The Buckwheat Pancake
Since they began over 45 years ago, The Pancake Parlour has used buckwheat flour. You'll find a buckwheat pancake under your steak, chicken schnitzel, eggs benedict or impregnated with blueberries in the buckleberry. It is also a favourite option for your pancake stack.
Ingredients for The Pancake Parlour buckwheat pancake mix includes buckwheat flour, wheaten flour, maize flour, baking powder (341, 500, 541) dextrose salt, whole egg powder, caramel powder and vegetable gum (thickener 461)
Buckwheat is a plant with an ancient history. First grown thousands of years ago in China and Japan, buckwheat was taken to Russia by The Crusaders. In the 17th Century the Dutch settlers carried the plants on board their ships to New York State, America. Half the buckwheat grown in the USA is still grown in this state today.
Contrary to its name, buckwheat is not a wheat. The plant is more bush-like than the tall slender stalks of most grains. Buckwheat is also closely related to rhubarb and is well known for its hardiness and overall ability to thrive in even very poor conditions.
The name evolved because the nut or fruit of the plant is three-sided in form, with sharp angles, resembling the triangular Beech-nut. The name of the plant comes from the Dutch name
Boek-weit meaning 'Beech-wheat'.
The buckwheat flour used at The Pancake Parlour is mixed with wheat flour as it needs the gluten to hold it together. Buckwheat flour can be mixed with wheat flours and used for bread, but is more often cooked as cakes and pancakes. The flour can also be baked into crumpets, which are popular among Dutch children and are said to be nutritious and easily digested.
Buckwheat, which is extensively cultivated in the Himalayas, is eaten by the Hindus on 'bart' or fast days as it is one of the lawful foods for such occasions.
In Japan, Buckwheat is called Soba and its flour is kneaded with hot water to make a dough. Its young leaves are eaten as a vegetable and its stalks are used to feed cattle.
In the Russian Army, buckwheat grains are served as part of the soldiers rations and cooked with butter, tallow or hemp-seed oil.
The Chinese Army also feeds its soldiers buckwheat because it gives them strength and stamina.
In Germany, it forms an ingredient in porridge, soups, puddings and other food. They also brew beer from the grain and it is distilled into a spirit. The blossoms can also be used as a brown colour dye.
The most appealing quality of buckwheat, outside of its many uses in cooking is its high nutritional value. Buckwheat has a lovely nutty taste providing what some marketing copywriter might say is the `nut´ in nutrition.
Buckwheat is an all-natural source for the majority of the nutrients that we require daily.
It is the best known source of high quality, easily digestible protein in the entire plant kingdom as it contains all of the eight essential amino acids which the body cannot produce. It is also high in amino acids, especially Lysine and Arginine and is a complex carbohydrate which means the body can meet its fuel needs without burning protein.
Buckwheat is known as the 'meat of the fields' and is the only grain that contains Rutin which helps prevent high blood pressure, reduces cholesterol count in the blood and keeps the capillaries and arteries strong and flexible.
This superior plant is also a great source for minerals, vitamin B, potassium, phosphorus, dietary fibre and vitamin B. Buckwheat is also cholesterol free and virtually fat free as well. Buckwheat perfectly fits into the modern low calorie, high nutrition diet and is grown organically without pesticides, herbicides or additives.