Apple Pancake Rings

I found this recipe idea via Pinterest, but it originated with Carla Hall (former Top Chef contestant and current panelist on The Chew, a talk/cooking show):  apple pancake rings.  Quite a cute idea.

I didn't follow her recipe exactly, but instead used it as inspiration.  I made a simple (perhaps the simplest) pancake batter, a la Jamie Oliver: 1 cup self-rising flour, 1 cup milk, 1 egg, pinch of salt.  Then I peeled and cored 2 local Malang apples and thinly, thinly sliced them into rings using my mandoline slicer.   I threw the rings into the batter to coat, and then cooked them as I would normal pancakes, on a hot skillet with a little bit of butter.  

So good!  The apple softens up a bit as it cooks, but still maintains a bit of crunch for texture.  Awesome.

New (To Me) Tips, Techniques and Recipes

Here are some easy but interesting tips and techniques, as well as a couple new recipes that I tried out this week... excuse the unattractive photos- all of these techniques were implemented after dark! 

Skillet smashed potato technique:

Pretty cool, easy and fun technique for making potatoes a little bit more exciting.  I boiled mine in chicken stock and a pat of butter until tender (based on this recipe), then smashed them lightly, seasoned with salt and pepper and threw them on a hot cast iron skillet to crisp up on the outside. Yum.

Vanilla-scented sugar:

I had scraped the seeds out of a vanilla bean for my coconut/vanilla rice pudding earlier this week, but didn't want to let the still-fragrant vanilla pod go to waste, so I stuck them into my sugar.  The pods release their remaining seeds and awesome vanilla scent into the sugar.  It's pretty intoxicating to open up the jar every morning to get sugar for my coffee.  Give it a try!

Creamed spinach:

Tim bought some fancy Australian filet mignon at our neighborhood butcher, so I seared them on the cast iron skillet and served them alongside this tasty creamed spinach from Tyler Florence.  I loosely interpreted it since I had frozen spinach and wanted to add some shallots. I sauteed the garlic and shallots first, then added in the cream and spices per the recipe and then dropped in the frozen spinach, which I had defrosted in the microwave and then de-watered by squeezing it with my ricer.  The spinach soaked up the cream, so it doesn't look very creamy, but it tasted rich and delicious.

Nutella banana pancakes:

I needed to use up one lone overripe banana we had hanging around, so I decided to make these super easy, extremely light and fluffy nutella banana pancakes.  So good!  The key to these pancakes is to not over mix them.  Leave the lumps. Don't be tempted to try to get a smooth batter.

 PS: Tim made me take a picture of these particular pancakes he made because he was proud of the perfect color and shape he achieved. 

Creamy parmesan salad dressing:

 Quick and delicious creamy parmesan salad dressing, based on the house dressing from a famous chain restaurant.  Takes about 3 minutes to make and tastes awesome.  So much better than pre-made salad dressing.

Whole Wheat ,Yogurt, Blueberry and Raspberry Pancakes

Wow- these are good pancakes. I don't usually like pancakes- too heavy and dense- but pancakes made from this recipe don't fall into that rut... they're super light and fluffy, and actually somewhat healthy since the recipe calls for yogurt and whole wheat flour. My only complaint would be that the recipe doesn't call for enough fruit- I almost doubled the amount of fruit in there.

It's the whole wheat pastry flour in the recipe that really makes these pancakes work. I know it's somewhat silly to buy a specialty flour just to make pancakes, but these might be worth it. Plus, I'm sure you could find some other uses for this great flour (check out the list at the bottom of this page for more whole wheat pastry flour ideas...).

Bulgur-Ricotta Pancakes

Hot off the presses (and griddle!)!!

In today's New York Times Dining & Wine section, Mark Bittman (The Minimalist) described some different options for making whole-grain pancakes not taste like lead bricks... one of those recipes was for ricotta and bulgur wheat pancakes with a hint of orange and cinnamon.
I'm not normally a pancake or sweet breakfast person (give me an egg sandwich any day), but for some reason these ricotta pancakes were calling my name. It helps that I had ricotta on hand (leftover from the "lag" rolls last week). These were pretty good! They are substantial, but still light and fluffy, with great flavor from the orange zest and cinnamon. The ones straight off the griddle tasted a lot better than the ones I kept warm in the oven, but I think that's par for the course for any pancakes. Served with McCarthy maple syrup!

Zucchini, Ham, Basil and Ricotta Fritters

Aka: giant savory pancake.

Pretty damn good; makes a meal if you pair it with a salad.

I needed to use up some zucchini and was curious about this recipe... I was nervous about it not having any sauce to accompany it, but it turns out it didn't need anything. Just some salt and pepper at the end.

I sliced the zucchini into very thin discs using the mandoline- I wasn't sure what they meant by long thin strips, but it sounded like a pain in the butt. Also, I used 2 or 3 thicker sliced pieces of deli ham and ricotta left over from my skillet lasagna.