[Sca-cooks] Re: gram flour

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Ruth Tannahill:
>Adamantius wrote:
>>Use the eye you saved to find your way to the nearest Indian grocery,
>>where that eye will see bags of gram dal flour, which is apparently
>>made from hulled, split mung beans.
>
>"Gram flour" refers to any bean flour. "Besan" is chickpea. This is 
>the one that goes into "graham flour" I believe (and maybe into 
>graham crackers?).

Nah, Graham flour is generally any of several forms of whole wheat 
flour: finely or coarsely ground, finely ground endosperm with 
coarse-flake bran returned to it, etc. Named for 19th-century 
minister Sylvester Graham.

>  "Ural dal" flour is made from white mung beans, and is probably the 
>one you want. Be warned, though. It has amazing thickening powers 
>and can really soak up the liquid.
>
>When shopping at an Indian grocery, I usually go first to the whole 
>bean aisle, and see what they are calling the bean whose flour I 
>want to use, then go to the flour section and find the appropriate 
>flour. Regional differences in Indian spellings and translation into 
>your local English dialect sometimes mean that the same product will 
>have a different label than what you expect. Master A lives in New 
>York. I live about 70 miles away in New Jersey. But I'm willing to 
>bet things are labeled differently. I've made a handy-dandy 
>reference chart for myself with some of the more common Indian names 
>for spices, beans, and vegetables. A good Indian cookbook is a good 
>starting place to find the names, but be prepared for some 
>variation. The staff at the grocery may or may not be able to help.
>
>Berelinde
>lover of Indian food
>
>PS--I got the ultimate compliment from one of my coworkers from 
>Gujarat: my samosas were better than her mothers (even if my lemon 
>pickle fell short of her mom's).

That's pretty darned impressive! As for the gram dal question, I 
checked the package (same brand, purchased at the same store, that I 
used to get the stuff for Mark May), and it does mention besan on the 
bag. It says, essentially, _GRAM DAL!!!_ <besan>. Packaged by the 
House of Spices people, in Flushing, NY...

Adamantius
-- 




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