Two Amber Cakes of Grain: Quinoa and Semolina Couscous

Who wouldn’t like crispy crunchy little “pancakes” that are good for you? Shaped like mini-burgers, they are based on nutritious cooked grains like quinoa or semolina or millet or …. All the ones I’ve made have “special” ingredients that make them sing: tangy feta cheese is at the top of the list, but currants and chopped herbs are right up there.  The couscous cakes are infused with saffron, which gives them a golden color. These cakes are great topped with smoked fish as an appetizer, served with a vegetable stew for supper, pocketed for breakfast, or packed for lunch on a trip.  They’re more substantial than the mini vegetable frittatas that bake in muffin tins so they’re good for the road. And you can make them any size: mine were under 2 inches in diameter so they were basically finger food.

The quinoa version, the way I made it, is gluten-free. The semolina version is obviously wheat-based. Since I’m working on my own recipes, I might not have posted these two – one from Becky Selengut’s Good Fish, and the other from Yotam Ottolenghi’s column in the Guardian – but I had so many requests that I couldn’t resist sharing this discovery. I made Selengut’s quinoa cakes the way the recipe was written. Ottolenghi used barberries, which we don’t have here, so I substituted lemon-soaked currants as he suggested. I also halved the Ottolenghi recipe and converted it to American measurements. Because of the characteristics of semolina couscous, those cakes were drier and denser than the quinoa version.

When I first served the quinoa cakes, I topped them with smoked trout, sour cream and chives. The second time, when they accompanied the couscous cakes, I used that amazing Moroccan tomato jam from last summer. I also served the couscous cakes with an aromatic root vegetable stew.

Quinoa Cakes adapted from Becky Selengut, Good Fish

2/3 c quinoa, rinsed and drained

1 1/3 c water

Salt

¼ c minced shallots

1 tsp olive oil

¼ c flour – all-purpose or superfine brown rice or white rice flour

¼ c tangy feta cheese, crumbled

¼ c finely chopped Italian parsley, or a combination of parsley and chives

1 egg and 1 egg yolk (or use 2 eggs)

Freshly ground black pepper or a little red pepper sauce

Vegetable oil for frying

Selengut’s garnishes: smoked trout flakes, sour cream or Greek yogurt, chives

Cook the quinoa and set it aside to cool. (To cook quinoa, place the rinsed grains, water and a little salt in a saucepan, bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, cover the pot and let cook for 10-15 minutes.)

Cook the shallots in the olive oil until translucent and set them aside to cool.

Combine the quinoa, shallots, flour, feta and egg and add a little additional salt and the pepper. Form into small cakes (wet your hands if the grains stick) and fry them lightly in the vegetable oil over medium-high heat, until crisp and golden, about 5 minutes, turning them once.

Crispy Couscous and Saffron Cakes adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi, The Guardian

¼ tsp saffron threads

1 c boiling water

¾ c semolina couscous

1 tbsp dried currants

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp sugar

1/3 c Greek yogurt or sour cream

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tbsp chopped chives

¼ c crumbled feta cheese

Salt and black pepper

Butter and vegetable oil for frying

Place the saffron in a heatproof bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Let is infuse for a few minutes and stir in the couscous. Cover the bowl and let it stand for about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, soak the currants in lemon juice for 20 minutes.

Fluff up the couscous with a fork and combine with the other ingredients.

Form into small cakes (wet your hands if the grains stick) and fry them lightly in the butter and vegetable oil over medium-high heat, until crisp and golden, about 5 minutes, turning them once.

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Kuri Squash (or Pumpkin) Pancakes

Personally, I am not a pancake lover. My family, however, is nuts for them. They could eat the same basic ones over and over. And they have, given my lack of enthusiasm. They even invite friends over just for weekend pancake breakfasts. For me, it’s a big shrug. But… given my curiosity about food in general and my interest in satisfying the gluten-free, I’ve been looking into a few alternative pancakes. This one’s not GF but I know I can make that work once I understand how the ingredients interact. Pumpkin and winter squash are forgiving ingredients.

I clip or copy recipes from all over the place and typically lose them. But this one I taped to the wall since I’d just cooked a kuri squash and knew I would make it within a week. However, unlike me, I failed to clip the name of the author, so I’m attributing it to the newspaper.  As usual, I rewrote the recipe to be clearer and made some minor adjustments. 

These pancakes are cake-like, colorful, and delicious. Served with maple syrup brought by a friend from the Adirondacks, they made a satisfying winter breakfast.  Even I liked them, and that’s a high compliment.

Squash (or Pumpkin) Pancakes, adapted from a recipe in the Princeton Packet

1½ c all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp freshly ground nutmeg

2 eggs

1/3 c vegetable oil like canola

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp white sugar

½ c packed puree of full-bodied squash or canned pumpkin

1¼ c milk

Butter

Heat a griddle over medium-low heat.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs, and add the vegetable oil, sugar, squash or pumpkin and milk, stirring to combine well. Add the dry ingredients, stirring just to combine. Do not over-mix.

Add a little butter to the heated griddle and wipe it off. Spoon the pancake batter onto the griddle and cook slowly until bubbles pop, about two minutes or so. Flip and cook the other side for about two minutes.

Makes about 24 pancakes about 3-3½ inches.

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Zucchini, Corn and Red Pepper Pancakes

A quick meal on a hot summer night, vegetable pancakes whip up in no time. Zucchini pancakes are of course the classic, another in a long line of tricks to use up the bounteous harvest. Here I combined them with corn kernels, red pepper and basil. Served with corn on the cob and sliced nectarines, they were just the right supper for an evening in the garden.

Zucchini, Corn and Red Pepper Pancakes

2 medium zucchini (about 3/4 lb)

Salt

½ c fresh corn kernels

¼ c finely diced red pepper

1-2 leaves Genovese basil, shredded

1/3 c flour

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 eggs

Butter and/or vegetable oil

Grate the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater. Place the shreds in a colander and lightly salt them, setting aside to drain for about 30 minutes or so. Squeeze in a towel to get as much liquid out of them as possible.

If the corn is tough, shallow-boil it for a minute in a little water and set aside to drain thoroughly.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Heat a cast iron griddle on the stove over medium heat so that it is uniformly hot when the batter is ready.

Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl. Add the drained zucchini, corn, red pepper and basil. Fold in the flour mixture until no traces of flour remain.

Add a little butter and/or vegetable oil to the heated griddle. Spoon on the zucchini batter to form 2-2½ inch cakes and cook slowly over medium-low heat for a few minutes until the bottom is browned and the top is starting to dry. Flip to brown the other side and remove to a plate. Keep them warm while you prepare the rest.

Makes about twelve 2½-inch pancakes.

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Pile o’ Pancakes, the Ricotta Version

A pancake breakfast is a family tradition that we’ve always followed on weekends and holidays, whenever we’re not all scattering to school and work at different times. I’ve always thought that eating together and having a rousing conversation around a table was the perfect way to celebrate family, appreciate each other and have a good time.  I have several “standard” pancake recipes. Normally I faithfully follow whatever Marian Cunningham (The Breakfast Book) says to do, but this particular recipe for ricotta pancakes evolved from several sources. The key is to separate the eggs, adding the yolks with the milk and fresh cheese and beating the whites and folding them in at the last minute.

There’s a variation that is worth trying sometime. Add grated orange or lemon peel, and 1-2 teaspoons of juice to the liquid mixture. In this case, I would serve them with powdered sugar (or maybe orange or lemon curd) and not maple syrup.

A few pancake-making tips… Make sure the ingredients are at room temperature. Drain the ricotta in a sieve set over a bowl for half an hour if it seems runny. Preheat the griddle over medium low heat for a good ten minutes. If the pancakes are very mottled (as the first batch is likely to be), your heat is too high and/or variable. You are aiming for even heat and uniformly colored surfaces, so you have to be patient about letting them cook thoroughly. Flip them when air bubbles rise to the surface and the bottoms are golden.

Ricotta Pancakes

1 c ricotta cheese, whole milk or part skim

¾ c all-purpose flour

2 tbsp granulated sugar

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

3 jumbo or 4 medium eggs, whites and yolks separated

¾ c milk

Optional: grated rind and 2 tsp juice of a lemon or orange

Butter for the griddle

If the ricotta cheese seems runny, drain it in a sieve set over a bowl for 20-30 minutes.

Preheat the griddle over medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes while you are preparing the batter.

Stir together the dry ingredients in a small bowl.

With a hand mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry.

Combine the milk, egg yolks and drained ricotta cheese in a mixing bowl, stirring to combine the ingredients well. (If you’re using the citrus, add it now.) Stir in the dry ingredients. Scoop a big spoonful of the egg whites into the batter and fold it in to lighten the mixture. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites.

Melt a little butter on the griddle and towel off the excess. Drop the batter on the griddle leaving a couple of inches between each pancake. (The egg white keeps them from spreading much but these are delicate and spacing helps you flip them without incident.)  Cook gently, adjusting the heat if necessary, and flip them after air bubbles rise to the surface and the bottoms are golden. Be patient. These take a few minutes per side.

Makes about 24-30 pancakes about 2½ to 3 inches in diameter.

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Okra: Steamed, Stewed, Frittered and Fried – Part 2

On we go with a bonanza of okra harvested weekly from our CSA farm. Here we have fritters (or more properly pancakes) that combined cornmeal and flour with buttermilk and eggs, and added okra, scallions and corn. They were served over tomato sauce and garnished with steamed okra and corn and snipped herbs.  This recipe makes a thick pancake. I made vegetable pancakes another way also, with half the flour, no buttermilk and more eggs, which I prefer because it showcases vegetables like zucchini. It doesn’t bind the corn or okra as well, however.

Okra-Corn Pancakes with Tomato Sauce

½ c fine stone-ground cornmeal

½ c sifted all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

½ c buttermilk at room temperature

¼ c sliced scallions

1 c corn kernels (lightly steam if using older corn)

1 c sliced okra (lightly steam if using large okra)

Herbs such as parsley or cilantro (optional)

Salt and pepper

Tomato sauce

Garnish: steamed okra, corn, herbs

Sift together the dry ingredients. Thoroughly combine the egg and buttermilk and add the dry ingredients, stirring to combine. Fold in the vegetables.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a preheated griddle or skillet. Cook slowly until browned on one side and the batter stops bubbling on top. Flip and cook until brown on the other side. Keep the pancakes warm while you finish making the batch and serve with sliced tomatoes or a light tomato sauce, possibly seasoned with hot pepper.

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Zucchini Lemongrass Pancakes with Fresh Peach Salsa

Late summer suppers draw from the wonderful farm produce that still abounds. Since this is Labor Day weekend here in the U.S., which signals the transition into fall, I wanted to celebrate the fruits and vegetables of summer. So when Asa from Miss Meister’s Mat announced the four Paper Chef 56 ingredients – capers, peaches, pumpkins/squash, and lemongrass – with the stipulation that the meal be vegetarian, I immediately decided the direction I would go. Peaches are at their peak here now and we still get summer squash such as zucchini from our CSA farm. The farm also allows us to harvest herbs every week, including lemongrass and a variety of basil. Lucky me.

Although I was in the middle of canning peach salsa for the winter, I decided to make a fresh salsa for this meal. Seasoned with sweet and hot peppers, red onions, capers, lime juice and … especially nice… Thai basil, I served it alongside zucchini pancakes made with lemongrass and scallions. Since the peach salsa benefits from sitting in the refrigerator for about an hour before serving, and since the zucchini needs to be drained, you can start both dishes at the same time and go about your business for a little while. In the heat of late summer, the least time in the kitchen is a plus.

This was a truly delicious combination and, with the addition of some freshly picked corn on the cob, we had a perfect, refreshing summer supper.

For those unfamiliar with cooking with lemongrass…. Lemongrass grows in big clumps and you harvest individual stalks at the very base. The part that you eat is the inner core of the base of the stalk, so you first need to remove the tough outer husk (making a vertical slice at the base helps to reveal the layers). Then mince the tender, fragrant inner core. The lemongrass that I harvested from our local CSA farm was pretty small so I needed two stalks to yield the teaspoonful that I added to the pancake batter. What we find here in the grocery market is typically larger so one stalk would be more than enough.

Zucchini Lemongrass Pancakes

¾ lb (2 medium) zucchini

Salt

1-2 stalks lemongrass to yield 1 tsp minced (or use grated lemon zest)

3 tsp chopped scallions (or finely minced onion)

Thai basil, 1-2 leaves, shredded (or use another herb like parsley)

1/3 c flour

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 eggs

Butter and/or vegetable oil

Grate the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater. Place the shreds in a colander and lightly salt them, setting aside to drain for about 30 minutes or so. Squeeze in a towel to get as much liquid out of them as possible.

To prepare the lemongrass, make a vertical slice in the base of the stalk, remove the tender, fragrant inner core and mince, yielding about a teaspoonful, or to taste. Prepare the scallions and the basil.

Mix together the flour and baking powder, adding a pinch of salt.

Lightly beat the eggs, add the grated and drained zucchini, the lemongrass, scallions and Thai basil, and stir to combine. Fold in the flour mixture until no traces of four remain.

Heat a griddle or large flat sauté pan, add a little butter and vegetable oil to coat and spoon on the zucchini batter to form about 2-2 ½ inch cakes. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes until the bottom is browned, then flip them to brown the other side. Keep the cooked pancakes warm while you prepare the rest.

Makes about 12 2 ½-inch pancakes.

Fresh Peach Salsa with Thai Basil

2 peaches

Juice of 1-2 limes (enough to fully coat the peaches)

2 tbsp finely chopped red bell pepper

1 tsp finely chopped jalapeno or other hot pepper (more or less to taste)

2 tsp capers

Thai basil, a few leaves, shredded

Peel the peaches by dropping them into boiling water for a few minutes then transferring them to a bowl of ice water. The skins will slip right off. Remove the pits and chop the flesh into 3/8-inch pieces. Immediately pour on the lime juice to keep the peaches from browning. Add the remaining ingredients and place the salsa in the refrigerator to chill for about an hour before serving. Makes about 1 ¼ cup salsa, depending on the size of the peaches.

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Memories of Austria: An Apple Pancake from the Oven

The Dad and I each have youthful memories of eating big puffy apple pancakes in Austria, he during a Christmas season spent in the snowy Tyrolean city of Kitzbuhl and I during a summer studying in Vienna. When we woke up this morning to a billowing snowstorm that will keep us inside all day (especially since he now has the snow blower in the house, disassembled for repair), he suggested a comforting breakfast of pancakes. Rather than making our family’s traditional stack, I decided to knock out a single oven pancake, basically an eggy version of normal pancake batter poured over just-cooked apples in a skillet and baked in a hot oven until puffy. While not exactly the Kaiserschmarrn of our memories, it is lovely served warm from the oven. I adapted this recipe from Marion Cunningham’s classic, The Breakfast Book, which is the source of many good ideas for the morning meal.

Oven-baked Apple Pancake adapted from Marion Cunningham’s Breakfast Book

2 apples, peeled and sliced

Juice of one lemon

3 tbsp confectioners’ sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

4 tbsp butter, divided in two

3 eggs, room temperature

½ cup milk, room temperature

½ cup flour

¼ tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Prepare the apples, sprinkle on the lemon juice and combine with the sugar mixed with cinnamon. Melt the butter in a heavy, ovenproof skillet over low heat. Remove half to a food processor or bowl.  Sauté the apples in the remaining butter until starting to soften and brown.  Add the remaining ingredients to the food processor or bowl and mix well. Pour over the cooked apples and place the skillet in the oven to cook for about 20 minutes. If your skillet has a wooden handle like mine, wrap it in aluminum foil to keep it from burning. Remove from the skillet (or not) and sprinkle with additional confectioners’ sugar.  It will start to fall as soon as it is removed from the oven, so it’s best eaten right away.

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