Veggie Pancakes with Asian Flavors

A while back, I found myself with a bunch of vegetables--a fennel bulb, a bag of broccoli slaw, sugar snap peas, lots of green onions, roasted tomatoes--and not a lot of ideas. Well, there were ideas, but nothing particularly cohesive. Because we had eaten a bunch of meat recently, I wanted to make a primarily vegetarian meal. But what to do with that motley crew of produce? The tomatoes were really throwing me off, so I decided they could wait for another meal. The rest I would use in vegetable fritters.

There was also a bunch of Thai basil in our container garden. The plant was going a bit wild and needed serious trimming, so basil became part of the meal plan. And as I had just opened a new jar of pad kapao sauce, some of that would go in, too. I really love that stuff. It's spicy, aromatic, basil-y, and garlick-y, and it's good on just about everything. Mix it with mayonnaise and put it on a turkey burger. Put it in the turkey burger, too. Mix it with softened cream cheese and spread it on a bagel. Yes, for breakfast. (Hey, "everything" bagels have garlic and onion on them, so why not?) Mix it with softened butter and stuff it under the skin of a chicken before roasting. Put a tablespoon of it in plain tomato soup to eat with that grilled cheese sandwich. Pad kapao sauce is my sriracha. I've gotten my brother hooked on it, too, and the last time we hit an Asian supermarket together, we each bought several jars.

Eventually, I ditched the fritter idea and went with okonomiyaki-style pancakes. Okonomiyaki uses dashi, which isn't vegetarian, but you can certainly substitute some veg stock or just plain water in the batter. Me, I like the vague fishy flavor of the dashi.

Okonomiyaki are commonly served with Kewpie mayonnaise and unsweetened pickled ginger. Instead, I added some of my favorite chilli basil paste to a little Duke's mayo.

Veggie Pancake with Asian Flavors

For pancakes:
1 cup water
2 teaspoons dashi powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
3 eggs
1 tablespoon Maesri Thai chilli paste with basil leaves(pad kapao)
1 bunch scallions, chopped
3-4 cups mixed raw vegetables (I used sliced sugar snap peas, fennel, okra (because we had only 3 pods), and broccoli slaw mix)
1/4 cup roughly chopped Thai basil

For sauce:
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Maesri Thai basil and chilli sauce

Put the dashi powder and water in a microwave safe bowl. Heat long enough to warm the water and dissolve the dashi, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Let cool.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the cooled dashi to the flour mixture, stirring to make a batter. Add the eggs and chilli sauce. Cover and refrigerate batter for at least an hour and up to three hours.

After the batter has rested, add the scallions, vegetables, and basil to the batter; it will be very thick.

Add a tablespoon of canola oil to an 12" nonstick frying pan and heat until it shimmers. Make 3 approximately 5" pancakes with the vegetable batter. Cook until bottoms are golden brown. Flip with a spatula and cook other side until brown. Remove pancakes to a paper towel-lined plate. Cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat until all batter is used.

Make a sauce with the mayo and chilli sauce. Serve with the pancakes.

Makes 9 pancakes.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Matcha Sesame Blondies

We did a lot of baking over the past few months, because turning on the oven was a quick way to warm up the house. We got kinda stuck on making bar cookies though. They're fast and tasty and can be made in myriad variations. Both brownies and blondies are versatile, but there are some flavors that don't go as well with chocolate as they do without. Take green tea, for example; its delicate flavor and aroma can easily be muffled by chocolate. (Though I must confess, the warm chocolate bundt cake at Yokozuna in Ocean City, MD, tastes swell with a side order of green tea ice cream.) The same goes for sesame. And since we had both in the cupboard (courtesy of regular orders from Nuts.com), we combined them in a blondie-style bar cookie.

We modified the Toll House cookie recipe by cutting it in half. (Hence the odd 3/8 cup sugar measurement. Just use a cup that has a 1/8 mark on it and measure out either three 1/8 cups or one 1/4 cup and one 1/8 cup and you're golden.)  The matcha powder we used is actually a drink mix that already contains some sugar and milk powder. If you'd prefer to use the actual additive-free tea, you'll need much less than 1/4 cup. Up the brown sugar content to 3/8 cup and add a couple tablespoons of the tea at a time until it tastes the way you like. You want to taste the tea, but you don't want it to be too green or vegetal. (Or maybe you do, if you're into that sort of thing.) The sesame seeds add a subtle nutty crunch reminiscent of poppy seeds.

Matcha Sesame Blondies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/8 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons matcha green tea powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
1/3 cup black sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl and set aside.

Cream together butter, sugars, matcha tea powder, and vanilla  in large mixer bowl. Add egg, beating well. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in sesame seeds.

Grease 8" or 9" square pan. Spread dough evenly into pan (it will be stiff). Bake for 25-30 minutes until no longer wet and middle has sunken somewhat. Cool on wire rack before cutting into 12 or 16 bars.






Posted on Minxeats.com.