I’ve been quietly addicted to kasha – toasted whole buckwheat seeds that are eaten all over eastern Europe – for some time. They bring an assertive, smoky, nutty taste to all sorts of dishes, from rice salads to polenta or porridge; but it’s only since I began experimenting with this pseudo-cereal (it’s actually a fruit related to sorrel and rhubarb) in its ground form that I’ve realised just how versatile it is.
On the one hand, buckwheat flour is robust enough to stand pretty much on its own – if you don’t want to make the apples to go with today’s pikelets, say, they’ll work well with just a squeeze of lemon. Yet buckwheat’s flavour is also complex enough to handle all sorts of pairings: try replacing the mushrooms in the pancakes with strips of roast red pepper and some black olives, for example; or ditch both the mushrooms and the yoghurt, and serve the pancakes as a pudding filled with roast pears and whipped cream cheese and creme fraiche.
Alice Medrich’s book Flavor Flours, from which today’s spiced cake with walnuts takes its inspiration, is a celebration of non-wheat flours such as teff, sorghum, rice, coconut, chestnut and more. Medrich writes that these all have their own “voice”; for me, buckwheat’s has great volume, range and character.
Buckwheat and parsnip pikelets with caramelised apples
You can make the pikelets and the apples in advance, then warm them through separately before serving. Makes 18 pikelets, to serve six.
2 parsnips, peeled, quartered lengthways, core removed, cut into 6cm pieces
60g soft dark brown sugar
3 whole star anise
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
75g buckwheat flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 small egg
40g buttermilk
½ tsp salt
230ml full-fat milk
100g unsalted butter
4 Pink Lady apples, peeled, core removed and cut into 2cm-wide wedges
300g Greek yoghurt, to serve
Bring a medium pan of water to a boil, then boil the parsnips for 15 minutes, until very soft. Drain, mash and set aside to cool.
Put 20g sugar in a spice grinder with the star anise and cinnamon. Blitz to a powder, then spoon into a large bowl with the flour, baking powder, egg, buttermilk and salt. Whisk to combine, slowly pour in the milk, whisking constantly, until smooth, then stir in the parsnip.
Put 10g butter in a large, nonstick frying pan on a medium-high heat. Once the butter starts to foam, add three spoonfuls of the batter, spaced well apart, to form 8cm round pikelets. Fry for three minutes, flipping after a minute or so, once bubbles start to form through the mixture, and cook until golden-brown on both sides. Transfer to a plate and keep warm while you repeat with the remaining batter, adding butter with each batch.
Put the rest of the butter in a large frying pan on a medium-high heat. Once it foams, lay in the apple slices and fry for six minutes, turning halfway through and tossing them around a few times towards the end, until nicely browned. Add the remaining sugar and cook, stirring gently, until the apples are soft and the sugar has dissolved and turned to caramel – about four minutes.
Serve the pikelets warm with a generous spoonful of yoghurt and the warm apples alongside.
Buckwheat pancakes with wild mushrooms and burnt butter yoghurt
These beauties could house all kinds of seasonal fillings: roast red peppers and black olives, for instance, or ham and cheese, or even a sweet filling of roast apples or pears with whipped cream cheese and creme fraiche. Serves six as a starter.
80g unsalted butter
400g Greek yoghurt
Salt and black pepper
100g buckwheat flour
1 egg
300ml full-fat milk
500g mixed wild mushrooms (if on the large side, tear into 3-4cm pieces; otherwise, leave whole)
3 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp ground cinnamon
10g dried wild mushrooms, soaked in 200ml boiling water for 30 minutes
1 small preserved lemon, flesh and skin finely chopped
200g baby spinach
Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Heat 20g butter in a small saucepan on a medium heat for one to two minutes, until it’s dark brown, starting to smoke and smelling nutty. Remove from the heat and transfer to a medium bowl. Once it’s cool, stir in the yoghurt and a large pinch of salt.
If you prefer a thick yoghurt spread, follow the next step; otherwise, move on to making the crepes. For a thick spread, spoon the yoghurt mix into the centre of two clean J-cloths or some muslin, bring together the edges of the package and squeeze into a ball. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can, then put in a small bowl in the fridge.
Whisk the flour and egg in a large bowl with half a teaspoon of salt. Slowly pour in the milk and 100ml water, to make a smooth batter.
Melt 10g butter in a medium frying pan on a medium-high heat. Once the butter is bubbling, pour in a spoonful of batter to make a thin layer covering the base of the pan, roughly the same thickness as a crepe. Fry for a minute or two, until golden-brown underneath, then flip over and fry for another minute. Transfer to a plate, cover with a tea towel and keep warm while you repeat with the remaining butter and batter, until you have six crepes.
Mix the fresh mushrooms with the oil, cinnamon, half a teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Spread out on a 30cm x 40cm oven tray lined with baking paper, and roast for 18 minutes, until cooked, golden-brown and crisp. Remove and set aside.
Meanwhile, put a large saute pan on a medium-high heat. Fish the dried mushrooms out of their soaking liquid, pass this through a fine sieve, then add both to the pan. Bring to a boil, add the preserved lemon and reduce for two to three minutes, until only about three tablespoons of liquid remain. Add the spinach, cook for a minute to wilt, then stir in the roast mushrooms and a pinch of salt.
Spread a generous tablespoon of the butter yoghurt over half of one crepe, and top with some of the mushroom mixture, to cover just a quarter of the crepe. Fold over the bare half of the crepe, to cover, then fold in half, so it looks a bit like an open fan: you want some yoghurt and mushrooms to spill out on to the plate. Repeat with the remaining crepes and serve.
Spiced buckwheat and walnut cake with ginger and orange cream
This is a very light cake, so take care not to overmix: you don’t want to knock out the air. Serves 12.
6 medium eggs, 2 of them separated
200g caster sugar
¼ tsp salt
85g buckwheat flour
80g walnuts, roughly ground
1 tsp ground star anise
⅛ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground cinnamon
110ml sunflower oil
For the blackberry compote
300g blackberries
1 tbsp caster sugar
1½ tsp lemon juice
For the ginger and orange cream
240g cream cheese
1½ tbsp icing sugar
⅓ tsp finely grated orange zest
1½ tsp finely chopped stem ginger, plus 1½ tbsp of the stem ginger syrup
200ml double cream
Heat the oven to 165C/330F/gas mark 2½. To make the sponge, put four whole eggs, two egg yolks, the sugar and salt in an electric mixer and whisk on a high speed for six minutes, until light and fluffy. Sift the buckwheat flour into a medium bowl, mix with the walnuts and spices, then, a third at a time, very gently fold into the egg mix. Spoon a quarter of the batter into a medium bowl and mix with the oil to combine. Gently fold this back into the rest of the batter, until incorporated.
In a large bowl, whisk the two egg whites to soft peaks, then fold into the batter until just combined. Pour into a 25cm-wide ungreased angel food cake pan, or a 25cm loose-bottomed round tin, and bake for 40 minutes, until a knife comes out clean. Turn the cake upside down in its tin over a wire rack, and leave to cool. Once cool, use a small knife to separate the sponge from the tin and carefully tip on to a large plate.
While the cake is baking, whisk the cream cheese, icing sugar, orange zest, stem ginger and syrup until smooth. Whisk in the double cream, until the mixture thickens to a whipped cream consistency, then put in the fridge until needed.
To serve, heat the blackberries, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan on a medium-high heat for five minutes, stirring every once in a while and crushing half of the berries while you do so. Cut the cake into slices and serve with a generous spoonful of the cream and some warm berries alongside.
