Showing posts with label Food Intolerance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food Intolerance. Show all posts

Chestnuts, Coconuts and Sago and gluten Intolerance

Labels: , Posted by Yann_Chef on at 7:08 pm

This last post should conclude my research about food and gluten intolerance. I would like in this last article to talk briefly about three minor type of flour that are extracted from unusual sources: chestnuts, coconuts and sago.

Since prehistory, chestnuts have been dried and ground into flour and used in the same way that starchy cereals are. Before the arrival of the potatoes and maize from the New World chestnuts were an essential subsistence food in the mountainous and marginal agricultural areas of France, Corsica and Italy. Its nutritional breakdown is as follow: Nutrient for 100gm of flour Calories 371 (calories from Total Fat 33) ; Total Fat 3.67 gm (Saturated Fat 0.7 gm (17.9%), Polyunsaturated Fat 1.6 gm (44.0%), Monounsaturated Fat 1.4 gm (38.1%) ) ; Cholesterol < gm =" grams" mg =" milligrams" iu =" international" re =" retinol">

Chestnut flour is poor in protein and gluten free. It is traditionally used to make gruels, breads, pastas, batters (great for pancakes!), cakes, polenta, and provides substance in soups.

 Coconut flour refers to the screened food-grade product obtained after drying, expelling and/or extracting most of the oil or milk from sound coconut meat. The meat is either pared or unpared. It is sub-classified according to its fat content (low, medium and high), protein content (high protein) and fiber content (high fiber).
The manufacturing of virgin coconut oil and flour involves two processing methods either by the:

1) Dry process which involves drying of grinded coconut meat, oil extraction and pulverizing the meal. The process produces a high protein coconut flour (33%) which can be used as wheat substitute. The advantages of the this process is the high oil recovery at 88% based on the oil content of the meat (65%) or 58% of the dried granulated meat and good quality of the oil with a free fatty acid content of 0.1%. The dry process also produces high protein flour which can be used in making pan de sal and other baked products.


2) Wet process wherein the meat is extracted with milk, drying of the residue and grinding to produce the flour. In the wet process, almost 52% of the available oil in the fresh meat is recovered. To optimize the oil extraction efficiency of the wet process developed a technology to further extract the oil from the meal after milk extraction. The meal or residue that remains still contains a lot of oil 35-48% fat content in which 38% colorless oil is recovered and 40% coco flour is obtained as a by-product. Instead of selling the residue as feeds this can be further processed to produce two high-value products, VCO and flour. The coconut flour is high in fiber content 60% dietary fiber which can be used as a functional ingredient in the lowering of glycemic index and serum cholesterol levels.

1. Whole full fat coconut flour: Coconut flour prepared from unpared dehydrated and edible coconut kernels by pre-pressing and solvent extraction.
2. Coconut flour from pared Coconut flour prepared from pared, coconut dehydrated and edible coconut kernel.
3.Defatted coconut flour: Food Coconut flour obtained from food-grade grade copra meal or copra that has been defatted by solvent/mechanical extraction. The resulting flour is brownish in color Sub-classification: low fat Coconut flour with 10-15% fat ; medium fat Coconut flour with 16-25% fat ; high fat Coconut flour with 25-48% fat ; Low-fat, high-fiber coconut Coconut flour from finely ground coconut flour residue “sapal”. The fat content of the resulting flour range from 10-15% and has a total dietary fiber content of more than 60%.

4. High-protein, high-fiber Coconut flour prepared from dehydrated finely ground coconut meat.

5. Paring flour Coconut flour prepared from the paring or the testa of the coconut.

6. Copra meal Coconut meat obtained after extracting oil for granulated copra.

There is a proximate Composition of Coconut Flour From Fresh-Dry Process(1st figure), from wet-dry Process (2nd figure)
Moisture 4.5/ 6.7 ; Fat 10.7/ 10.9 ; Crude Fiber 40/ 60.9 (as dietary fiber) ; Protein 17.5/ 10.8 ; Ash 5.5/ 3.16 ; Carbohydrates 61.8/ 68.5.
Note that coconut flour is gluten free therefore suitable for coeliacs.

Coconut flour can be used to bake cakes and in the making of batters.

Sago is a powdery starch made from the processed pith (the word comes from the Old English word piþa, meaning substance, akin to Middle dutch pit, meaning the pit of a fruit) found inside the trunks of the Sago Palm metroxylon sagu. The genus name metroxilon is derived from Greek and means heartwood, while the species name sagu is from a local name for the food. Sago forms a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Moluccas where it is often cooked and eaten as a form of pancake with fish.
Sago looks like tapioca and both are pearly grains of starch, but tapioca is made from the root of the cassava root.
This palm tree only flower and fruit once before they die. The stems are harvested just before the flower forms as it is only then that they are full of the stored starch which will be used for flowering and fruiting. The trunks are cut into sections and into halves and the starch is beaten or extracted from the "heartwood", the traditional methods is to collect the starch when it settles out of water. One palm yields 150 to 300kg of starch.
Sago flour is nearly pure carbohydrate (starch), and contains very little vitamins, or minerals. However, as sago palms are typically found in areas unsuited for other forms of agriculture, sago cultivation is often the most ecologically appropriate form of land-use.
A portion of 100 grams of dry sago yields 355 calories, including an average of 94 grams of carbohydrate, 0.2 grams of protein, 0.5 grams of dietary fiber, 10mg of calcium, 1.2mg of iron, and negligible amounts of fat, carotene, thiamine, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C). It is free from gluten making it a suitable substitutes for gluten intolerant people.
Sago flour can be use to make batters, unleavened flat breads, and noddles.
Useful links about gluten intolerance:

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Millet and Gluten Intolerance

Labels: , Posted by Yann_Chef on at 6:46 pm


Millet is the name used for a number of different grains, all of them with very small seeds, 1-2 mm in diameter. These includes, plants from the Panicum, Setaria, Pennisetum and Eleusine species. The millets are native to Africa and Asia, and have been cultivated for 6000 years. They're especially important in arid lands because they have one of the lowest water requirements of any cereals and will grow in poor soil and is unique due to its short growing season. It can develop from a planted seed to a mature, ready to harvest plant in as little as 65 days. Millet is a tall erect annual grass with an appearance strikingly similar to maize. The seeds are enclosed in colored hulls, with color depending on variety, and the seed heads themselves are held above the grassy plant on a spike like panicle 6 to 14 inches long and are extremely attractive. Because of a remarkably hard, indigestible hull, this grain must be hulled before it can be used for human consumption.

Millet is highly nutritious, gluten free and like buckwheat and quinoa, is not an acid forming food so is soothing and is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains available.
Millet is tasty, with a mildly sweet, nut-like flavor.
Millets protein content varies between 16 and 22%, it is also high in fiber, B-complex vitamins including niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin, the essential amino acid methionine, lecithin, and some vitamin E. It is particularly high in the minerals iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium. The typical nutritional value of a 120 g serving is as follow: Energy 433 cals or 1812 kJ ; Total Fats 3.5 g (no cholesterol, no saturated fat, no polyunsaturated, 3.5 g monoinsatured fat); Carbohydrates 87.5 g ; Protein 11.9 g ; Fibre 3.8 g ; Sodium 144 mg ; Potassium 390 mg ; Iron 8.2 mg ; Calcium 24 mg.
The seeds are also rich in phytochemicals, including Phytic acid, which is believed to lower cholesterol, and Phytate, which is associated with reduced cancer risk.
A characteristic of millet is the presence in the hulls and seeds, of small amounts of a goiterogenic substances that limit uptake of iodine to the thyroid. In large amounts these "thyroid function inhibitors" can cause goiter and some researchers feel this may explain, at least in part, the perplexing correlation between millet consumption and goiter incidence in some of the developing countries where millet constitutes a significant part of the diet.
These substances are diminished during the hulling process but there is definitely controversy concerning the idea that the process of cooking largely destroys those that are left in the seed itself. Some researchers including Dr. Jeffrey Bland believe that cooking greatly diminishes these substances; others claim that it doesn’t and that in fact if millet is cooked and stored in the refrigerator for a week, a practice common in many cultures, these substances will actually increase as much as six fold I have to say I haven't found any serious proof and studies results to make my mind on a good way to minimize the effect of these substance, so if you have any thyroid gland problems avoid this cereal.
There are other vegetables clother to us that also contain these goiterogenic substances such as brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, mustard greens, spinach, turnips, rutabagas, cassava, soy beans, peanuts, peaches, and pears.
Millets is used in various cultures in many diverse ways: The Hunzas, who live in a remote area of the Himalayan foothills are known for their excellent health and longevity and for whom millet is used as staple in their diet use millets as a cereal, in soups.
In Eastern Europe millet is used in porridge and kasha, or is fermented into a beverage and in Africa it is used to make bread, as baby food, and as uji, a thin gruel used as breakfast porridge.

The general guideline to cook millet is 3 parts water or stock and 1 part grain, and cook for approximately 30 to 40 minutes or until water is completely absorbed. The grain has a fluffier texture when less water is used and is very moist and dense when cooked with extra water. If millet is presoaked the cooking time is shortened by 5 to 10 minutes. There is an interesting cooking method that I came across in a book called "Hunza Health Secrets" is to soak the grain overnight, steam over boiling water for thirty minutes.

The flavor of millet can be enhanced by lightly roasting the grains in a dry pan before cooking; stir constantly for approximately three minutes. Millet is a tasty cereal add on in casseroles, breads, soups, stews, soufflés, pilaf, and stuffing. It can, also, be served as a side dish or served under sautéed vegetables or with beans and can be popped like corn for use as a snack or breakfast cereal. Millet can be, safely, sprouted for use in salads and sandwiches.
Millet flour produces light, dry, delicate baked goods and a crust that is thin and buttery smooth. For yeast breads up to 30% millet flour may be used, but only combined with glutinous flours to enable the bread to rise (cf dough and batters part I)

Useful links about gluten intolerance:
http://www.glutenfreepassport.com/refcenter/links/associations.html
http://www.csaceliacs.org/
http://www.coeliac.ie/

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Teff and Gluten Intolerance

Labels: , Posted by Yann_Chef on at 5:24 pm

Teff, eragrostis in Latin, is believed to have originated in Ethiopia between 4000 and 1000 BC. Teff seeds were discovered in a pyramid thought to date back to 3359 BC. The word teff is thought to have been derived from the Amharic word teffa which means "lost," due to its small size it is easily is lost if dropped. It is the smallest grain in the world, measuring only about 1/32 of an inch in diameter. It takes 150 grains of teff to make the weight of a grain of wheat. The common English names for teff are teff, lovegrass, and annual bunch grass.
This grain has been widely cultivated and used in Ethiopia, India and Australia. It would seem that because of its superior nutritional qualities, teff would be available to all persons in Ethiopia to make injera. However, while it is the preferred grain in making injera, its availability is limited by its high cost. Teff is currently the most expensive grain to purchase in Ethiopia as it requires labor-intensive harvesting and processing techniques, and produces especially low yields. Although teff covers the greatest land space in Ethiopia, it has the lowest yield per hectare, an average of 910kg/ha. In 1996-1997, teff covered 31% of the total landmass, as compared to 17% and 13% for corn and wheat respectively. The total yield for the teff grown in that year was only 26-28%.

The nutritional value of a portion of 100g of teff is as follow: Energy 1452 KJ. Protein 10 g, Fat 2.5 g, Carbohydrates 76.5 g (Fibers 3.5 g, Starch 73.0), Food fibre 5 g, Lysine 2.80 g, Isoleucine 3.90 g, Valine 5.00 g, Phenylalanine 4.80 g, Tyrosine 2.10 g, Tryptophan 1.50 g, Treonine 3.40 g, Histidine 1.90 g, Arginine 3.40 g, Methionine 2.50 g, 387 milligrams of calcium, 15 milligrams of iron. It is also a rich source of other minerals including magnesium, boron, copper, phosphorous and zinc. Note that teff is gluten free making it suitable for Coeliacs.

Teff is grown in Ethiopia and Eritrea predominately for human consumption. It is ground into flour, fermented for three days then made into injera. It is also used in porridge and used as an ingredient in home-brewed alcoholic drinks. Teff is used in mixtures with soybean, chickpea and other grains and is becoming popular as baby food because of its high mineral content.

In Ethiopia, teff has multiple other uses including acting as reinforcement for thatched roofs and mud bricks.The grass is grown as forage for cattle and is also used as a component in adobe construction in Ethiopia.

Useful links about gluten intolerance:
http://gluten-free-blog.blogspot.com/

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Sorghum and Gluten Intolerance

Labels: , Posted by Yann_Chef on at 5:15 pm


Sorghum (sorghum bicolor) evolved in the steppes and savannas of the north-east quadrant of Africa. It was domesticated there, about 2000 BCE and then spread from there throughout Africa, India and later China.
Grain sorghum has an amazing capacity to tolerate drought and heat, and is even able to produce its fruits during periods of extended drought, in circumstances that would impede production in most other grains. Sorghum leaves roll along the midrib when moisture- stressed, making the plant more drought resistant than other grain plants. Sorghum is a staple food for a lot of people around the world.
Sorghum's grains are quite small, around 4mm long and 2mm wide. Its protein content is higher than corn and about equal to wheat. It is, also reach in tannin, an acidic complex, that can affect both the taste and nutritional value of sorghum. Historically, farmers were used to grow sorghum with a high tannin content because it's not palatable to birds.
The Nutritional breakdown of Sorghum is as follow: For a serving of a 100 g, 339 Calories, 3.3 g Fat (Saturated Fat 0.457 mg, Monounsaturated Fat 0.993 mg, Polyunsaturated Fat 1.37 mg), 75 g Carbohydrates (no sugar, no dietary fiber), Protein 11 g (no glutenin, no gliadine), Sodium 6 mg, Thiamin 0.237 mg, Riboflavin 0.142 mg, Niacin 2.927 mg, Calcium 28 mg, Iron 4.4 mg, Phosphorus 287 mg, Potassium 350 mg. Being deficient in gluten, sorghum is an excellent alternative to wheat for coeliacs.
Sorghum starch can be manufactured by a wet-milling process similar to that used for corn starch, then made into dextrose for use in foods. The grain can be a source of grain and butyl alcohol.
Source FAO

Sorghum is cooked like most grains boiled or steamed. It can be used to make unleavened breads, porridge or gruel, couscous, beer, and specialty foods such as popped grain and syrup from sweet sorghum. Note that sorghum should not be sprouted as the seed germinates, it produces a protective cyanide-generating system (seeAmaranth).
In Africa, the straw of traditional tall sorghum is used to make palisades in villages or around a homestead. The plant bases are an important source of fuel for cooking and the stems of wild varieties are used to make baskets or fish traps. Dye extracted from sorghum is used in West Africa to color leather red.


It is believed that while traveling in Europe, Benjamin Franklin was impressed with a small broomcorn broom he used to clean his hat. He found a few seeds attached to the straw, and took them with him when he returned to Philadelphia. He planted the seeds and initiated an industry. Arcola, Illinois is known as the "Broom Corn Capital of the World." Since the late 1800's, area farmers grew the sorghum used in the broom industry. Arcola holds an annual Broom Corn Festival each September.

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Fonio and Gluten Intolerance

Labels: , Posted by Yann_Chef on at 10:47 am




Fonio is a small annual herbaceous plant of the genus digitalis that grows to a height of 30 to 80 cm. Fonio is considered to be the oldest cereal in West Africa. In the Malian Dogon tribe's legend of the origin and creation of the universe, the fonio grain, is known as po, the "germ of the world".
White fonio (Digitaria exilis) is primarily grown in Guinea, where it is a staple for people living in the mountain regions of Fouta Djalon. It is also found in Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, etc. In West Africa: Digitaria exilis or fonio, white fonio, fundi or findi, acha, hungry rice. Digitaria iburua or black fonio, iburu. In Eastern Europe: Digitaria sanguinalis or large crabgrass or hairy crabgrass. In India: Digitaria cruciata or raishan. Only Digitaria exilis is of any real importance in West Africa nowadays.

Fonio produces rough grains, which still have their glumes (characteristic chafflike bracts of the inflorescence of grasses, sedges at the base of a spikelet) and lemmas (bract in a grass spikelet just below the pistil and stamens) after threshing. At this stage, the grain is known as raw or "paddy" fonio. Paddy fonio, the tip of which still has its seed coating, is oval with one slightly flattened side. The grains are very small (L: 1.5 mm, W: 0.9 mm). On average, there are 1000 grains in half a gram.

Hulled fonio grains have a shiny pericarp whose colour varies from white through yellow to purple. They have a hilum on one side and a relatively large germ, containing the fat reserves, on the other. The kernel, which is the main storage organ, is made up of starch grains and a small protein reserve. It is the main element in whitened fonio. Fonio is highly nutritious.
The nutritional composition of fonio differs little from wheat. The husked grain white fonio contains 8 to 10%percent protein (the black fonio has a protein content of 11.8%), carbohydrates 85%, fat 4 %, ash 1%.
The protein analysis of white fonio in comparison with a whole egg is: 7.3 percent of methionine, 46 percent of lysine, 72% isoleucine, 90-100% of valine, tryptophan, threonine, and phenylalanine, 127% of leucine; 175% of total sulfur; and 189 percent for methionine.
Furthermore, fonio does not contain any glutenin or gliadin proteins which are the constituents of gluten, making this cereal suitable for people with gluten intolerance.
Fonio grain is used in a variety of ways. It is used to make porridge and couscous, ground and mixed with other flours to bake breads, popped and brewed for beer. It is a good substitute for semolina in the making of pastas and shortbread biscuits. The best way to cook fonio is steaming or boiling for about 20 minutes.
In the Hausa region of Nigeria and Benin, people prepare a wusu-wusu (couscous) using both types of fonio. In northern Togo, the Lambas brew the tchapalo (the most famous beer of the country) from white fonio. In southern Togo, the Akposso and Akebou peoples prepare fonio with beans in a dish that is reserved for special occasions.
I recieved quite few e-mails asking me where fonio can be purchased, so there is the only online shop the I am aware of:
Useful links about gluten intolerance:

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Amaranth and Gluten Intolerance

Labels: , Posted by Yann_Chef on at 4:20 pm


Amaranth is a tiny seed, about 1 to 2 mm across, of three species of amaranthus. It originated in Mexico and Central and South America. There, this pseudo-cereal crop was already, cultivated 5000 years ago. The Incas, Mayas and Aztecs considered amaranth a staple food as well as maize and beans. After the arrival of the Spanish conquistador the cultivation of the crop was banned. In response, the indigenous population stored their harvest in hard to reach places of mountainous Central and South America. It is only in the 16th Century that amaranth was introduced in Europe, but only as an ornamental plant. From there, different species of amaranth spread throughout the world during 17th, 18th and 19th century. In India, China and under the harsh conditions of Himalayas this plant became important grain and/or vegetable crop.

At present amaranth is grown in the USA, South America, India, China and Russia. The Czech Republic is the most important grower in Europe (approx. 250 hectares). Today this seed supplements other grains in many baked goods and breakfast cereals, and snacks. The Aztec combination of popped amaranth seeds and sticky sweetener lives on in Mexican alegria ("joy"). In India amaranth is known as rajeera (the king's grain) and is the main ingredient of Indian laddoo (traditional sweet).

Amaranth is an interesting seed for coeliacs as it is nutritious and free of gluten. There is a breakdown of its composition for a serving of 100g:

Water 9.84g ; Protein 14.45g ; Fat 6.51g (Saturated Fat 1.662 mg, Monounsaturated Fat 1.433 mg, Polyunsaturated Fat 2.891 mg) ; Carbohydrates 66,71g ; Vitamin C 4.2 mg ; Thiamin 0.08 mg ; Riboflavin 0.208 mg ; Niacin 1.286 mg ; Vitamin B6 0.223 mg ; Folate 49 mcg ; Food Folate 49 5.6 mcg ; Dietary Folate Equivalents 49 mcg ; Pantothenic Acid 1.047 mcg ; Calcium 153 mg ; Iron 7.59 mg ; Magnesium 266 mg ; Phosphorus 455 mg ; Potassium 366 mg ; Sodium 21 mg ; Zinc 3.18 mg ; Copper 0.777 mg ; Manganese 2.26 mg.

Energy for 100g: 374 kcal or 1565kj

Amaranth seeds can be cooked like all edible cereals; Steamed or boiled, they are great puffed. They enter the composition of yeast breads in a ratio 1/3 amaranth flour 2/3 wheat flour on average. The reason for this is the lack of gluten components, glutenin and gliadin, does not allow the creation of the elasticity and plasticity necessary to the development of the dough. It is possible to bake breads made exclusively from amaranth flour with the use of baking powder. The result is a soda bread type of baked goods. Amaranth is a good substitute to wheat flour in the making of batters, crepes, pancakes and fritters, etc. Amaranth is also, used in breakfast cereals and sports bars.

Note that the leaves can also, be cooked like spinach or in salads.

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Rice and Gluten Intolerance

Labels: , Posted by Yann_Chef on at 1:16 am


During my search for wheat substitutes for my coeliacs customers, I first looked at rice. Now in the western world we all know how to cook rice and serve it as a traditional accompaniment to fish dishes. As rice is the principal food for half of the world’s population, I decided to have a closer look into why and how rice and its flour make a good substitute for people with a sensitivity to the gliadin protein in gluten.


Rice is different to buckwheat, as it is a cereal. It is a plant of the Oriza family; native of the tropical and semi-tropical Indian sub-continent. It was domesticated in 7000 BC in the Yangtze river valley in China. It was brought to Europe via Persia and the Arabs who learned how to grow and cook it. The Moors first grew rice in Spain in the 8th Century, then it found its way to Sicily and Northern Italy in the 15th Century. It is the Spanish and Portuguese who introduced rice to the Americas in the 16th and 17th Century.
There are 100 000 distinct varieties of rice throughout the World. They all fall into one or two traditionally recognised subspecies of Oriza sativa. In Europe we are mostly familiar with the American long-grain rice, the short-grain type (for rice pudding) from China, Japan and Korea, the Arborio rice (risotto rice) from Italy, the brown rice that is a long-grain or short-grain unmilled type (wholemeal rice) and the red rice from the Camargue delta in France. Since the last 10 or 15 years, we can find those “fragrant” type of rice like the basmati from India and Pakistan, jasmine rice from Thailand and the US della rice. There are also the sticky rice from Northern Thailand and Laos and the wrongly named wild rice which is, in fact, the wholegrain of a distant relative, a cool climate type of water grass native of the Great Lakes region of North America.
Now let’s talk about rice flour. In the western world we are not too familiar with its uses. But in Asia it is traditionally used in a lot of various food preparations such as noodles, wrapping pastries, frying batters or steamed buns.

Rice flour is mainly made of starch, 90% of its overall constitution. It also contains 7% of proteins, 0.7% of fat and 2.3% of water. For coeliacs the most important constituent in flour is the protein content, so let’s have a closer look at the protein breakdown in rice flour. There are four different types of proteins classified by their solubility specifications. The first one is the water soluble albumin (10%), the second one is the water/salt soluble globulin (10%), then the acid soluble glutelins (75%) and finally, the alcohol soluble prolamins (5%). As you can see there is no gliadins nor glutenins. It is gluten free.
Rice flour is quite difficult to work with. First of all the lack of gluten makes it deficient in elastic capacities which are essential in bread making. It is also poor in water soluble proteins so it makes the absorption of water difficult. Nevertheless, this factor is interesting in the making of batters as they dry out faster when cooked. This quickly creates a shell that will protect the ingredients from the fats in which they are fried. And it is a healthier way of cooking fried food.
Still, rice flour is used to make gluten-free breads. This is made possible by the addition of xhantan* or guar*gum. These additives are polysaccharides which, basically, are molecules made of long chains of individual sugar units that makes the structure of carbohydrates. This is important to know because this type of additives are not suitable for diabetics.
These gums help the dough to gain elasticity and plasticity. They will also allow the mixture to catch CO2 from yeast or other leavening agent therefore raise to a relatively decent level. These types of breads will still have a much denser texture than wheat breads.
In conclusion, rice flour is mainly interesting as a substitute to wheat flour in the making of noodles and pasta dough as well as dumplings. It can also be interesting for the cooking of fritters and the making of wrapping pastry such as filo and struddle pastry. The Chinese even make oven chips with rice flour.


Here is a small brief about xanthan and guar gums. What they are and how they are produced. These types of additives are classified as thickening agents. Nowadays they are massively used by the food industry to thicken and stabalize the texture of sweets and pastries, processed meats, sauces, salad dressings, soups, ice-creams even mass produced breads. They are polysaccharides, which are long chains of individual sugar units. Basically they are what constitutes the main structure of all carbohydrates. Diabetics should be aware of such type of additives as they can increase the level of sugar in their blood.

*Xantan gum is a natural gum polysaccharides molecule produced by a biotechnological process involving the fermentation of glucose and sucrose by the Xanthomonas Campestris bacteria. It is also known as E 415.
*Guar gum is natural gum extracted from the guar bean (Cyamopsis Tetragonobola). This shrub is a native of India and Pakistan. It is also known as E 412.

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Buckwheat and gluten intolerance

Labels: , Posted by Yann_Chef on at 12:04 am



A couple of years ago I was having a chat with my Dad about the increase in the number of customers with gluten intolerance that I encountered in the restaurant. He told me then, that there was one particularly well known type of flour in my homeland of Brittany that was gluten free. It was Buckwheat flour. I have to say I was surprised, because to me buckwheat flour was in the same category of wheat flour. I decided then to look into it.
Grains or cereals based food is at the base of people’s diet throughout the world. But some of them suffer from a well known condition : gluten-sensitive enteropathy, coeliac disease or sprue that disqualify them for the enjoyment of those lavish cakes, biscuits, breads, porridge, or pasta dishes.

How does coeliac disease work? The body simply forms defensive antibodies against a portion of the harmless gliadin proteins in wheat, barley, rye and possibly oats. These white cells end up attacking the nutrient-absorbing cells in the intestine therefore causing serious malnourishment. Unfortunately the standard remedy is total avoidance of all gluten-containing foods. This is when buckwheat comes on board.

Buckwheat is a plant from the order of the polygonace. This is not a cereal. The different species are polygonum fagopyrum, P tartaricum, P emarginatum. This is a relative of rhubarb and sorrel. Buckwheat is a native of central Asia and was domesticated in China or India about a 1000 years ago. It was brought to Europe in the middle ages. It tolerates poor growing conditions and matures in a little over 2 months. It is commonly harvested in September and October.

Buckwheat kernels are triangular, 4-9 mm across with a dark pericarp. Intact seeds with the hull (pericarp) removed are called groats. It is about 80% starch and 14% protein mostly globulin and contains about twice the amount of oil than most cereals. The poor levels of protein and the absence of gluten make it inadequate to traditional yeast bread making or cake baking.
There is the nutrient breakdown for a 100g.
Water 13.4g, protein 11.5g, carbohydrates 71g, fat 2.3g, cholesterol 0, thiamin 0.4mg, calcium 71mg, phosphorus 337mg, zinc 0.3mg, magnesium 251mg, iron 0.4mg, potassium 577mg, calorie 290kcal.

Buckwheat flour contains a small amount of mucilage, a complex carbohydrate a bit like amilopeptine (component of starch), that can absorb water and make dough or batter hold together. The distinctive taste of cooked buckwheat is nutty, smoky, green with a slight fishy note.


Buckwheat is a staple food in parts of China, Korea and Nepal and was the basis of the diet of celtic tribes and peasants in Brittany. In the Himalayan region it takes the form of chillare(a type of flat bread), fritters or sweets.The Japanese make Soba(a type of noddles), the Italians mix it with corn meal to make pizzocherri(a type of polenta) and in Russia it is used to make a nutty porridge called kasha.

This is why it makes an excellent substitute to wheat flour for the making of flat breads, sweet or savoury pancakes, noddles or porridges despite its poor level of mucilage and plastic proteins.

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Gluten free, noddles, pastas, wrappers and buns

Labels: , Posted by Yann_Chef on at 12:30 pm





Most of the pasta that we know are commonly made with wheat or durum flour. Their making is mainly made possible by the presence of gluten in the dough.


Since 7000 years Asians have been making pasta without the holding properties of gluten, only using starch and water. They’ve, also, been making wrappers and steamed bun dumplings in the same way. But, how do they do it?

Starch noodles are usually made of pure starch from mung beans or sweet potato in China or rice in Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Korea. The first step, for this type of noodles making, is to cook a small amount of pure dry starch with water to make a sticky paste that will bind the rest of the starch into a cohesive dough. Then the paste is mixed with the rest of the starch and more water to form a dough with a 35 to 45% moisture content. This dough is pressed through small holes, in a metal plate, to form the noodles.
They are immediately boiled to gelate all the starch and form a continuous network of starch molecules throughout. Then, they are drained and held at the ambient temperature for 12 to 48 hours before being air dried. During this holding period, the starch molecules will fall into a more orderly arrangement or retrograde*. The dry noodles are, therefore, firm and strong. Never the less, not all of the starch molecule will retrograde, allowing the noodles to absorb hot liquid and swell and become tender without the need for an active cooking.
Starch noodles are translucent because they are a uniform mixture of starch and water with no particles of protein or intact starch granules to scatter the light.

Rice noodles are made by soaking some high starch content rice in water, grinding it into a paste and cooking it for a short period of time only (to avoid the complete gelation* of the starch). This paste is, then knead to form a dough. It is then extruded through the small holes of a metal plate to form the noddles.
Here again, the noodles are cooked (by steaming) immediately to gelate the starch throughout, cooled and held for 12 hours at the ambient temperature to allow the retrogradation process. Finally, they are air-dried, excepted for the Chinese Chow fun type of noodles.
Because rice noodles contain some protein and cell-wall particles, inherited from the grain of rice, that scatter the light ; they are opaque rather than translucent.
Asian noodles come under various names depending on their origins. There are few of them : in China, lai fen or chow fun ; in Vietnam, banh pho ; Thailand, kway teow and in Japan, harusame which means “spring rain” ; a lovely name don’t you think?

Rice paper or Banh trang in Vietnamese, are thin paper like that are used as wrappers for the making of Nem ra or Cha gio. They are traditionally made by soaking and grinding rice, soaking it again, pounding it into a paste and spreading it into a thin layer, steaming it and then, drying it.
Rice papers are re-hydrated briefly in luke-warm water, then used immediately as wrappers that can be eaten either fresh or fried.



Bun dumpling is an Asian speciality that mainly comes from the Chinese traditional cooking. It is, also, made with rice or rice flour. Rice based bun dumplings are made by soaking, cooking and pounding sticky rice to form a paste that will be used the same day.
Then rice flour based buns are made by using sticky rice flour mixed with a little water. Then knead into a dough of soft consistency (it would remind you the texture of cake icing), and used quite quickly as it would dry out within the hour.
Such dough are used as a recipient for a meat or fruit stuffing, then fried or steamed. They can also be mixed with various spices such as aniseed or red bean paste then wrapped in lotus leaf to be steamed.


* Starch gelation and retrogradationprocess occurs when a starchy cereal is cooked. Under a microscope starch looks like compact and organized long chains of granules called amilopectine. When starch is cooked in a wet environment, water penetrates the granules and separates the chains from each other. At same time, the granules will swell and soften. This is the gelation process.
When the cooked cereal cools down, the starch chains slowly re-bond to each other in tighter, more organized associations, and the granules becomes firmer and harder. This is the retrogradation process.
There is quite easy experience to demonstrate this processes : mix some flour with some water you will get a “glue” kind of paste called a gel. Then, cook it. It will take a different shape and texture, it becomes thicker. Then, let it cool down, the mix becomes hard.
The same process happens when you bake a cake.

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Quinoa flour and gluten intolerance

Labels: , Posted by Yann_Chef on at 10:11 pm



During my search for alternatives to wheat flour, my girlfriend brought to my attention the plant quinoa . She is vegetarian and makes good use of its excellent nutritional values. I have to say that until then, I had never heard of this South American pseudo-cereal.

Quinoa is a plant from the Chinopodium family which includes beets and spinach. It is a native of South America and was domesticated about 5000BC near the Lake Titicaca in the Andes. Quinoa was the staple food of the Incas, second in importance only to the potato. It is still widely used in Peru and throughout the Andes. The Chinopodium Quinoa is extremely tolerant to drought and frost. It also has the ability to grow on poor soil and at high altitudes.

The quinoa plant produces a small grain of spherical shape sized between 1 and 3 mm across. The outer pericarp of many varieties contains a bitter defensive compound called saponin.
Saponin is a glycosidic compound which works like a natural anti-biotic for the plant. It is not only present in the outer shell of quinoa, it’s also present in the shell of plants like yuca, soya beans, soapberry or the skin of grape and olives. It has a very bitter taste. Dissolved in water, it forms a soapy froth. This quality is used in detergent and shampoo. In the diet phytochemical saponins have a wide spectrum of activities such as anti-fungal, anti-bacterial agents, lowering of the blood cholesterol and the inhibition of cancer cells. But some saponins can be toxic such as the ones originated in the quinoa outer shell.

So before cooking quinoa you must remove this compound either by roasting the seeds briefly in a hot oven or by a brief washing and rubbing in cold water (like this Peruvian woman on the picture). You should be careful not to submit the seed to a prolongued soaking as the saponin could deposit itself within the seed.


Quinoa seeds and its flour has a very high nutritional value. Quinoa is composed of 10 to 18% of protein, 69% of carbohydrates and 6% of oil for 374 calories. What makes quinoa a valuable asset in a healthy diet is its protein content. All of the 12 essential amino-acids are represented. The protein breakdown is as follow : 0.48g phenylalanin, 0.88g isoleucin, 0.91g lysin, 0.98 leucin, 0.33g methionin, 1.02g arginin, 0.63g theonin, 0.85g valin, 0.15g tryptophan, 0.37g histidin, 0.39g tyrosin and 0.33g cystein. It is gluten free. It is also rich in folate, zinc, potassium, calcium and iron.

Quinoa flour is the most interesting substitute to wheat flour. Besides its high nutritional value, the quinoa flour is used in a wide range of baking and panfried dishes. In a proportion 2/3 quinoa flour, 1/3 rice flour it is possible to bake cakes such as chocolate fudge cake, on its own quinoa flour is traditionally used to bake flatbreads, such as tortilla or nachos. It can also replace wheat flour in the batter for sweet pancakes or waffles. It can be used to make baked oven chips. Unfortunately, it is not possible to bake yeast breads as quinoa flour lacks of elasticity and plasticity qualities which are essential in bread making.
The quinoa seeds are cooked like rice. It can be used as a base for a salad, added to soups or an accompaniment for meat or fish. It, also, can be popped like popcorn or toasted and used for the base of a herb crust. Finally it is used in some breakfast cereals blends.

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