Buckwheat

[BillB]

In Brittany last year I took to having a galette for lunch frequently and discovered that they are made from "blè noir" (black wheat). If you haven't had a galette in Brittany or Normandy let me say they are thin, lacy pancakes, blackish in colour and are served with a variety of fillings from grated cheese to ham to shrimps to eggs or a combination of some of these, and then the edges are folded inwards. Anyway, this black wheat puzzled me considerably so I looked it up on the internet to find that it is called buckwheat in English or if you are buying it in France it is sold as "farine de sarrasin".
Buckwheat is not a wheat or corn of any kind but is related to the rhubarb plant. My research shows that it helps to lower BG levels. In the States I used to love their pancakes for breakfast with maple syrup but that is so over the top for me now. However, I discovered that buckwheat pancake mix is available everywhere and so is sugar-free syrup so it is now back on my menu.
The drawback is that it is virtually impossible to substitute buckwheat totally for wheatflour as it becomes almost impossible to handle and cook. The good news is that if you mix buckwheat and wheatflour 50/50 you get a dough that can be worked like regular dough, but the carbs in wheatflour are cut in half.
Anybody else tried this? It would be interesting to hear any experiences that our posters have had.

 

[phoenix]

We regularly eat galettes de sarrasin. You can buy ready made ones in French supermarkets and they freeze well (15 gm carb per pancake and fairly low GI) . Personally I find its one of those few meals that take less insulin than expected.(which might back up your idea that buckwheat lowers BG levels)
I have also made them using the recipe on a flour packet.Perhaps not totally sucessfully (they taste fine but are a bit less beautiful to look at and more difficult to handle than the commercial ones)

250 grams sarrasin (buckwheat) flour
1 soup spoon (tablespoon?) oil
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
50cl water
40gm butter for cooking

Put flour in bowl, make a well in the middle, add oil, beaten eggs and salt, mix with a spatula, starting from the centre. Gradually thin down with the water, then beat for 3 minutes to obtain a smooth batter without lumps. Rest for 2 hours before cooking.

Use small knobs of butter to grease the pan for each pancake. Use the first one to test the consistency of the batter (if its a bit thick add a little more water). Stack the pancakes and fill and reheat when required
The first one often doesn't work well "La première, c'est pour le chien!".

A galette complete: re grease the pan,add pancake, add grated cheese, and ham to the middle, the edges are folded over and an egg is added to the well. When the egg is cooked the galette is ready.
(more healthily (?) I often fill them with a mixture of creamed spinach (spinach mixed with low fat freme fraiche), with a little parmesan and nutmeg, and serve with a tomato sauce (made from tin of chopped toms) and top with a poached egg.