I've seen it in France (most tourists look at the Eiffel Tower - I prowl the Hypermarch*e*s ) and I seem to remember that it's used in the south for something but I can't remember what.

** my keyboard won't do French accents.

 

[CWS4322]

I use chickpea flour all the time. I used to buy it at an Indian market, but now I grind my own (ditto for rice flour).

How to Make Chickpea Flour - Garbanzo Flour, Gram Flour, Besan

It has a sweet flavor. Here are some links to using Chickpea flour:

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-soc...rbs-and-greens-recipes-from-the-kitchn-187301

http://www.thekitchn.com/beyond-socca-5-more-ways-to-use-chickpea-flour-ingredient-spotlight-187659

http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1014755/panelle.html

 

[taxlady]

I have never baked with kamut, but I buy bread made with kamut once in a while at the health food store. I like it at home, but it wasn't very nice for sandwiches that we brought on a road trip.

 

[menumaker]

That's a good idea MC, I'll look that out. I can get chickpea flour here you are right. Don't worry about your keyboard, mine doesn't either. it's a qwerty. I am just lucky to live here now!

 

[taxlady]

I think there is some way to make my keyboard do French accents, but I can't figure out how. It's a French/English bilingual keyboard, because I'm in Québec. I use ALT 0233 to get é. You have to use the numbers on the numeric key pad.

 

[GotGarlic]

I think there is some way to make my keyboard do French accents, but I can't figure out how. It's a French/English bilingual keyboard, because I'm in Québec. I use ALT 0233 to get é. You have to use the numbers on the numeric key pad.

There is a key combination - ALT-XXX - for all ASCII (keyboard) characters. You can see the list here, along with a short history and instructions at the bottom of the page for how to use them: ASCII code characters

 

[taxlady]

There is a key combination - ALT-XXX - for all ASCII (keyboard) characters. You can see the list here, along with a short history and instructions at the bottom of the page for how to use them: ASCII code characters

If you are running Windows, you can use the Character Map. Once a letter is highlighted, you can see the code at the bottom right, e.g. "Keystroke Alt+0230", which gives the Danish vowel æ.

 

[Andy M.]

On my Mac keyboard, I get special characters by holding down the ALT/OPTION key and pressing any key. e.g. here are the 4 rows on my keyboard:

`¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº–≠
œ∑´®†¥¨ˆøπ“‘«
åß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…æ
Ω≈ç√∫˜µ≤≥÷