pancakes | Bewitching Kitchen

I am back with another recipe using ivory lentils (in case you’ve missed the first one, click here). I had never heard of uttapam, but learned about it in the website of the very company I got the lentils from. They are described as flatbreads, but I suppose little pancakes (or fritters) could work equally well if not better. After all, it is more a batter than a dough, that is poured instead of rolled, and cooked over a griddle, not an oven. In my mind, that gravitates to pancake territory. But flatbread, pancake, fritters… it’s irrelevant. They are delicious. Dangerously so, I should add.

UTTAPAM
(slightly modified from Woodland Foods)

(makes 8 little pancakes)

1 cup Basmati rice
1/2 cup Ivory lentils
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
1 Jalapeno pepper, minced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
vegetable oil (I used grape seed)

Thoroughly rinse rice and lentils separately. Place each in large bowl of fresh water and soak for 2 hours.

Drain rice and lentils, and place in blender. Add salt, sugar and baking soda and grind mixture into paste. Add about 1/2 cup water, and continue blending to create thick batter. Transfer mixture to bowl, and set aside to ferment at room temperature for at least 4 to 12 hours.

Combine peas, Jalapenos and cilantro in a small bowl. Heat griddle or nonstick skillet over medium heat and brush with oil. Pour in 2 to 3 tablespoons batter and spread out with back of spoon to create circle 4 inches in diameter. Sprinkle some of pea mixture evenly on top. Cook until small bubbles appear on surface, then flip and cook other side until crisp and golden.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I always feel a bit insecure making ethnic recipes I have zero experience with, but I must say this one turned out excellent, no problems, every step seemed to happen exactly as expected. Plus we both loved the texture and the taste of the little pancakes, that were served with a turkey chili. Sally again takes a ton of liberties with her dinner preparations. Chili made with turkey. Served with little flatbreads from India. All enjoyed with no remorse whatsoever!

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Once again, a guest post by Phil, my husband, best-friend, and labmate! 😉

This delicious recipe goes back to another era, back to Sunday Mass at St. Casimir’s in Lansing MI, when I was 8 or 9 and each week mom and dad dragged us in our Sunday best to the 8 or 9 am mass, about which I most remember kneeling for extended periods with my head buried in my clasped hands on the pew, thinking about playing baseball or slot cars. The only “redemption” from that experience was the batch of sour-milk pancakes my mom often whipped up afterwards. I liked them so much that after a while I began to help her, and eventually took over the Sunday morning cooking duties. Since then I made these pancakes for my housemates, girlfriends, wife, siblings, sons and visitors to our home. They are so simple that I never forgot them. The key component is a now seldom-used or seen ingredient, sour milk. In those days it was easy to come by, probably from less efficient pasteurization or fewer preservatives. But, you can still let a quart of milk go sour, or you can buy a quart of buttermilk, an adequate substitute.

Of course, I try to make them in a way that duplicates my mom’s, and also my grandma’s and aunt Mildred’s pancakes. The recipe became so popular in our family that everyone from Detroit to Chicago knew it, and they both made them for us when they visited. However, because they all departed this world before I thought to question them about their excellent techniques, my recipe has a few of my own modifications. I’m still wondering why my grandma’s rose less during the cooking. I’m working on that.

SOUR MILK PANCAKES
(a family recipe)

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
7/8 cup flour (see recipe for details)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sour milk (or buttermilk)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Method:
1. In a large bowl cream 1 T butter, 2 T sugar, ½ t salt.

2. Beat in 1 large (or extra-large / jumbo) egg.

3. To the flour (cake, unbleached, whole-wheat, buckwheat or my favorite: half unbleached/half whole-wheat flour) mix in ½ t baking powder; add it to the egg mixture.

4. To 1 cup sour milk (or buttermilk) in a 2-cup measuring container add ½ t baking soda; whip by hand with a fork until the sound deepens when the milk thickens; add to the batch and fold until fully mixed.

5. Rub a gas or electric griddle (at 375 F) with a small tab of butter on a paper towel. Use an ice-cream scoop to deposit the pancakes; sprinkle in blueberries if you like; cook until the bubbles pop and then flip them for a couple of minutes.

6. Splurge and serve with real maple syrup. No need to butter them. Skip the blueberries on half the batch and top a couple of pancakes with eggs fried over-easy…that’s breakfast, baby.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Sally’s comments: I find it hard to believe that this blog is approaching its 4th year of life, and I had not yet shared Phil’s recipe for blueberry pancakes. It is outrageous! One important thing to consider: these pancakes must be made by a man still wearing his pajamas. It is part of the deal. They taste much better this way… 😉