Recipe #74: Savory Pastry Chips

Today's recipe, savory pastry chips, is a popular party snack in Ghana. When we made these at Flair Catering we used a pasta machine, but you can make them fine at home without one. Also, we fried them, but by adding a bit more margarine or butter, you could also bake them.

Assemble ingredients

• 1/2 lb (8 oz) flour (that was about 2 2/3 cup unsifted for me)
• 1 oz margarine (or butter or butter-flavored shortening)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried ground red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• ~ 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground garlic (1 or 2 cloves, peeled)
• 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) ground or finely grated onion (roughly 1/2 small onion)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• l or 2 bay leaves to season the oil 
• about 5 cups of vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup of cold water
• extra flour for rolling out the dough

If you do not have a pasta machine, you'll need a rolling pin.

Directions:

1. Sift the flour into a large bowl, then rub or cut the margarine or butter into it (I use my hands, or two table knives), add  the 1/4 teaspoon red pepper, the 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, mixing all together until it looks like cornmeal. 
2. Prepare the garlic and onion and add to the dough, mixing some more. I blended mine together in a blender, and added a teaspoon of water to help blend it. (NOTE: I should have added about a tablespoon).
3. Add the 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and continue mixing.
4. Measure out 1/2 cup of water. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of water over the dough in the bowl and mix it in with a fork. Push the moistened flour to the side and add a little more water (a couple of tablespoons), mix and push to the side of the bowl. Continue adding the water until the dough is just wet enough to hold together. 
5. Knead the dough lightly in the bowl for half a minute.
6. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, and roll one out to about 1/8: thick on a lightly floured surface. (If you have a pasta machine, simply cut the dough into sizes that will fit into it). I usually wet my counter with a little water and put waxed paper on it, then sprinkle the waxed paper with a little flour. This makes cleanup easier.
7. Gently fold the dough on top of itself several times, then cut it into strips about 1/8 to 1/4" wide (the thinner, the crisper).
8. Unfold the dough, and cut the strips into pieces (mine were about 1 3/4" long). You can also cut them into many tiny squares if you prefer.
9. Heat about 5 cups of oil to about 260 degrees F in a deep fryer or in a heavy pan or pot on the stove, depending on the size of your fryer or pot, and making sure not to overfill it.  Season the oil with a bay leaf or a couple of slices of onion. Remove the leaf or onion before it burns.
10. Add the strips (or squares) carefully into the pot. I put a couple dozen at a time on a slotted spoon and added them, stirring the oil occasionally while they cooked.
11. Within a few minutes, when they are a light golden color, they are ready to remove and drain. The chips should not be as dark as  doughnuts or atwemo. Cook smaller squares separately from the strips. They will cook in just a minute or two. They should be nice and crunchy when they cool.

These chips can be frozen, or stored tightly covered in an airtight container for up to a week.

When doubled, this recipe is easily enough for 12 people.At Flair they often serve these chips with plain peanuts or coated groundnuts in small cocktail baskets set around the room. After you make this once, you can decide if you want to increase the salt, pepper, onion, etc. next time.

My grade on this recipe: If I were to give myself a grade on my execution of this recipe today, I'd probably give myself a B+. Why? First of all, I grabbed "white"whole wheat flour from the cupboard instead of the white unbleached flour I meant to, so the color is not quite right, and they're heavier and a bit drier than they should be. Secondly, I forgot to add (and then remove) the bay leaves to the oil after I heated it and before I added the chips. It's missing that subtle seasoning touch. Finally, when I blended the onion and garlic in the blender, I didn't add enough water to make a smooth paste so there are bits of onion visible in the finished chips. Still, the chips taste fine.

Pineapple flour: last week when I was making pineapple juice, I tossed the pineapple core in the blender and blended it, then put it in a saucepan over a very low heat trying to dry it to see if I can make my own pineapple flour. (Not only do I not have a pasta machine, and I don't have a dehydrator, either). That didn't work, so today I scraped out the pineapple dregs from the pan and put them on a plate outside to see if they would dry that way. I'll let you know if it ever gets dry enough to grind it again. However, I can see at best I'll only get a couple of tablespoons of flour. . .

Update on the corn dough effort: Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to try soaking some hominy corn overnight, and then try to make my own fermented corn dough using that. Today I rinsed off the corn. I ended up with about 2 3/4 cups of soaked corn. In order to blend it, I had to use a little over a cup of water (about 1/2 cup water to each cup of corn). It's much wetter than normal corn dough. I poured the mixture into a glass pitcher that I've covered loosely. I'll keep you informed. I hope it begins bubbling and fermenting by tomorrow.

Pineapple flour experiment, continued

As I recently mentioned, in Ghana last summer I was given some flour made from the dried, powdered core of pineapples and asked to try cooking with it.

In the past I've   added things like grated carrot and zucchini and crushed pineapple to cakes, only  to have the whole thing fall apart. Thinking it might have to do with all the juice in the pineapple, I decided to first try making a carrot-pineapple-ginger-lemon quick bread using the pineapple flour instead of fresh pineapple. Also, since pineapple is so sweet (and Ghana's sugar loaf pineapples are especially sweet) I figured I could use less sugar and substitute some of the pineapple flour for some of the wheat flour. 

The jury is still out on the final product: The first evening after I made it, it smelled heavenly and I thought it tasted good, and my husband rated it okay, but a little too sweet and with a slightly bitter aftertaste. The next morning I toasted thin slices and put peanut butter on them, and then I thought there was an aftertaste (maybe it was the peanut butter?). That evening my nephew Sam had some and thought it tasted good. I didn't have a problem with an aftertaste this time.  Sam  carried most of the loaf back with him to his apartment. I'll wait a day or two and give you the final verdict.

Anyhow, here's the recipe I concocted (in U.S. measurements):

Carrot-pineapple loaf

Assemble ingredients:

1/2 cube margarine (50 g)  

1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar (about 60 g)

    1 egg

    1/4 tsp salt 

    1 tsp grated lemon peel

    1 rounded tsp grated lemon peel

    2 medium grated carrots (to get about 1 cup lightly spooned into a U.S. cup)

    1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

    2 tsp baking powder (maybe use less if using white flour)

    3/4 cup wheat flour (75 g) [I used white wholewheat flour, the only thing I had handy]

    a little less than 2/3 cup (50 g) pineapple flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease or oil a small loaf pan.

Grate carrots, lemon peel and ginger and mix together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Sift together the wheat and pineapple flours, the baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, cream the margarine and sugar together until fluffy (I used a wooden spoon).

Add the egg and beat well.

Stir in the dry sifted ingredients.

Stir in the grated ingredients.

At this point I realized the mixture was too dry, so I added first 1/4 cup of orange juice--still too dry so I added 1/4 cup of low-fat milk.

I baked the mixture about 40-45 minutes, then turned it out on a wire rack to cool. Several hours later I sliced a few slices when it was cool, then wrapped the rest until the next day.

Incidentally,  I've had the flour since June, and have no idea how long ago it was made, so am not sure how fresh it is and whether or not that might account for a slight aftertaste. I'll get back to you when the votes are all finally in. Personally, I think it has real possibilities!

    

   

  

Pineapple Flour and AJFAND: African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development

I've been in the kitchen today experimenting with some pineapple flour from the Food Research Institute in Ghana (part of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), a potential culinary innovation being tested. It's made from dried pineapple chaff that would normally be discarded as waste. Katie wrote about it last summer when we had some experimental cake and cookies ("biscuits") at Barbara Baeta's house. I just took out of the oven some citrus-ginger-pineapple-carrot bread I dreamed up. I must say it smells great! We'll taste it tonight and I'll let you know how it turned out, including the recipe if it's a keeper. I also have some more ideas for the flour I'll be sharing in upcoming posts.

 

However, for some time I've been meaning to plug the multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal  AJFAND: the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development.

The title pretty much describes this wonderful resource.  Since 2001 it has been published in Nairobi, Kenya by the Rural Outreach Program. As long as I have been aware of it, Prof. Ruth Oniang’o has been the editor. I see on the current editorial page that she recently has been elected to succeed the late Dr. Norman Borlag as Chair of Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) and the Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education. I wish her well in her new post, and congratulate the journal for its history of excellence.