Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

Sometimes, the seemingly simplest of foods can be the hardest ones to have a perfect recipe for.  You know the ones I’m talking about – oatmeal raisin cookies, Sunday morning waffles, chocolate brownies.  Part of the reason for this is that these commonly prepared foods have so many variations, and practically everyone you talk to will tell you that they have THE perfect recipe for it.  But often times, what it comes down to starting with a basic recipe followed by good old trial and error in your own kitchen, until you have that perfect recipe that can be handed down through the generations as The world’s best what-have-you.  One such food that I have tried countless recipes for -- some with good success, and some that were utter disasters -- is pancakes.  Over the years, I have figured out that while I like different variations such as buckwheat or cornmeal pancakes, the regular ones made with flour are the ones that I keep coming back to on lazy Sunday mornings.  I also know that any pancake that I am going to enjoy has to have buttermilk in it and be only very slightly sweetened.  Also, none of those flat,thin pancakes for me – I like them thick and fluffy.  And of course, they need to be easy to make and not require extensive steps like beating egg whites to a foam.  With all these criteria in mind, I am now finally armed with the perfect recipe for pancakes – this recipe can easily be scaled up or down; the batter stores well in the refrigerator through the weekend; and most importantly, this recipe lends itself to countless variations and I give you two of them, below.  Here’s my recipe for Buttermilk pancakes – I call them, quite simply, “The World’s Best Buttermilk Pancakes”.

Yield: 1 dozen thick pancakes

Dry ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2  tablespoons white sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients

• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups buttermilk, or substitute with 2C thick yogurt and 1C water, beaten together
• 1/2 cup skim milk

Sift together dry ingredients

Beat together wet ingredients

Add wet ingredients to dry ones and stir lightly with a fork, until just combined.  The batter should have plenty of lumps.  Do not overmix.

Heat up a griddle to medium-hot.  It’s better to have too cold a griddle than too hot.

Lightly butter griddle, and pour ½ C batter onto griddle

Shake griddle lightly to spread batter, just a little

Allow pancake to cook until bubbles appear in batter.  If adding any other toppings, do so at this stage.

Flip and allow to cook till golden brown on both sides

If your pancakes are not cooked completely on the inside, let your griddle cool and try again. 

Serve hot with pure maple syrup on the side (as I prefer) or poured on top.

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes -- to make about 5 pancakes

           1 ripe banana, sliced into thin slices

           1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Follow buttermilk pancake recipe and place banana slices and chocolate chips on pancake, while the top of the pancake is cooking

Try to bury the chocolate chips in the uncooked batter, and using a spoon, spread a little of the unset batter to partially cover the bananas

Flip and cook till golden brown on both sides

Nectarine walnut pancakes -- to make about 5 pancakes

           2 ripe nectarines or plums, sliced into thin slices

           1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Follow buttermilk pancake recipe and place nectarine slices and walnuts on pancake, while the top of the pancake is cooking

Press down walnuts and nectarines slightly so that they are partially buried in the uncooked batter

Flip and cook till golden brown on both sides

Veggie Gyozas

Although I spent a large part of my childhood in Japan, my knowledge and appreciation of Japanese cuisine is quite rudimentary, as being a vegetarian was a serious limitation in terms of trying Japanese foods.  Luckily, my school would often offer vegetarian versions of classic Japanese dishes like Yaki-soba and Kare-rice.  However, apart from these, my options for eating out were limited to American style pizza and celebratory dinners at the Old Spaghetti Factory (yes, they have those in Japan).  Given the limited options and the prohibitive cost of eating out in Japan, my family simply ate in most of the time.  This wasn’t really a problem for me since my mom is an adventurous and stellar cook.  However, as I’ve gotten older and moved away from Japan, I’ve started to become more interested in adapting Japanese foods to my vegetarian platter.

So you can imagine my glee when one of my very best friends, who is Japanese, offered to teach me how to make vegetarian gyozas at home.  Ever since I learned to make these gyozas, or pot-stickers, a couple of years ago, they have become a staple part of our cuisine, especially for potlucks and get-togethers.  I have had many omnivores comment on how delicious these are and how they never thought that vegetarian potstickers could taste so good.  So, with many thanks to my BFF, I present to you her recipe handed down to me, for meatless veggie gyozas.  Don't be intimidated by the lengthy instructions on preparing these.  They are actually fairly simple to make and turn out looking nice and fancy, so go ahead and give it a try.

Ingredients

1 regular bok choy (not baby-sized), chopped into small pieces

4 crimini mushrooms, diced finely

1 small zucchini, diced finely

1 red pepper, diced finely

½ box extra firm tofu, drained and crumbled

6 pods garlic, finely minced

1 inch ginger root, peeled and finely minced

1 generous bunch of scallions, finely minced

4 T soy sauce

2 T Sriracha hot sauce (optional)

1 container of pot sticker wrappers, available at many grocery stores or at Asian markets

(these are round, not rectangular in shape)

The main players

To make

Mix all veggies, tofu, and sauces together in a large bowl.  The bok choy should be the most predominant veggie in this mix.

Allow it to sit at room temperature for about an hour so the flavor meld together, or refrigerate for longer storage

Now this next part is tricky to explain. 

Filling the gyozas

When ready to make gyozas, bring out veggies, a small cup with water in it, a towel to wipe your hands on, and the potsticker wrappers.

Hold a wrapper in the palm of your non-dominant hand and place a tablespoonful (approximately) of veggie filling in the center. 

Wet your finger in the water bowl and rim the upper half of the wrapper with a little bit of water.  This will help your gyozas remain closed once you wrap them.

Folding the gyozas

    Fold the lower half over the veggies to meet the top half and press down to form a semi-circle filled with veggies.  (This is the simple version for those who are unwilling to try making gyozas that actually look like gyozas.  These will be just as delicious, but not nearly as pretty).

OR

    As you fold the lower half to meet the upper half, pinch small pleats in the wrapper with the thumb and forefinger of your dominant hand. This will form the classic potsticker shape that you are after.

Repeat for all your wrappers, stacking them side by side on a lightly floured platter as you go along.

All wrapped and ready to cook

Cooking the gyozas

You will need a large flat-bottomed skilled with a lid, preferably one that is see-through

Add  2 T of vegetable oil to the skillet (more if your pan is not non-stick)

Once the oil is hot, line up your gyozas in the pan, so that the flat side is on the bottom, and the pleats are on top.

Sear gyozas until the bottoms form an even brown color

Add ½ C water to the hot skillet and immediately close with lid

Cook for about 4 minutes, or until the gyoza wrappers become translucent

If the water you added has cooked off and your gyozas are still opaque, add more water and close lid

Once you start being able to see your veggie filling through the wrapper, transfer gyozas to a platter

Serve hot or at room temperature with soy sauce

The finished product

Grilled Vegetable Tart

      For someone who loves to cook, I own very few cookbooks – three to be precise. 

       The most recent acquisition was one that caught my eye at the local bookstore, Powell's, on a rainy and otherwise boring Portland winter afternoon.  The moment I saw it sitting on a shelf, all new and glossy amongst its used book neighbors, I knew I was going to walk out of the shop with a new cookbook.  The book, that I’m waxing poetic about, is Plenty – celebrity UK chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s ode to fancified vegetarian cooking.  All the cookbooks that I have bought, I have bought for the pictures.  And this one is no exception.  Its pages are chock full of drool-worthy images of all manner of vegetarian foods, cooked up in innovative ways.  And luckily, I had the foresight to buy a version that lists ingredients in cups, rather than by weight.  My only complaint about the book is that the recipes don’t really lend themselves to cooking for a large crowd.  So recently, when I had over a small group of friends for a casual summer dinner in our garden, I decided to finally test-drive a couple of the recipes in the book.   

       I have to say, this cooking experience was a real joy, because for a change, I was following a recipe.  Since I had gone shopping earlier for some of the more exotic ingredients that I did not already have on hand, it was really fun throwing together familiar ingredients into a completely new dish.  For this summer meal, I cooked up Ottolenghi’s Very full tart as a substantial first course.  Ottolenghi qualifies this recipe as A fantastic Mediterranean feast, full to the brim with roasted vegetables.  This description is pretty spot on, except I would say that this tart is overflowing with roasted vegetables -- while assembling the pie, it was hard to believe that I could fit them all in.

The fancy recipe inspired this handblocked menu card -- you can see more of my designs at http://www.etsy.com/shop/5farthings

        This being the start of summer and all, I chose to grill my veggies outdoors, which gave them the added flavors that only grilling can impart.  However, if you follow the recipe from the book, you could simply roast all the veggies in the oven.  In fact, I think this recipe could easily be adapted for a hearty fall dish, bursting with various types of winter squash and dotted with a sharp cheese such as Roquefort.  Stay tuned for the fall version, I guess.
      But getting back to this tart, I think the dinner party was in agreement that the results were absolutely scrumptious.  If the rest of the recipes in this book are anywhere as good as this was, I highly recommend that you immediately trot over to your computer/book store, and order yourself a copy of this beautiful and delicious book, immediately.  And for those of you lucky enough to be in London, do check out one of Ottolenghi's many restaurants there, and leave a comment here for the rest of us to drool over.

Grilled vegetable tart – adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Very Full Tart, Plenty

Serves 8 as a first course and 4 as a main course

Ingredients

1 pie crust, either homemade or store-bought

1 red bell pepper and 1yellow bell pepper, diced into 2 inch chunks

1 medium eggplant, cut into 1 inch chunks

1 small sweet potato, diced into ½ inch pieces

1 small zucchini, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

6 T olive oil

10 sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped and coarsely chopped

1/3 C ricotta

4 oz. Feta

10 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 large eggs

1 C heavy cream

Toss together peppers, sweet potato and zucchini, half the thyme leaves, and 2 T of olive oil.  Salt to taste and grill on a hot grill until tender. 

Mix eggplant with 2 T olive oil, salt to taste, and grill until tender.

Mix sliced onions with 2 T oil, and grill until very lightly browned on both sides.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 450 deg F

Lightly grease a 9-inch loose-bottomed tart dish

Roll out pie crust dough to about 1/8 inch in thickness and of a diameter large enough to cover the inside of your tart tin, with a slight overhang over the rim

Lightly press in your dough into the tart tin, leaving a slight overhang on all sides

Cover with parchment, top with pie weights or dried bean, and blind bake pie crust for 30 minutes

Remove weights and paper and continue baking about 15 minutes more or until your crust is golden brown

Remove crust from oven and cool for about 10 minutes

While crust is cooling, beat together cream and eggs

Line bottom of crust with cooked onions

Scatter the rest of the grilled veggies evenly into the crust

Dot the pie with chunks of feta and ricotta

Gently pour the cream mixture into the remaining few crevices surrounding the veggies

Arrange the halved tomatoes on top, and press in very lightly

Sprinkle remaining thyme leaves on top

Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the pie filling has set and is golden brown

Cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting

I made this a few hours before serving and kept it warm in the oven until dinner.  Before serving, I warmed it up once more by heating under a foil for 10 minutes at 350 deg F.

Serve as a main course or a substantial first course, along with a tangy salad.

A weekend in Vancouver

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Vancouver, BC.  What an amazing city!  The weekend we were there was blessed with blinding sunshine.  I think that Vancouverites must be just as sun-starved as us Portlanders, because the streets and beaches were simply packed with sun-worshippers in skimpy costumes.  This allowed us to really indulge in our favorite activity -- people watching.

Another favorite activity that we indulged in was, of course, sampling the local eats.  Apart from an unfortunate falafel incident on the popular Denman Street, which left me questioning Vancouver's true food-cred, I have to say we had some pretty nice meals. 

The ice-creams around town were particularly yummy -- we especially liked the scoop of maple walnut at the end of our hike up to Prospect Point in Stanley Park.  Another meal at Adesso Bistro, a neighborhood Italian restaurant adjacent to our hotel boasting a small but excellent wine list, was also quite memorable -- and not just for the multiple digits on our final bill. 

There were also several excellent delicacies to gawk at and occassionally sample from at the Granville Island market, including unpasteurized cheeses (!!!), pains au chocolat at a French bakery, 'La bagueette et l'echallote', and juicy, plump lychees from the market.  These were all rendered especially tasty by the end of a 4 mile hike in the blazing sun to get from our hotel to the market itself.

Gawking at desserts at Granville Market

Granville Island Tea Company

Cheeses galore

Shiny steel cans holding infused oils

Juicy lychees

Cherries at the marketplace

But the most wonderful meal we had, hands-down, was at an unpretentious hole-in-the-wall restaurant on Broadway -- Peaceful Restaurant.  Granted, this may not really be a hole in the wall much longer, after it was recently featured on Food Network recently.  Indeed, while we were one of the first ones in this tiny restaurant, it quickly filled up and saw lines waiting for our table within a half hour of our arrival.  I first heard of this place while I was channel-surfing during a recent hotel stay and came across an interesting noodle-making video filmed at a local restaurant in Vancouver and featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-in's and Dives. As someone who has no cable TV at home, I wasn't very familiar with the show, but the panache and dexterity of the Chinese noodle-maker certainly left an impression.  In anticipation of a potential trip to Vancouver, I bookmarked the name of this restaurant in my head and located it once we go to Canada.

Vegetable dumplings

 The specialty of the place is their 'hand-dragged noodles'.  Since we got there just as it opened at 11 a.m., the smiley-faced chef was very indulgent when I asked to take photographs and even called me back to the kitchen to film him as he deftly converted a mass of dough into perfect strings of noodles, ready to be dropped into a vat of boiling water at the ready.   Part of the reason that we were there so early was that we had skipped breakfast in anticipation of our meal at  Peaceful Restaurant -- this turned out to be one of the few instances where it is in fact a great idea to skip breakfast. After perusing the extensive menu while sipping on hot oolong tea, we ordered Sichuan-style noodles featuring the hand-dragged noodles, as well as pan-fried vegetable dumplings.  The dumplings were by far the best I've ever had.  The slightly thick and chewy house-made wrappers were flecked with specks of scallion (I think) and filled with a piping hot flavorful mix of veggies served along side some vinegar with just a dash of soy.  Getting to the main course -- the noodles -- every mouthful was bursting with flavor and spice, quite reminiscent of 'Indian-Chinese' for those in the know, but far less greasy.  What set them apart, however, were the noodles that had just been prepared in front of our eyes.  The noodles were long and chewy, with just the right amount of bite to them -- in a word, amazing!  I would move to Vancouver just to be able to eat these noodles on a more regular basis!

Vegetarian Sichuan style noodles

Making the noodles

The proud chef

Since we only had two days in Vancouver, we didn't get a chance to see everything that we hoped to.  We will definitely return to this city to see the Sun Yat Sen Chinese classical gardens, stroll along English Bay beach again, and hopefully return to Peaceful Restaurant.

Vegetable Khichdi

They say that one always dreams in the language that one is most comfortable with -- their native language, so to say.  I've also heard it said that the language that one is most conversant is the one a person uses to do math and sums in their head.  I think a similar analogy applies to food.  A long while ago, I wrote a blog post for the American Society for Nutrition, entitled 'The Immigrant's Fridge."  Part of what I was saying in this article is that one of the last things to change in the assimilation process of an immigrant to a new culture is their diet.  For someone like me, who's had the privilege of having traveled widely and lived amidst various cultures, questions about self-identity can be hard to answer.  For instance, I cannot truly answer the question of which language is my native language, though I suspect that it is in fact English.  Certain other aspects -- such as what I consider to be an appropriate amount of personal space when speaking with someone -- are decidedly American.  But when it comes to food, perhaps my Indian identity has proved a bit more indelible.  Ultimately, on a rainy, cold, and grey day, when I start craving comfort food, the recipes that I most often resort to still tend to be Indian ones.  Familiar ingredients, cooked simply and quickly, with just a smattering of spice to satisfy my tastebuds.  As I sit here on such a cold, grey, and rainy day in Portland, I share with you one of my favorite comfort food recipes for you to try out.  I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Vegetable Khichdi 
(loosely translated as a vegetable porridge)

1 C cut vegetables, such as beans, carrots, peas, and corn
1 C short to medium grain rice, such as jasmine, washed
1/2 C moong daal*
Half a red onion, finely sliced
2 tsp ghee (clarified butter)*
1 tsp turmeric powder*
2 tsp cumin seeds *
1.5 T spice mixture
2 tsp salt

To make the spice mixture:

Grind equal amounts of cumin seeds and whole black pepper in a spice mill to a coarse consistency.  This spice mix is great on a variety of foods, including sliced cucumbers, tomato soup, and roasted potatoes.

To make Khichdi:

Pressure-cook vegetables, rice, and daal with 1.5 C water till rice and daal are very well cooked, usually about 6 whistles**
Allow cooker to cool completely
In the meantime, heat ghee, add cumin seeds and turmeric and sautee till seeds crackle
Add onions and sautee until they are translucent
Add rice/daal mixture and spice mixture
Mix well, sprinkling some water on top if needed to help spices mix into rice
Taste and adjust for salt

The final consistency of this dish should be like very thick oatmeal.  It is often served with either yogurt or an Indian style pickle*.  But it's most importantly always served piping hot!

Cook's Notes

* These are all available most easily at Indian grocery stores and sometimes at well-curated specialty markets.

**If you don't have a pressure cooker, a lot of Indian recipes are quite a bit more time-consuming.  In this case, I would suggest soaking the daal in hot water for about an hour, and then mixing it with the rice and veggies and cooking in a rice cooker or an open vessel until the daal is softened completely.  I also recommend investing in a good pressure cooker, as this is a great way to steam and cook foods quickly with minimal loss of nutrients.


To reheat, lightly sprinkle water and heat in microwave.  Alternatively, heat in a skillet, adding enough water to loosen up the rice and lentils.

Spicy tofu with golden beets and beet greens

Alas, my vacation has come to an end. Truth be told, it ended a while ago, but with a million things to catch up on at home and at work, I just haven’t had the time to devote to this space. Besides which, those of you who know me personally also know that I’ve been spending some time preparing and launching my Etsy store, Five Farthings, which is another one of my creative outlets, albeit unrelated to edible goodies.

Before we go any further, the results of the spice set giveaway are in, and the winners have been sent an email with instructions to receive their gift. Thank you all so much for the comments, and please keep them coming. Without your feedback, there simply is no reason for me to continue with this effort.

Although I haven’t been blogging a lot since I went on vacation, I have been cooking. In fact, spring is such a great time for foodies in general, because menus everywhere are chock-full of farm fresh ingredients that are predominantly vegetarian. Granted, I often don’t know what many of these items are. Rapini? Ramps? Crucolo? Thankfully, the Portland restaurant scene is laid back enough that my queries as to their identity are generally met with helpful explanations and only rarely with incredulous expressions at my ignorance.

So with this inspiration from local restaurant menus and joyful trips to the local farmers’ markets, I have also been keeping myself busy in the kitchen incorporating new ingredients into my platter. Here’s one such recipe, Spicy tofu with golden beets and beet greens, that made for quite a delicious new twist to our weekly tofu intake. The sweetness of the beets is nicely offset by the mild bitterness of the greens, and you’re left with the satisfaction of having used up an entire big bunch of beets -- greens and all. This was the first time I had cooked beet greens, and I will definitely be buying more of these as soon as possible. Are there any greens that you have lately tried and enjoyed? Do let me know, since I love experimenting with substitutes for good ole spinach.

The recipe

Spicy tofu with golden beets and beet greens

6 golden beets peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces
Leaves of 6 beets, chopped roughly
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2T sesame oil
1 package of extra firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 small bunch of scallions, minced
¼ C low sodium soy sauce
¼ C chili garlic sauce
1 T all-purpose flour dissolved in ¼ C cold water (optional)

Heat oil in a pan, and add garlic and beets. Sautee lightly.
Add tofu and allow to brown lightly on all sides
Add beet greens, in batches if necessary, and allow them to wilt
Add soy sauce and chili garlic sauce and cook on medium heat until beets are softened
Taste for salt and spice and add more soy or chili-garlic sauce, as needed

If using, add flour dissolved in water and cook for about 3-5 minutes.
Take off heat and garnish with scallions. Serve over hot steamed rice.

Cook's Notes: Given the sweetness of the beets, I thought this recipe could easily handle the amount of spice listed below, but feel free to scale it back to suit your tastes. I served this over a ½ and ½ mix of brown basmati rice with white jasmine rice cooked with 1.5 measures of water in a rice cooker. The fragrance and toothiness of this combination was just what I was after.

Eating vegetarian in Hong Kong

On our way home to India, the hubby and I took a slight detour to the charming islands of Hong Kong for a mini vacation before the real one. I really had no idea what to expect of Hong Kong. Since I'm on vacation, I'm in no frame of mind to regale you with stories of our enjoyable adventures in Hong Kong. Instead, I will just give you a pictorial tour of our forays into vegetarian eating on this cluster of islands in the South China Sea. The most memorable among these experiences were our visits to the many "wet markets" of Hong Kong to gawk at pickled eggs packed in dirt and the tiniest bok chois known to man...


...and of course the sumptuous all-vegetarian feast at Po Lin monastery on Lantau Island.




Hong Kong also boasts many bakeries and coffee shops that display beautifully decorated cakes in their windows. Unfortunately, the sight of a camera promptly results in a gruff "No photos" admonition in most of these bakeries, so please pardon the weird angles on some of the surreptitiously snapped pictures.



...and yes, the macarons craze has not spared Hong Kong either. The displays at this "Madeleine de Proust" shop in one of Kowloon's subway stations was so pretty. And for once, the sales person was more than happy for us to take pictures.



With that, I sign off with promises of more food pictures and stories from my extended vacation. Do keep the comments coming, as the giveaway is still on!