hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with bait you that's right this
grain free paraguay and cheese flatbread doesn't require any regular flour which
is great news these days in fact the last two times i went shopping the type
of flour this does used was the only thing left on the shelf and not only is
this unique and delicious it's also super easy okay pronouncing it
might be the hardest part oh and by the way to the people that invent words
starting with two consonants is not ideal but anyway let's go ahead and get
started with some of this cassava flour and it is in fact lutein free grain free
and not free but not route free it's made from a root and while it looks like
regular flour it's much finer and i think a lot closer and texture to corn
starch and what we'll do to begin here is add some salts a little shake of
cayenne as well as some butter that we've cubed up and then last but not
least a whole bunch of freshly grated cheese which in my case was a fairly
mild cheddar and what we're gonna do here is get into this with a couple
clean hands and for the next few minutes we're gonna rub together that butter
cheese and cassava flour and my favorite technique for this is just using your
fingertips just kind of pinching everything together and rubbing it back
and forth and we do want to start out kind of slowly because that starch is so
fine we don't want to create a giant cloud of that stuff and get it all over
but then once that butter and flour gets worked in you can be a little more
aggressive and if you want you can transition between your fingertips and
rubbing it between your hands and i guess if you wanted you could try to use
one of those wire pastry cutters but i have a theory that your fingers are
better because we're slightly warming up that butter and cheese as we rub which i
think might help integrate it a little better and similar to when we're making
pie crust what we're after here is a mixture that looks like coarse crumbs
okay so something similar to this where we're not feeling there's any large
chunks of butter left and then once that set we're gonna add the only other
ingredient here which would be some cold milk and we'll go ahead and drizzle that
in and then we'll basically use the same technique we started with sort of
rubbing it between our fingers until it's worked in and by the way the exact
amount is going to be really hard to give you
okay I'll provide you with a pretty good guess but you're really gonna have to go
by feel here alright part of that's gonna be because
of how dry your flower was and part of that's gonna be based on how much
moisture was in your cheese but one test you can use while you're doing this if
you squeeze the clump together but it crumbles apart with just the slightest
pressure it's too dry which in that case we'll go ahead and drizzle in a little
more milk and we'll keep doing that until we think it's just right and the
first time I made this I was so confused because it only called for like three
tablespoons of milk which wasn't getting me even close to the right texture but
then I realized the traditional cheese use for this is much moister and because
I was using something like cheddar I needed to add a lot more milk but anyway
no matter which you use will want to rub in enough milk until this happens okay
we want to be able to squeeze together a clump of this where it doesn't crumble
apart until we apply a good amount of pressure and also the mixture is going
to kind of start to feel cool and a little bit moist to the touch okay not
wet not soggy but it will feel like it's getting ever so slightly damp and that's
it once we've reached that stage we can go ahead and cook our flat breads up
which we will do in a small nonstick pan set over medium-high heat
and after letting it get have for a couple minutes we'll go ahead and
transfer in about a 1/2 cup or whatever it takes to cover the bottom of your pan
with a nice even layer somewhere between a quarter and a half inch deep and you
do see these made in different thicknesses but generally I prefer mine
a little bit on the thin side and then what we'll do as soon as that mixture is
placed in is go around the outside around the outside around the outside
with a spatula or maybe the back of a spoon and just sort of press in any of
those loose crumbles around the edge and then once that's been accomplished what
we'll do is cover this and let it cook for about three or four minutes and by
the way that's a wild guess or until the bottom is golden brown and we're able to
get a spatula under there and flip it without it falling apart and right here
is where I really need you to be brave and perform this maneuver with the
utmost confidence even if you're just pretending
and once that's uncovered we'll go ahead and slide our spatula underneath and in
one bold movement we will kind of toss the pan up while flipping that over like
this so that went pretty well at this point all we have to do is cook that
other side for about three or four minutes or until it's nicely brown
and again that's just a guess on my part okay that's gonna depend on the size of
your pan and how much you put in and the amount of heat so you're gonna have to
figure that out by trying a few I mean you are after all the paraguayan of how
long in the pan that should be staying but I'd say about three or four minutes
as a good guess and when I thought mine was done I went ahead and flipped it
back over mostly to show off but also so you could see exactly what it should
look like when it's done and that's it we'll go ahead and transfer that to
plates and then go in for a taste while it's still warm and because this flower
we're using has no gluten would actually holds us all together as the melted
cheese and of course that and the butter is also what makes it taste so good and
the casaba itself has a fairly neutral flavor so while it's not exactly like a
wheat flour-based flatbread it's not really unlike one either and from what I
hear these are generally just eaten plain or with a little bit of butter
alongside a nice hot cup of coffee but in the spirit of full disclosure I just
had mine with a glass of water and it was still really good but anyway I went
ahead and made a few more and of course stacked him up so I could take a picture
after which I enjoyed another one as I find he's quite addictive and while I
really do enjoy eating these plain as is I thought I would finish up with one
serving suggestion in case you wanted something a little more interesting and
substantial so what I did was squeezed on some chipotle mayo yes using a small
ziploc bag with the corner cut off although you can't just use the knife
and spread it and I went ahead and topped that with some sliced avocado and
some fire roasted red pepper rings and I went ahead and garnish with a little bit
of green onion and I finished up with a nice sprinkling of coarse salt because
avocado really loves that and that my friends was just an absolutely fantastic
thing to eat and I've never been there but I'm guessing this is what the
Millennials eat down there for breakfast as their South American version of
avocado toast but anyway the point is you can trust this up just like you can
any flatbread and whether you're looking for a new and interesting gluten-free
option or you just can't find regular flour because of the hoarders or you
just simply want something delicious to eat I really do hope you give us a try
soon so please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts
a principle written recipe and much more info as usual and as always enjoy
you