Vegan MOFO Day 14 - Flour Power

A few months ago as I was testing recipes for another upcoming epic cookbook I had to make yet another trip to the store for flour. No cook of good standing would ever be out of flour in their pantry. I like to fancy myself a pretty savvy cook, so reset assured this trip to the store was not for AP flour by any means. It was yet another special ingredient needed for a test recipe. The average household pantry probably has one, maybe two types of flour. Not ours. Right now we have at least five different types of flour. I'm sure there are more, but I am going by this picture.

Most of you I am certain have heard of white all purpose, whole wheat, and probably rye flours. In our pantry the past couple of years we have added the likes of besan (chick pea) flour, buckwheat, white whole wheat, quinoa, tapioca, and corn flour. I have also run across barley flour, italian style flour, oat flour, bean flours and vital wheat gluten. I'm sure there are even more out there. Why would the world need so many types of flour?

The answer is simple, regional ingredients for regional dishes. There are so many different regions of the world with different climates and different crops. It is what makes my little culinary brain go crazy. As I was googling the internet looking for different kinds of flours for this little blurb, I was pleasantly surprised there were many I had yet to try and trust me, I plan on trying more. However, if I bring one more odd ball ingredient home before using up some that are already haunting my pantry shelves, I might be sleeping outside with the crickets.