Hotcakes

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of the blog that Mark Bittman is one of my favourite culinary pin up boys men. If I had to nominate a top three there’d also be delicious Nigel and our own lovely Tony. But let’s not be heterosexist, my soft spot for Annabel also deserves a mention.

What all four of these cooking heroes have in common is a laid back attitude to home cooking. There's also a shared joy of homegrown produce and a relaxed approach to following recipes. All of which tick my boxes.

But back to Mr Bittman. I enjoyed his recent New York Times piece on whole-grain pancakes. The accompanying video showed him incorporating some cooked oatmeal (porridge) with a scant amount of flour, herbs, nuts and dried fruit. I took notes as I watched! I made guesses as to quantities. Why? Because at the time I couldn’t actually find the recipe.

As fate would have it, last weekend came around and I awoke to an unexpected dose of mild food poisoning (sadly from an oldish favourite on Brunswick Street). My partner suffered likewise, sealing the deal as to the source of the infection. Once my digestion calmed down all I wanted to eat was porridge. Which meant the next day, when I was fully functioning again, a cup or so of rolled oats slowly cooked with rice milk and a little banana sat waiting to be used in my fridge.

My version varies somewhat from the original but they look and I suspect taste pretty authentic. The notes in italics explain the variations. The quantities were more than adequate for two very hungry adults.

Super healthy pancakes with oats and cardamom

Combine the following dry ingredients:

2 tabs ground almonds
2 tabs raw rolled oats
I chopped the almonds roughly in the food processor then threw in the raw whole oats for a couple of whizzes. The texture in the finished product was lovely – but I really wonder if it needed the raw oats at all.
1/2 tsp salt
Seeds of about 4 pods cardamom
I pounded salt and herbs together in a mortar and pestle. The aroma was quite strong, so I used this as a guide to the amount of cardamom seeds I used. The cardamom was very subtle in the first pancake I cooked but was more noticeable in later ones.
1/2 cup unbleached flour
This was perfect, in both texture and binding of the batter.
1 tsp baking powder

Wet ingredients

Whisk together:
1 egg
1/2 c rice (or other) milk
I added a further 1/3 cup when mixing the final batter. to get to the right consistency.
1 tsp vanilla extract
As there was a trace of banana already in my porridge and I knew I’d be using the perfect runny apricot jam on top, no need for the addition of dried apricots. Even without that, I think they’d be over kill. The vanilla, though not in the original recipe, was a subtle flavour enhancer that I’d use again.

Stir into the combined wet ingredients:
1+ cups porridge
I had a bit over a cup of left over porridge cooked with a little banana and rice milk from the day before. As leftover porridge tends to congeal, using clean hands to break up the lumps through the wet ingredients was the most effective method.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir gently.
Despite my initial scepticism, it really does create a “batter consistency”, even with so little flour. They needed to be loosened a little more with milk. I decided to let the batter sit for half an hour. That’s the general rule for flour based pancake batters, the flour swells a little but more than that the cardamom has a chance to infuse.

Cook in rice bran oil in a hot pan. They needed at least 4 minutes a side. And like most pancakes I find it better to do a small one first, then the pan seems to get into its groove and the following ones cook more smoothly – or is that just me?

Served with a spoonful of the most heavenly, runny organic apricot jam a client had given me but maple syrup or a little honey would do the trick.

Verdict: When I first read the recipe I must admit my first thought was "crispy fried porridge". But my second thought was "crispy fried porridge could taste really good"! The oatmeal did make the pancakes a little damp in the middle, rather than the more cakey nature I'm familiar with. The ground nuts added a lovely texture that complemented the oats.

Overall - a delightful, very filling and healthy breakfast!

Though next time I might soak rolled oats over night, rather than cooking them to see how that works.

fritter heaven

What comes to mind when you think of kiwi food? While there’s the archetypal lamb roast and pavlova*, it's not something you’ll find in every café. When it comes to a certainty on every urban menu, the gong has to go to fritters.

Corn fritters seem to appear on almost every New Zealand breakfast menu for over a decade. Despite the fact canned corn never goes out of season, the more adventurous establishment will branch out to zucchini or other fresh vegetables in summer. They are cheap, easy to make and team well with relishes, chutneys and a host of side dishes.

In the past I’ve just haphazardly thrown some flour, egg and soy milk into a bowl and beat til it formed a batter. Following on my promise of making some earmarked treasures from my old Annabel Langbein cookbook The Best of Annabel Langbein, I gave her soda water fritter batter a go. The first time round I followed it to the letter. Certainly the creaminess of milk (or soy) is not missed but I still found it quite a cakey batter. I’ve had a few goes at making my own variations; it’s a work in progress so feel free to direct me to your favourite recipe.

Basic Fritter batter
These rose nicely and were a little lighter than the original recipe.

1/2 cup unbleached plain flour
1/2 cup cornflour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup soda or sparkling mineral water

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Stir in the eggs and soda water and mix til your have a smooth batter.

If your batter is not smooth you can always force it through a sieve.

Allow to sit for half an hour before cooking.

Carrot fritters
Per cup of batter

1 carrot, grated
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Grate the carrots.

Toast the seeds in a hot pan and then grind to a powder.

Add all ingredients to the batter, ideally while it’s resting to infuse the spices.

To cook the fritters

Add a neutral vegetable oil to a heavy bottom pan and bring up to a medium heat. Cook fritters in batches, place spoonfuls of the batter in pan, encouraging a roundish shape. Allow small bubbles to appear in the batter before turning (about 2-3 minutes each side). Cook til golden on each side.

Recipe Update (Nov 2011)

Less batter, more carrots = excellent outcome. Here's my latest version.

For the fritters - basically halve the flour

1/4 cup unbleached plain flour
1/4 cup cornflour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 - 1/2 cup soda or sparkling mineral water

For the spicy carroty part

3 carrot, grated
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Follow the previous method.



Spiced carrot fritters – deluxe version

Top warm carrot fritters with good quality mayonnaise mixed with a spoonful of harissa paste and a squeeze of lemon. Adjust to taste; the spices should be noticeable in the mayo without burning your mouth.

Finish off with some strips of the queen of Kiwi delights, smoked eel.

I promise you this is a seriously good combination!




Notes

Not so cheap but marvellously cheerful is the other national dish whitebait fritters. Don’t confuse the batter recipes; whitebait only requires the lightest of licks of egg to keep them together.

I sometimes make a double batch of the basic batter and divide in two for a different set of flavoured fritters for lunch and then breakfast the next day.

Fritters make handy vegetarian meals and also a clever way to hide vegetables for fussy kids.

Some combos of my favourite fritter combos include:
Corn and caramelised onions
Zucchini (drain grated zucchini in a sieve first) and mint
Corn fritters served with a dollop of guacamole



* wash you mouths out my dissenting Aussie friends, New Zealand definitely is the home of the pav!

the return of the mojo

The last few months have been a bit of a blur. There’s been lot of comings and goings, short trips to NZ/interstate (the former being like an interstate trip except you have to check in hours earlier and there’s duty-free goodies) and some shuffling around at home.

The Significant Eater is away for large chunks of the time now and though I’ve always been an advocate of the pleasures of cooking for one, my repertoire has been stuck on repeat. My high rotation menu of stir-fries, frittatas, curries, pasta/noodles and variations on vegetables with rice, reminds me of a week I spent in the Daintree with only the resort restaurant to eat at. The limited menu was on a three day cycle, making the second half of the stay very boring.

My mojo’s not been helped by the garden being between seasons. The parsley and coriander are on the way out and there’s just silverbeet for fresh greens, wholesome but not exactly inspiring. I can’t face another leaf of the super bitter radicchio. Waiting to fruit are tomatoes (grosse lisse, tommy toes and sugar lump), strawberries and grapes.

If the locusts don’t get them first.

Previously I’ve relished solo time, giving me the opportunity to beta test weird and wild concoctions (aka “imagination meals”) without having to explain the experiment to someone else. But the problem with loosing your mojo is that there is no desire to go beyond the known. End of the year fatigue has kidnapped my imagination and a whole raft of glossy cookbooks won’t get it back.

Fortunately in the past week the season seems to have begun to shift. The market haul yielded local strawberries, organic mangoes and a half decent avocado. Winters drabness is finally giving way to the stars of the fruit family that excite the senses.



Also on the up are my herbs in pots – Vietnamese mint, regular mint, rosemary tarragon. The latter I’ve had for a couple of years but am always at a loss as to how to use. Aniseed is not my favourite flavour, especially in savoury cooking. It’s refreshing to chew on a leaf but I’m yet to fall in love with the herb. Any tarragon tips?

With the whiff of promise breezing in I’ve finally been inspired to tackle two cooking projects I’ve had earmarked for an age. This weekend saw a second batch of savoury fritters, in an ongoing attempt to tweak Annabel Langbein's soda water batter and while listening to Tony Chiodo being interviewed on Eat It on Sunday I put on a pot of quinoa. I’d intended to make one of his salads but instead found some parsley still suitable for consumption and finally made a quinoa tabbouleh.

Double win!

Where’s your kitchen mojo at this spring/autumn?

Sneak preview - recipes later this week.

a little Langbein love

I’ve got a bit of a crush on Annabel Langbein at the moment. Maybe it’s a kiwi thing but I’m enjoying watching her new television program Free Range Cook. While I avert my eyes to the meat and dairy (featuring rather heavily, it is New Zealand after all) the landscape is an absolute winner. Though despite the thin cardigan and cotton shirts Otago still looks rather chilly.

Langbein is well known to New Zealanders. Her recipes have appeared in numerous print publications for years and there’s at least one of her cookbooks on most kiwi friend’s shelves. Her earlier (1998) edition of The Best of Annabel Langbein adorns my own.

Her recipes are simple and she shares ideas on how to adapt parts of the dish for leftovers. Her phrase “fridge fixings” (familiar to those of us who already own her books) is a personal favourite. She’ll often say “this is good for a week in the fridge or you can freeze it in portions”.

When you are tired and hugry, it’s virtually impossible to feel creative. You just want to eat right now, without having to think about how or what. Taking a little time each week to prepare flavour bases such as tasty pestos and enticing dressings greatly streamlines the cooking process and has a dramatic effect on the results”.

Langbein on Fridge Fixings, The Best of Annabel Langbein.

Of course her garden is to die for, belying her horticultural background. Though try as hard as I can, the slightly plummy accent makes it hard to imagine her jumping out of helicopters to recover deer shot for venison or living in a hippy commune as she did in her youth.

Thanks to the show I’ve dug out my old cookbook and am marking the pages to explore this summer.

• A fritter batter that uses soda water rather than milk.
• Thai prawn fritters, with coconut cream (instead of milk/soda).
• Smoked fish salad with aioli, cucumber and spring onions.

Some stand out, simple Langbein recipes from the web

Asparagus, Avocado & Almonds with Sesame Citrus Dressing - simplicity personified!

Caponata - not a unique dish but a good “fridge fixing” during the summer tomato glut.

Crisp cauliflower and cashew salad - the ultimate in raw food cuisine, this looks like my new detox dish du jour.

Her recipe for the Asian-style citrus dressing that I found intriguing – hadn’t thought of using orange, lemon and lime juice with the classic fish sauce and chilli but she swears it gives it more depth (will try it next time I make a smoked fish salad).