sunday one day pancakes yay!

if you know me personally, you will not be at all surprised to see a recipe for pancakes in the middle of what is supposed to be healthy, cleanse-friendly asian-food-week. see, I have this problem with committing to ideas that are just ideas… I also have a reallllly hard time not making sunday breakfasts on sundays.

so here we are, PANCAKES !!!    I’ve tried a lot of recipes over the years and none come anywhere close to these. like my brownies recipe, this one came from somewhere, but I’ve done so much modifying and tweaking over the last five or so years, that I think it’s mine now. there’s nothing redeeming in these healthwise… no fruit, no whole wheat flour…. my god, they’ve even got white sugar in them and I like them better that way! alas… they’re a really nice end of the week treat and I’m very happy to share them with you. just don’t eat them every day…

out from the cupboards flies:

1 1/2 C milk or butter milk
1 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar (or white vinegar) * optional! if you’re using butter milk, no need to put more zip in it with vinegar.
2 eggs
1 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp sugar

. before you get anything going, if you don’t have buttermilk (which I never do) just get your milk in a measuring cup and add the vinegar. I originally used rice wine vinegar because it was all I had, but then I found it had a nicer flavour, so I keep using it. this will need to sit for ten minutes.

. while the milk is setting up, get your pan heating up. it’s important to have the pan quite hot for the first round of pancakes because the cold batter will really knock the temp down and the first cakes won’t be as nice and brown as the others. I use a cast iron pan and have it on medium heat for almost ten minutes before adding anything to it. if you’re using non-stick, you’ll only need to heat it for a few minutes because they’re much thinner. wait until your pan is good and hot before putting oil in it… unless you’re into smoking out your kitchen.
. ok, pan on, milk setting up, time to get out a big bowl and wisk. put all the dry ingredients in the bowl and wisk. crack the eggs in the milk mix and wisk those up too. dump the wet into the dry and gently combine. the mix should be fairly bubbly and have some lumps.

. add a small glurg of veg or canola oil to the pan along with a spoon of butter. ladle some batter into the spitting pan of goodness. turn the heat down one notch.
. don’t flip your cakes until they’re rather bubbly on top and the edges are noticeably dry/golden. don’t splash yourself with oil when you flip them – it doesn’t make for a nice time.
. once they’ve been flipped, they will probably only take half the time the first side did.

. I like to get my oven on to 250 or so and put the finished pancakes on a plate and into the oven while the other ones fry. other wise, just serve them up with butter and your favourite syrup, sugar, fruit, whatever.

BANANAS muffins – with serious nana flavour

it’s strange for me to be sharing a muffin recipe because it seems that making muffins is all I do these days. why would that be strange for me then? well, most posts on the firdge are from food things I build here at home because I really like them. I of course love muffins, but they’ve become a work-associated food item as I make between 250 and 400 a week.
work or not, banana muffins are an essential in any baker/food preparer’s repertoire. these are dense, moist, and super-duper flavourful. I like them a lot.

before embarking on this, make sure you have 4 really ugly, super brown bananas, otherwise get out:
4 super ugly brown bananas, peeled
1/2 C oil
1/2 C milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp banana extract (this is essential!)
1/2 C white sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
2  1/2 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon

. crank yer oven to 375
. in a bowl, chuck in the bananas. mash them with a fork until they’re mostly just mush… or mash if you prefer
. add the eggs and give them a little whip with the end of a spatula

. add the oil, milk, and extracts and stir
. dump in the sugars and stir
. in another bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and wisk
. dump the dry into the wet and stir until just incorporated. remember it’s important not to overmix muffin batter because it will get very hard, very quickly. if there are some smaller bits of flour it’s ok, they will get absorbed during the baking process

. spoon the mixture into a greased muffin tin. I like big bulgey muffins, so I fill the cups to the top
. bake at 375 for 20-ish minutes or until they’re a light goldeny colour

. a couple minutes after they’ve come out of the oven, pop them out of the tins with your hands, or with a knife if they’re too hot, and get them into a big tupperware and slam the lid on them. this way they will steam a little and become sticky and moist, just like a banana! if you like your muffins to be less awesome, you could just let them cool in the pan and eat them dry-ish… maybe with butter though.
. also, these are craaaazy good with a cup of blueberries added in with the wet mix

enjoy your newfound bad-banana-user-uppers and how awesome your house smells after baking them!

 

BREAKFAST SALAD – feb fifth fenty felve

this morning I stumbled upon something so obvious, but so, so good:

BREAKFAST SALAD

I turned this

(which is good as is, but please, try this take on it)

. chop two massive (or more smaller) potatoes into chunks roughly the size of hubbabubba squares.
. get them in a big pot of slated water and boil ’em until tender but not falling apart – we’re not mashing these.
. while the toes are wubbling away, get a big frying pan on medium high heat. when it’s hot enough to instantly steam a drop of water, throw down some thick cut, streaky bacon.
. season with garlic powder, paprika, and pepper. the bacon will be best if you only flip it once (something me ma showed me). when the bacon is at your desired floppy or crispy goodness, drain on paper towel and set aside, but SAVE the grease in the pan.
. when the potatoes are finished, drain them in a colander. allow the heat inside them to evaporate the residual water, then carefully slide them into the hot bacon grease in the pan. You may need or want to add some additional bacon drippings, or butter, or oil because we basically want to do a very hot and quick fry on these suckers. stir as needed, you know, to get good gold coverage.
.while everything is getting hot and bubbly, finely chop half an onion and a small handfull of fresh parsley.
. also get yet another frying pan, smaller this time, on another burner and on a medium heat, let it get nice and hot.
. thinly slice some tomato into those gorgeous jeweled discs, and then again in gummybear-sized pieces.
. when the soon-to-be hasbrowns are almost at that lovely golden fried state, throw the onions in along with a bit of salt and the same seasonings that went on the bacon.
. of course, you’re really on the ball and excited to eat, so you’ve also got a carafe of coffee on the go, perfectly timed to be poured just after you serve breakfast. (I reccommend ethical bean – classic roast… it’s like chocolate cake)
. crack one or two or five eggs into the smaller, super hot pan atop some butter. quickly crack pepper on them and put a lid on the whole deal.
. have a small amount of water on hand and near the stove.
. chuck the parsley in the potatoes, stir and turn off the heat.
. drop about a teaspoon’s worth of that water in the eggs frying and get the lid on quick. the steam will cook the tops of the eggs but in a way that you can still get that gooey yolk happening. don’t leave them long… the hot hot pan should cook them in under two or three minutes. (miss mia taught me this, and I’m forever in egg-debt to her)
. drain the potatoes in a colander inside a bowl or on paper towel.
. get them eggs out of the pan and onto two plates. dump on some of the now drained hashbrowns, the tomato gems, and crumble the bacon on top of that.
. pour the coffee.
. grab your favourite breakfast salsa, ketchup, hot sauce, whatever.
. cut up the eggs beneath all the other goodness and mix it about in a glorious messy fashion until most of the bits have coated each other.
stuff your eager, drooling face with it.

for a nice breaky for two you will need:
2-4 good sized potatoes
6 rashers streaky bacon
bacon grease
butter – for frying
2-5 eggs (free run and organic is always best)
garlic powder
paprika
fresh cracked pepper
salt
1/2 an onion
fresh parsley (it really does make a difference)
1 tomato

* if one were to be so bold, so hardcore, so good with multitasking,  as to make and add hollandaise to this…
one may kersplode at the table.