[Sca-cooks] Semolina, Khabisa with Pamegranate

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

No, pastry and bread flours are at the opposite ends. Pastry flours are 
very low gluten, for a tender crumb. Bread flours are high gluten, so 
the bread will rise. All purpose flour is blended to be in the middle, 
so you can make either pastry or bread - and both will be OK, though 
neither will be as good as if you used the appropriate flour. But the 
typical person doesn't do enough baking for it to make sense to have 
several kinds of flour.

Semolina is made of durum wheat, which is high gluten. Pasta made with 
it is higher protein, and more likely to cook up al dente. If you make 
pasta with all purpose flour, it can come out pretty mushy, even if you 
are careful (BTDT.) Fine for egg noodles, which are tender anyway 
because of the egg, not so good for spaghetti.

AEllin

Harris Mark.S-rsve60 wrote:

>     
> 
> My first mistake was not having semolina flour. I thought pastry and bread flours were at one end of the scale and semolina/pasta flours at the other, so for a substitute I chose some all-purpose flour.
> 
> Then when I started cooking it, I wasn't really sure how to detect the "syrup" stage, so I used a thermometer. My new electronic one had a dead battery, so I resorted to the mercury candy thermometer I had. It got to 200 degrees F very quickly, so I was unsure if I was supposed to cook it there for awhile or immediately add the flour. I did the former and let it cook for awhile, keeping the temperature near 200 degrees. Then I was unsure what "cook until done" really meant. When was it "done"? I added the ground almonds and the saffron. I cooked it for awhile but it didn't thicken appreciably. So I added more flour. Cooked some more, but it was still too thin to make into anything. So, more flour. It got thicker and I ate a sample. blech. It tasted mainly of flour and pomegranate. It also would have made rather grainy, squishy balls. So, I dumped it.
> 
> I had some of the candied horseradish that I had cooked previously which were formed into balls. I also made medieval gingerbread balls rolled in sugar and some Heathen Peas, which are balls of ground almonds and honey with spices. Basically this was for a pot luck feast celebration for the Laurel's officers, or maybe I should say ex-officers since we were celebrating getting rid of the Laurel's office and the paperwork, and it was now someone else's responsiblity. Any leftovers were then destined for the baronial dance revel that night, but we didn't get there.
> 
> Stefan
>