Showing posts with label wheat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wheat. Show all posts

Friday, June 27, 2008

Wheat flour type numbers, like 1050, 550

This numbered classification system is used in Germany to differenciate between different flour types used here, irrespective of which grain is used -wheat, rye, or anything else. The number represents the Ash mass of the flour. The number denotes in gram (g) the mineral content of 100 kg of flour after the flour is burned during ash analysis.
The higher the mineral content, in other words, the higher the number, the more outer parts of the wheat grain are present in the flour. As the outer layers are much richer in minerals than the inner endosperm. The higher the number, the darker it is and the higher is the fiber and mineral content. To make it short, the higher the number, the healthier.

Here is a table from Wikipedia on wheat flour type numbers
Ash Protein Wheat flour type
US German French
~0.4% ~9% pastry flour 405 45
~0.55% ~11% all-purpose flour 550 55
~0.8% ~14% high gluten flour 812 80
~1% ~15% first clear flour 1050 110
>1.5% ~13% white whole wheat 1600 150

This table is only a rough guideline for converting bread recipes. Since the American flour types are not standardized, the numbers may differ between manufacturers.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Couscous salad


Easy to make.
Cook couscous in water (do not soak) with salt till done.
Soak chickpeas overnight and change water a couple of times before cooking it in a pressure cooker (is much faster) for about 10 minutes with salt and turmeric.
Clean the Mushrooms with a wet paper towel and cut into halves or quarter and fry in the pan in olive oil with onion, grated garlic and ginbger. Add coriander powder, turmeric, salt.
Once done mix with couscous.

Salad: I used lamb's lettuce (corn sald)-German: Feldsalat, avocado, tomatoes, spring onion, the round red radishes and an oliveoil-lemonjuice dressing (vineagrette) to which I also added roasted cumin powder.
We ate it with joghurt.
Despite the cuscous being a bit too sticky it tasted good to me.
Warning!: It was not appreciated so much by my family. So, I'll have to try out something new next time.
I still don't know how people make the couscous so that it does not turn sticky. Maybe I should add the couscous after the water starts boiling, just like with pasta. Or I took too much water.

Tips:
1. Bulguar can also be used instead of couscous.
2. Precooked (canned) Kidney beans instead of chickpeas would have made a good combination with it as well. (I have previously tried a recipe with Bulguar, ehich also does not turn so sticky somehow)