Buckwheat Roti

One cup buckwheat flour, a good pinch of Himalayan salt, one tablespoon of ghee (or oil), and about a third of a cup water (or as much as needed for an elastic dough) – that’s the basic recipe for making buckwheat flatbread, or roti. For softer dough, use dairy – milk, yogurt or buttermilk – rather than water. Being gluten free, buckwheat doesn’t have viscosity and tends to dry up and tear apart easily. Dairy functions as glue.

Rub the ghee into the flour and salt mixture with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs. Fold in the liquid gradually. If you slip in too much water, add flour. There is no need to excessively knead the dough. As soon as you have formed a smooth ball, cover it and let it rest at least for thirty minutes.

Should you become an adventurous baker, incorporate mashed avocado to the flour mixture. Reduce the amount of water accordingly.

Potatoes and buckwheat go well together. Make spicy roti by adding ground jeera and black pepper, chilli, and fresh fenugreek seedlings or chopped cilantro along with the potatoes.

The stovetop baking method is straightforward. If you want fully blown, feather light breads you need two sources of heat.

First, place the flatbread on a medium hot skillet (preferably cast iron) and let it bake until tiny bubbles appear on the top and the edges curl. If you roll the bread thinly, it takes only about thirty to sixty seconds, but if you make a thicker bread, it may take one and half to two minutes to reach this point. Using metal tongs, lift the bread and place it on the top of a direct flame. It should instantly fill with hot air. If you don’t have access to fire, place a mesh a few centimeters (1 inch) above a hot burner and flip the bread over it. As soon as it puffs, remove and cover it with a cloth.

I usually skip the second part and bake the bread on a skillet by flipping it over continuously while tenderly pressing and encouraging it to cook properly. At some point I brush a little bit ghee on the top. With this method, the bread formulates many smaller air pockets instead of becoming like a balloon.

Happy baking!

Thank you.

Baked Avocados

Looking for a new way to serve avocados? Stuff and bake them. It’s also an excellent way to get rid of leftovers while cleaning the refrigerator and pantry!

For the stuffing, use your favorite ingredients. I made mine from paneer, cooked black beans, roasted pine nuts, sundried tomatoes, fried eggplant cubes, basil, cayenne pepper, black pepper, hing powder, kala namak powder and Himalayan salt. Then my little helper, Heikki (age 8), grated parmesan-type hard cheese suitable for vegetarians on the top, and I baked the avocados in 220 C (428 F) until the cheese melted and looked nice.

Although he was eager to assist in the kitchen, it turned out Heikki disliked avocados. When the table was set, he announced he would prefer his own snacks instead! While we ate, I learnt *all* about football.

Thank you.

An Ode To The Mother Earth

The mother’s day arrived and left a week ago. I missed the opportunity to post a tribute to my favourite mothers in time. The emblem of motherhood is personified in the mother who gives birth to us, the wife of a teacher, the wife of a holy person or a priest, queen, cow, nurse and earth. In a civilized society they are always respected and protected. Unfortunately we have reduced the list to barely include the person who parents us.

In Bhagavata Purana, spoken by the sages in the Naimisha forest thousands of years ago, there is a narration of the mother earth at the dawn of the current cycle of time, Kali-yuga. She describes how the pillars of human culture – austerity, purity, compassion and truthfulness – are being trampled by the increase of pride, lust, violence and falsehood.

We have conveniently distanced ourselves from and impersonalized the mother earth in order to pursue our desire to gain her abundance without responsibility. In any other relationship such cold-blooded abuse would be regretted. Nature is not dead matter. It is living energy. The consciousness of a plant or an animal may not be as developed as ours, but it doesn’t justify our tyranny. To have more tools means – to an intelligent person – to use them for a greater benefit. By mistreating the mother earth we don’t only cause pain but break the hand that feeds us. Despite of our financial prosperity and keen abilities of technology, we won’t be able to replicate her when she loses immunity to our drilling of oil, cutting down forests, polluting water resources, pumping the soil with chemicals and slaughtering animals. To lose a mother for greed and ignorance is embarrassing.

Any improvement begins with a change of consciousness. We can upgrade our situation, plans, skills and endeavours unlimitedly, but without the change of attitude or focus it won’t lead to a desired result. In order to regain respect and love for nature, we must understand who we are ourselves, what everything else is and what our relationships are. What is sustaining everything? A harmonic relationship with environment begins with willingness to reconsider our false supremacy over it.

The recipe of the sandwich cake is an ode to the mother earth. Thank you for showing me the trees are the hairs, the rivers are the veins and the air is the breath of the universal form. You dress by unwrapping the darkness of night into the mist of morning. You are an advocate of peacefulness, tolerance and humility. You manifest the qualities of higher intelligence behind the creation, maintenance and destruction. I am your servant.

Goat weed, wild chervil, nettle, dandelion and wood sorrel are among the favourite edible gifts of green from the wild garden and forest. They can be used as such in a salad, smoothie and pesto. Another way of serving them is like spinach.

Thank you.

Warm Summer Salad

Today was supposed to be the Grand Opening of this site. I’ve planned it for months. I wanted to make sweets and cakes and goodies for the first official post. My workshop is lined with garlands and pennants. A podium is set for a festive shooting. A short speech is prepared, and Facebook and Twitter accounts are opened which, by the way, I once alleged never to do. And then, nature struck!

My right hand is under siege. Three days ago a persistent eczema invaded the index and middle finger. The next day I cut the thumb with a kitchen knife. Yesterday I grabbed a wire fence while halting a bicycle ride and, sure enough, my hand slipped and was left with a wound. As if it was not enough, I have a carpal tunnel syndrome on my wrist caused by the incessant sandpapering of wooden boards! With such predicament, there is no question of baking or rolling sweets. I barely can type with the pinky that is still unaffected (knock-knock-knock). Feast aside, the only thing I am able to offer today is a warm summer salad, without a speech. Let there be a festival later!

WARM SALAD

New potatoes (washed, cut in wedges)
Celery (cut in sticks as long as the potatoes)
Sugar peas
Avocado
Fried sage
Olive oil
Lemon juice
A pinch of hing
Black pepper
Salt

Blanch the sugar peas in boiling water for a couple of minutes. Drain.
Boil the potatoes until almost cooked, but still firm and slightly hard.
Place a good sprinkle of oil in a wok, heat with a moderate temperature, briefly temper hing and black pepper.
Add the celery stalks, sauté for a while (5-7 minutes).
Add the potatoes; keep sautéing until the veggies have gotten a beautiful golden colour.
Mix with the sugar peas and avocado.
Add lemon juice and salt.
Garnish with fried sage leaves.

HOW TO FRY SAGE LEAVES

Make a batter with flour (any flour is good. I used wholegrain spelt, but refined flour would make more refined coating), a pinch of hing, black pepper, cayenne, salt, baking powder and water. It should have a consistency of thick pancake batter. Heat up enough oil to cover the bottom of a pan. Dip one leaf at a time in batter, coat it on both sides and slip in hot oil. Repeat until the bottom of your pan can’t handle more leaves. Turn them around once and take them out with a slotted spoon when they are golden and crisp on both sides. Make as many patches as you like. The sage leaves are tasty and garnish soups and salads with a wonderful flavour and structure.