Thursday, February 20, 2014
Eggless Buckwheat Crepes Health on a plate
Last Saturday, I looked at my dinner plate and I felt "Damn, it should be illegal to eat this healthy on a Saturday night." Yes it was so good that it was bad. And we were watching a brilliant brilliant series to add all the necessary wickedness and spice to this healthy plate.
You may think food bloggers have proper weekly menus and they are always on the top of what to feed their families every single day. In my case, thats so wrong. I print out menu formats. I order my weekly produce and groceries and think of making a plan that will use them in the most systematic manner. But no, that never happens. Im best when Im impulsive. And sometimes there are so many bits of assorted vegetables leftover that even the most creative part of my brain wont figure out how to put them together.
Ive come up with an idea for such situations. One is to make this all forgiving Tamil dish called Poricha koottu where you throw in every possible vegetable (well, not actually, but it works), add mashed dal, a freshly ground masala and youre done. It tastes fabulous with steamed rice or broken wheat or any such grain. The other idea is if there are 3-4 leftover veggies, microwave them individually and then saute them individually in some olive oil and garlic, adding a pinch of salt and lots of pepper in the end. This is much better than boiling them. Microwaving them for a short burst of time with very little water (1-2 tsp) keeps them crunchy while not keeping them raw and then everything tastes fabulous with garlic and olive oil.
But this post is about buckwheat crepes. Having had the authentic French style buckwheat crepes (galettes) from our local pizzeria run by a French lady and her husband, I was inspired enough to buy a bag of buckwheat flour. I tried making crepes using a traditional recipe (using butter, milk, eggs). While the crepes turned out beautiful, the smell of eggs was not the most pleasant feeling for me. This is my own improvised recipe thats egg free and gluten free, because Ive used rice flour along with buckwheat instead of all purpose flour. You do need a good non stick skillet / dosa pan to be successful with this.
Recipe for Eggless Buckwheat Crepes
Makes 5-6 crepes
Ingredients
1 cup buckwheat flour*
1/3 cup rice flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vinegar
butter or oil to grease pan
Directions
- In a mixer jar / food processor, add the flours, salt and water. Spin for 30 seconds, open the jar and bring the contents together using a spatula. Run the mixer for 30 seconds more until you get a smooth batter. Remove this into a bowl and keep covered for 30 minutes.
- You can refrigerate this if you plan to use this much later.
- Just before making crepes, add baking soda, add the vinegar on top of the soda and 1-2 tsp of water and beat the mixture well. It will fizz up a bit and the batter will become light.
- Grease a non stick skillet. Wipe off excess oil / butter with kitchen tissue. When the skillet is moderate hot, take a ladleful of batter, pour it in the centre and with back of ladle quickly make outward circles to spread the batter to an 8" thin lacy round. As soon as bubbles appear all over the crepe (around 45 seconds) turn it to the other side. Cook for 20 seconds, fold it in half and half again and keep warm.
Theres another indulgent way to eat buckwheat crepes. Smear Nutella throughout the crepe and roll it up.
Also, my other favourite way to eat these is with a filling of sautéed spinach and ricotta or feta cheese.
Buckwheat flour is naturally gluten-free, high in iron, fiber, protein, selenium and zinc. Read about the numerous health benefits of buckwheat.
*Food Shopping Guide:
You get buckwheat flour in the Gluten Free shelf of Godrej Natures Basket. Its also available in various organic and health food stores. The one I buy from Natures Basket is ground along with the skins making it healthier and higher in fibre.
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