Plantain Pancakes

Living so far away from home, I sometimes forget and idealize certain things. Recently, I found some plantains in the store & excitedly called my mom to ask what I should do with them. "Why on earth did you buy plantains?" was the reply. Apparently my mom was not the link to plantain pleasure. I think it was a friend's mom or grandmother. Someone from either western Africa or India. Maybe even South East Asia. The benefit of growing up in a multicultural city was going to friend's houses for food.

Recently, I bought some more plantains, convinced I'd find a use for them. I ran into a friend on the way home from grocery shopping and we compared. I had riper plantains than she did but she had something I didn't: a plan. Pisang Goreng - fried plantain in Indonesia and Singapore. She just slices her ripe plantains, dips them in batter & fries them and has them as a snack with tea. I'm not a big fan of dipping things into batter, so I just made pancakes with a coconut sauce.

Plantain Pancakes
(Pisang Goreng)
2 ripe plantains (skins should be black)
1/4 cup flour
pinch salt
oil to fry

Peel plantains, mash with a potato masher. Add flour to create a batter-like consistency.
Drop tablespoons into hot oil. Fry until there is a slight caramel-crust. Turn once. Drain on paper towels.

Coconut Sauce
1/4 c grated cocnut
3 Tbsp coconut milk
1 small red chili, chopped
1/4 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp mustard seeds

In a small bowl, add coconut, coconut milk and chili. Allow the coconut to absorb the liquid. Roast seeds over medium heat until the mustard seeds pop. Add seeds to coconut. Serve with plantain pancakes.

I was happy with the result and will be making this again. This time, when I find more plantains in the supermarket, I'll be calling my friend over for a snack. Then I'll tell my mom what to do the next time she sees plantains.

Chevre Pancakes

In the last few years, dairy farmers in Germany have been complaining about the low price of milk. When milk costs €0.29 / L, it is very hard to make a profit, or even make ends meet (note: discount bottled water costs €0.35). A consumer who is aware of this problem can respond in a variety of ways. You can ignore the problem & continue to hope that your daily staple will not cost you more. You can choose to pay more for milk and milk products but the question remains: how much of that money really goes to the farmer & how much is absorbed by the milk company. You can buy local milk and ensure the farmers in your area see the money that you are willing to pay. I have gone a different route - I have stopped buying milk and milk products. I'm not sure that this is the answer, certainly it isn't for many German households, but I switched to goat milk for a few reasons.

Goat and sheep milk can normally be consumed by people who are lactose intolerant. Goat and sheep milk are not as commercial as cow milk, and I believe are thus less prone to the industrialized farming that results in high hormone and antibiotic use in cows. I could be wrong here, but because goats produce a fraction of the milk that cows do, they can not be used on such a large scale, and therefore, should not be as prone to disease as animals that are living in cramped quarters. For me, the most important reason to switch to goat milk was quite simply, the workaholic likes it better. I found some goat milk in the supermarket, imported from France, and had some goat yogurt in the fridge. Together, they are the perfect consistency for buttermilk - all without the bad conscience.

Goatmilk Pancakes
1 c flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
125 g goat yogurt
goat milk (about a 1/2 c)
1 egg
2 Tbsp oil

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda & baking powder in a medium sized bowl.
Place yogurt in a measuring cup. Add enough milk so you have 3/4 c liquid. Mix the thick mass until it is free of lumps.
In a small bowl, add the egg, oil and goat milk. Stir until smooth.
Slowly add the egg/milk mixture to the flour mixture. Stir a few times, the batter should still be lumpy.
Cook pancakes on a grill at medium heat until bubbles form. Then flip the pancakes. Keep them warm in a cool oven (50°), covered in foil until all pancakes are done. Serve with warm maple syrup.

I'm not sure if I'm really doing my part to help the farmers. Maybe it's time for government support, like in France. All I really know is that the pancakes were really sweet and went well with bacon. But what doesn't go well with bacon?

Weekend Breakfast - Breaking Diet

Normally, on the weekends, I revel in my fritattas. I wasn't a fan of eggs until I discovered the fritatta (read about it here). Just last week, I bought the cookbook I've been wanting to buy since it came out, the 75th anniversary edition of The Joy of Cooking. For me, there's something nostalgic about North American food, and furthermore, there's something nostalgic about old recipes. My mom has an ancient cookbook with ancient pictures - glazed hams in super saturated colour, garnished with pineapple rings & maraschino cherries. I love that book as a historical artifact but I need revised recipes to get me going. The 75th anniversary edition: perfect mix.

I saw the recipe for Jonnycakes, and though I really don't know how they got their name, I do recall them being rather tasty. Corn pancakes that are crispy on the outside. So here I went, Johnnycakes, bacon and eggs for breakfast. I tried to make up for the bacon (& bacon fat) by adding spinach and tomatoes to the scrambled eggs.

Johnny Cakes, Bacon & Scrambled Eggs
(adapted from The Joy of Cooking)

Make batter.
3/4 cup corn meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 chopped chili
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 c hot water
1/4 c grated cheese

Mix dry ingredients, add water & allow to sit for at least 10 minutes. Add cheese.

In frying pan over med-low heat, start cooking bacon. When bacon is nearly crispy, transfer to a small pan & over low heat, continue cooking. Keep bacon fat in pan. Cook cakes in bacon fat, 1 at a time. Keep finished cakes warm in oven over low heat.

Bacon should continue to provide fat. Use this fat in frying pan to cook eggs.

Beat 4 eggs with 1/4 cup cooked spinach, 1 diced tomato, 1/4 tsp dried oregano. Scramble eggs. When the eggs are done, so is the bacon (it was already cooked, it was just drying a little). Try not to think of the health disaster that this dish is, and moreover, try not to have it every weekend. But it was good!

Wild Rice Pancakes & Leftover Asparagus

Ah, the joy of working in Germany! Today is a holiday (Pentecost) and I have the day off of work. Even though I have to vacuum the apartment, do laundry, repot some herbs & build Ikea furniture, it's still a day off of work. Although I might log in later & do work, nullifying the concept of "holiday" as such, but we'll see...

For lunch, I'm getting rid of some leftovers. Last night, I tried to follow a recipe for stir-fried beef & asparagus, which was OK, but moreover, I have leftover wild rice. It's actually a brown rice - wild rice mix, but that's only a technicality. I'm making pancakes out of them & will be using the scant amounts of stir-fry I have leftover as a filling.

Rice Pancakes with Leftover Asparagus Stir-Fry
1 cup cooked wild/brown rice
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 Tbsp fish sauce
pinch ground ginger
pinch cinamon
1/2 clove mined garlic
pinch chili pepper flakes
1/2 Tbsp lime juice
water as needed
1/2 cup leftover asparaus beef stir-fry (see recipe)

In a blender, puree all ingredients. It won't turn out smooth, but that's OK. Add water, if necessary, to maintain a "batter-like" consistency.
In a skillet over medium-high heat, spread 1/2 the mixture. Allow to get crispy & wait until it can slide on it's own. At this point, flip the pancake.
Repeat for 2nd pancake.
Top with warmed leftovers & garnish with green onions.

I wasn't thrilled with the stir-fry last night, but I was much happier with the leftovers.