A few days ago, I posted a short piece on grain mills, and why buying one is a good idea, especially in today's economic climate. Having made the case for owning one, I'll now discuss putting it to good use.
Maggie and I were fortunate enough to have received a Country Living grain mill as a wedding gift, back in '08. I suppose I did enough bragging in the last post, but I honestly can't say enough about the device. Unlike the coffee mill I'd previously used to pulverize grains, the CLGM's hopper holds three or four cups of unprocessed grain or legumes. This enables one to grind much larger quantities without putting undue stress on the grinder. Working alone, my wife was able to grind five pounds of meal in an hour. Dividing the labor between us, we can produce the same amount in half the time. And this is grinding by hand, mind you. Admittedly, it's a bit of work, and can really wear one out until one becomes accustomed to it. We're now looking for a second-hand exercise bike, which we intend to attach to the flywheel with a V-belt. That should spare us considerable time and effort.
As we keep substantial quantities of dried beans, rice, barley, etc on hand, the grinder is a Godsend. Out-of-date beans are often too tough and starchy to cook by boiling. One can simmer them four hours, and the centers will still be tough. With a grinder, though, one can simply make pea-flour and get a little extra "mileage" out of them.
The photo in the last article is a shot of Maggie grinding a batch. (Technically, I suppose it's bean flour, as we used several kinds of legumes: split peas, pintos, limas, great northern beans, etc). First, we coarsely ground the beans. Then we dialed the machine to its finest setting, and re-ground the coarse meal. When it was finished, it had the consistency of commercial flour. We then divided the finished product into 1- and 2-cup portions, packed it in Ziploc bags (see photo), labeled and dated it, and that was that.
Today's batch consisted of corn ("Ornamental Indian," which I purchased from Burgess Seed and Plant Co. a few years ago, and have since bred selectively for drought tolerance). As dried corn is fairly tough, we employed the procedure detailed above: coarse grind first (see photo), then another pass with the machine dialed to its finest setting. This time, the finished product was actually finer than store-bought cornmeal. (A tip for winnowing corn: place a hairdryer in a bench vise and turn it up full blast. Set one basket or bowl in front of the muzzle, and fill another with corn. Stand to the side, and pour the corn from vessel to vessel. The stream of air will quickly separate the grain from the chaff, dried silks, etc.)
The advantages of homemade flour (especially flour ground from homegrown grains and legumes) are 1.) You know exactly what's going into it. No preservatives or other additives unless you add them; 2.) You're using whole grains. Nothing goes to waste, and you benefit from the fiber, etc.
"OK, Bean," says you, "I was so excited; I ran out, bought me a grain mill, and have been grinding anything and everything that looks even remotely edible. Now what am I supposed to do with this shit?"
"Be patient," says I. "We're getting to that now."
As my wife is a Latina (yep, I'm one o' them gol-durned "race traitors" -- see my upcoming essay, "White Women: Greedy, Materialistic, Fickle, Shallow, Superficial, Petty, Ball-Busting, Self-Serving Harpies Who Want to Have Their Cake and Eat It, Too; and Why You'd Have to Be Out of Your Soddin' Mind to Marry One"), we eat quite a bit of Mexican food. As the Norns would have it, cornmeal figures prominently in Mexican cuisine. The commercial masa (which runs four bucks a bag or so) is simply ground hominy, and very easily made.
Just boil up a pot of hominy (although the lye, lime, wood ash and baking soda methods all work, the latter two are safer-- especially if you're accident prone), dry it, grind it, and presto! You've got masa harina. While masa made from hominy is of higher quality and more digestible, ordinary cornmeal works nearly as well. Corn tortillas are cheap, nourishing, and idiot-simple to make; so there's no excuse for not learning how.
Mix 2 cups of cornmeal with a little over a cup of water until you have a smooth, stiff dough. Break off a 1-1/2" to 2" chunk and roll it into a ball. Flatten the ball slightly, and squash with a tortilla press (see photo). If you don't own a tortilla press, use a rolling pin. Heat a dry skillet to medium-high, and toast the tortilla, 30 seconds per side.
The meal can also be used to make cornbread, corn muffins, mush (which is delightful when allowed to cool, then sliced and fried in bacon renderings), corn pancakes, etc.
Pea and bean flours, while alien to most Americans, are widely used in the Mideast (think falafel...) and on the Indian subcontinent. While garbanzos and lentils are the preferred legumes, other pulses work just as well. A couple of nights ago, we had chicken curry and spiced cauliflower for dinner. We needed a starch, so we settled on basni roti --an Indian flatbread made of chickpea flour. As our experiment showed, though, other ground pulses work just as well. Unlike pappadums, which are also made with garbanzo and/or lentil flour, basni roti don't require drying before cooking them. Like tortillas, they're dry-fried as soon as they're rolled out. This is a plus, as legume-based flours, being very hygroscopic, take forever to dry.
The basic recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups pea flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons each of salt and black pepper, a tablespoon of minced cilantro, enough yogurt (NOT fat free!) to make a stiff dough, and a few tablespoons of melted butter, ghee or oil. (You can, of course, add other herbs and spices to taste.)
Mix the flour, yogurt, salt and pepper until you have a stiff dough. Wet pea flour is very sticky, so add the yogurt a little at a time, until you've achieved the proper consistency. Mix in the cilantro and let sit, covered, for 30 minutes to an hour. Break off a 1 1/2" to 2" piece, and roll flat. Brush with melted butter or oil, roll up lengthwise, and repeat the process. The finished flat should be roughly 1/8" to 1/4" thick. Continue until dough is gone (this recipe makes a dozen.) Heat an ungreased skillet or griddle to medium-high (6 on a gas stove) and toast flats until dry. (You'll notice that s they cook, just enough of the butter melts out to keep them from sticking). Although you mustn't allow the flats to blacken (this spoils the flavor and occasionally causes the black pepper in the dough to become bitter), there should be a few deep brown patches on both surfaces. Serve warm.
I use them as I would chapattis or naan: to mop up the last of the sauce when we have curries. They're also very tasty when dipped in raeta -- lightly salted yogurt mixed with herbs (cilantro, mint, etc.) and chopped nuts or vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, green chiles, shallots, garlic, or what-have-you).
Next on this thread: Hardttack, herb crackers, and sesame twigs.
Coming soon: Fun With Meat Grinders
