Last weekend my girlfriend Annabelle and I made buckwheat crepes for a dinner party at her home. They were fab, and a great adventure for Annabelle who had never made crepes before. But while making these, Annabelle noted with dismay the amount of buckwheat flour she was going to have leftover and wondered what else she might do with it. My answer, based on what I've done with 100% of the buckwheat flour I've ever owned, was "make more crepes, then buy another bag!"
But Annabelle probably won't. Her repertoire, being ethnic Chinese and partnered with a guy who loves grilling big hunks of red meat, doesn't lean toward the kind of meats and vegetables in sauces that make such tempting crepe fillings. So I was just wandering around the net looking for ideas to send her and came across a recipe (below) for buckwheat pancakes on a very witty and well-written blog called Vanilla Garlic. I borrowed the picture, too, because it explains without words why though I'm not a breakfast pancake eater I might have reconsidered a long time ago if I'd been presented with a stack of these. (Note to Mike Filigenzi: the blog is Sacramento-based and you might want to look it over if you don't know of it already.)
A little background: the name buckwheat is the survivor of two names given this groat, the other being beech wheat due to the similarity between it's triangular seed and the larger beech nut seed, and the fact that it's used like a wheat. Per Wikipedia, the etymology of the word is explained as partial translation of Middle Dutch boecweite : boek, beech; see PIE bhago- + weite, wheat. It was first domesticated and cultivated in inland Southeast Asia and from there spread to Central Asia and Tibet, then the Middle East and Europe. Russia is the world's largest producer at over 1 million tons, closely followed by China. For comparison, France is the fourth largest producer at at only a tenth of Russia's volume, and the U.S. is in 7th place at just 68,000.
Any other buckwheat fans here? If so, what kind of things have you made out of it?
Here's the RCP:
Buckwheat Pancakes
Serves 2, makes 8 medium sized pancakes
Adapted from All-Recipes
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted (plus extra for the skillet)
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1. In a small bowl whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter. In another whisk together the all-purpose flour, buckwheat flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda.
2. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the liquid.
3. Place some butter into a skillet and set over medium heat. Pour on about 1/4 cup amounts of the batter onto the skillet. Let cook for minute or two. When bubbles form on top flip the pancake and let cook for another minute or two. Continue this process until all the batter is used up.
