Seed Bread & Buckwheat Crisps

I dreamt about non-urban lifestyle long before we moved to the countryside last year.

When I was a kid, my family had a small island where we spent our summers. There weren’t neighbors, electricity, or running water. Whether it shined or rained, my brother and I splashed in the lake, swimming and playing like a pair of trout. Once a week we made a boat trip to the mainland to buy staple foods from a store on wheels, and then my mother fermented yogurt, viili (Nordic sour curd) and buttermilk which we kept cool in an excavation, dug in the ground. Every July wild blueberries and lingonberries surrounded the cottage, and we munched them directly from the bushes. There was a bigger island nearby to where we rowed to pick bucketfuls of wild strawberries, raspberries, and mushrooms in the end of each summer.

When we reached puberty, my brother and I refused to go to the island. It wasn’t hip, and we couldn’t stay apart from our friends for three months a year. As teenagers, we viewed such a vacation as a punishment and, during our last holiday, I plotted how to flee away after reading a memoir by Henri Charriére, called Papillon, which described his escape from a penal colony in French Guiana.

Seeing our resistance, my parents sold the summer house when my brother was sixteen and I was fifteen years old. It took me three years to realize what a loss it was. That’s when I started to romanticize about country-dwelling.

Last December, after having lived in fairly primitive conditions for eight months, the reality of my rustic life-choice finally hit me. In an early morning, as I was going to the basement to burn wood, I became aware that this is how the rest of my days will look like. The goal of downshifting, gardening, chopping wood and shoveling snow had become a part of my field but, all of a sudden, it appeared so ordinary and even burdensome! For the first time, I saw the cellar wasn’t a sanctuary but a cold and damp dungeon where I sat two hours every dawn, meditating, while poking the fire after every 108^th mantra, and while having eight legged spiders crawling on me. The walls and the ceiling I had whitewashed in the spring were already stained with soot. In panic, I wondered if smoke and tar smudged my lungs, too. Will I be able to cope with this much austerity until the end of my life? Was it a mistake to move into this shack?

The novelty of everything wears out.

Although it’s human to misplace the desire for fulfillment in material objects, positions, relationships and achievements, I’m bothered how often I still imagine that I will attain contentment by getting one more piece of chocolate or a pair of shoes; or seeing the Himalayas, changing my worldview, studying a degree, and upgrading my significant other to the latest version of husbandhood (sorry, darling)! Unfortunately it won’t happen because the soul I am underneath the flesh, blood, bones, mind and reason is fully compatible only with spiritual energy. Matter, however mesmerizing it may appear, flows on a different, temporary frequency that will always leave the soul hungry. How much longer will I keep confusing things and situations for happiness?

Happiness is a challenge because it’s a mental disposition – a fluctuating emotion – in which suffering is momentarily absent. Like any state of balance, it flips easily out of equilibrium under the influence of an opposite force. Satisfaction, on the other hand, comes from knowing the self and the soul’s relationship with both, material and spiritual nature. Because it’s a conviction anchored in the core character of the self and the purpose of life, it remains unaffected by external circumstances and time factor. If any, my resolution for 2016 is to shift the focus from becoming happy to being satisfied with what is under my care right now.

Crisp bread is not culinary luxury, like pizza and crêpe that offer instant gratification, but a necessity the Nordic folks have dried and stored for survival since 500 AD. As a poor man’s diet, it reflects a short harvest season and the hardship of winter. To me, it summarizes (when compared to any other bread) the difference between happiness and satisfaction.

Households originally baked thin crisps from wholemeal rye flour, salt and water, and hang them on sticks under the roof. Nowadays various grains and seeds are used. Here are my two gluten-free recipes:

SEED BREAD AND BUCKWHEAT CRISPS (each recipe makes about 15 breads of 20cm / 8”)

Ingredients for the seed bread:

1 Cup (250 ml) sunflower seeds

½ Cup (125 ml) green pumpkin seeds

½ Cup (125 ml) sesame seeds

4 Tbsp flaxseeds

5 Tbsp chia seeds

1 Tbsp fennel seeds

1 Tbsp dry rosemary

1 Tbsp kalonji seeds

1 ½ tsp Himalayan salt

4 Tbsp ghee, oil or melted butter

1 Cup (250 ml) boiling water

Ingredients for the buckwheat bread:

2 ½ Cups (625 ml) buckwheat flour

2 Tbsp sesame seeds

2 Tbsp chia seeds

1 ½ tsp Himalayan salt

4 Tbsp ghee, oil or melted butter

1 ½ Cup (325 ml) boiling water

Method:

For the seed bread, grind rosemary and all the seeds, except kalonji, into fine powder. Add kalonji and salt, and rub in the ghee, oil or melted butter. Finally pour in the boiling water and mix into a smooth paste. Set the dough aside to rest for 10 minutes.

For the buckwheat crisps mix the flour, seeds, salt and ghee, oil or melted butter. Pour in the boiling water and mix into a smooth paste. Set the dough aside to rest for 10 minutes. 

Make lime size balls from the dough and roll them into as thin disks as you can. It’s easier to roll the dough if you place it between two sheets of baking paper. Remove the upper layer afterwards. If you want perfectly round breads, cut them out with the help of a plate or a lid.

Bake the breads at 175 C (345 F) until they are light golden. Because they burn easily, keep the temperature steady. 

Note:

You may vary the ratio of seeds as you like, and use spices like jeera or caraway instead of what I've suggested. By adding more ghee, oil or butter, the breads will become richer and crispier. Instead of water, you may use sour cream or milk (they don’t have to be boiling hot).

Thank you.

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.

Warm Buckwheat & Butternut squash Salad

Despite the bewildering name, buckwheat is related sorrel, knotweed, and rhubarb, and has played an important role in diets around the world – mainly in the Balkan Peninsula, Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia – for thousands of years. You may be familiar with Japanese soba-noodles, Russian blini, north Indian kuttu pakora and puri, and even French galette - all made of buckwheat flour.

As pseudo-cereal, it is technically non-grain, and therefore gluten-free and easy to digest. I have experienced this first hand when having used buckwheat, quinoa and millet for a month and then suddenly consuming Basmati rice. As much as I’m accustomed to eating rice, and love it, it dries up the body more, and may cause constipation. If you want to let your alimentary tract to rest for a while, choose buckwheat. However, I wouldn’t recommend it daily because it increases the fire element and passion of the body. Unlike rice that cools down, buckwheat supplies heat.

Buckwheat contains high levels of calcium, magnesium, potassium, selenium, zink, and iron, and provides more well-balanced protein than grains in general. In fact, the amino-acid score of buckwheat’s protein is one of the highest among plant sources. Combined with pulses, it will give you more than enough fuel to live and prosper. In addition, buckwheat has niacin and folate, which are B-group vitamins.

Being whole-food, there is plenty of soluble fiber to slow down the rate of glucose absorption; insoluble fiber to speed intestinal transit time; and resistant starch, which is sometimes mentioned as the third type of dietary fiber, advantageous to overall colon health.

You might be interested to know that buckwheat is the best source of bioflavonoid rutin or citrus flavonoid glycoside, which is an antioxidant. It strengthens capillaries and can help people who bruise or bleed easily. Rutin has also anti-inflammatory, preventive and healing effects, and there are indications that it can inhibit some cancerous and pre-cancerous conditions.

Buckwheat grows so readily that it hardly requires pesticides and chemicals.

As for the taste, it is nutty and robust, and makes a statement. You can’t confuse it with any other grain or grain-like flavor. Neither can you hide it! I would say that it takes a while to get used to, especially if you want it to substitute rice or other neutral side-dishes.

I like to use roasted buckwheat groats, known as kasha. It is easier to cook and doesn’t mash together like the raw version. I also think the aroma is more delicate. For breads, I use both flakes and flour.

In my today’s recipe buckwheat makes a warm salad with black beans, roasted butternut squash, micro-greens and capers. I planned to add salty fresh cheese and toasted cashews to it, but forgot!

Thank you.