I've been fermenting a flour I found at India Bazaar called "Dhokla Flour." It's actually a blend of flours and might go by the name of "Handva Flour," depending if your local Indian grocer caters to those with a background in the north or the south. In this case, the blend is 64% rice,16% chickpeas, 10% pigeon peas, and 10% lentils (probably the split and skinned version of the lentils known as "udad" or "urid"). It is somewhat coarse, like cornmeal, and has cultured beautifully in the last few days.
The "Gluten Free Girl and the Chef" blog recommends a ratio of 60% starch to 40% whole grain for an all-purpose flour mix. Noticing the similarities (64% rice to 36% beans, peas and lentils) I thought, "Hey, two pounds for $2.69? Might want to see what I can do with this!"
I tried a recipe for coconut steamed buns the night I bought it, but they were much too dense to enjoy without some ghee and spices to liven them up (ghee is technically a dairy product, but is produced in such a way that it eliminates the top three allergens: lactose, casein and whey). I think I've got to play with the recipe a bit.
I like the fermented version of this flour so much better! All the little granules that made it seem like cornmeal at first (and that made the steamed buns so dense) soak up the moisture and soften, losing their individual identity and working together to form a cohesive, pillowy batter with a mildly tangy aroma.
Traditional dhokla is a fermented food, but it's achieved using curd or yogurt; so until I find a recipe that doesn't involve dairy, find a non-dairy yogurt cheap enough to experiment with, or feel comfortable enough approximating without dairy on my own, I will have to find other uses for my sourdhokla starter. Get it? Sourdough, sourdhokla? =D
Enter the pizza my son begged me to make today. I took a scoop of starter, a little extra besan (chickpea flour), an egg, a drizzle of soy sauce, and a pinch of baking soda and mixed them up while my wok heated to pancake-cooking level. Yes, wok. It's a Green Pan I got on clearance with Kohl's Cash and I love it so much I use it for everything!
I brushed a little ghee onto the nonstick surface, poured all the batter into the pan, smoothed it into a circle with the wooden spoon I'd used to mix it, grated some aged sheep's milk cheese (Pecorino Romano) into a bowl, and added fresh-ground black pepper to that. By that time, my pizza crust was ready to be cooked on the other side; once I'd flipped it, I ladled pasta sauce on and then topped it with the cheese and pepper (to those who can't eat byproducts of sheep and goats, I apologize - if it's cow-free, it's good enough for me!), and then I covered it with the lid of my bamboo steamer for something under a minute - just long enough to melt the cheese.
It's not that this "pizza" would fool anyone besides my toddler - but it was another successful experiment in cooking that filled me up at mealtime and satisfied the Nug, so I thought I might as well share!
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