Saturday 4 September 2010

Green Pancakes with Lime Butter


As part of the Cookbook of the Month feature for September, here is the first recipe I'd like to share with you from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. This is a delicious weekend brunch recipe. I really wanted to make this for breakfast this morning, however, because I had to work today I decided to make it for dinner instead.. a bit strange, I know!

These pancakes are packed with veggies and flavour and here is what Ottolenghi has to say about them:

This recipe brought lots of compliments round my way after I first published it in 2008. I guess these pancakes are so comforting they somehow take you back to your childhood, when the joy of textures and flavours is still pure and unadulterated. Brunch is an ideal meal for them, served with a salad of seasonal leaves and possibly also a slice of freshly grilled haloumi or a piece of smoked fish.

Green Pancakes with Lime Butter
Serves 3-4

250g spinach, washed
110g self raising flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 free range egg
50g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
150ml milk
6 medium spring onione (100g in total), finely sliced
2 fresh green chillies, thinly sliced*
1 free range egg white
oilive oil for frying
* I deseeded mine

Lime Butter
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
grated zest of 1 lime
1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp chopped coriander
1/2 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/4 tsp chilli flakes


First, make the lime butter. Put the butter in a medium bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until it turns soft and creamy. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Tip everything out on to a sheet of clingfilm and roll into a sausage shape. Twist the ends to seal the flavoured butter. Chill until firm.

Wilt the spinach in a pan with a splash of water. Drain in a sieve and, when cool, queeze hard with your hands to remove as much moisture as possible. Roughly chop and put aside.

For the pancake batter, put the flour, baking powder, whole egg, melted butter, salt, cumin and milk in a mixing bowl, and whisk until smooth. Add the sping onion, chillies and spinach and mix with a fork. Whisk the egg white to soft peaks and carefully fold it in to the batter.



Pour a small amount of oil into a heavy frying pan and place on medium-high heat. For each pancake, ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan and press down gently. You should get smallish pancakes, about 7cm in diameter and 1cm thick. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side, until you get a good golden-green colour. Transfer to kichen paper and keep warm. Continue making pancakes, adding oil to the pan as needed, until the batter is used up.


To serve, pile up three pancakes per person and place a slice of flavoured butter on top to melt.


Stay tuned for more from the Cookbook of the Month!

Ladybird x

5 comments:

  1. Cookbook of the Month is a brilliant idea!
    These green pancakes are a grand beginning: they look awesome! I am looking forward to the next posts!! (I must confess that I had never heard of Yotam Ottolenghi before...)

    ReplyDelete
  2. These look really crispy and delicious!! And the lime butter looks so good....I'll have to try these one day!! I love this cookbook of the month idea =) Makes me sorta want to go out and buy this book!

    ReplyDelete
  3. They look really good! And that butter on top looks like the perfect touch.

    Rose

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm totally down with the idea of having these for dinner. You've made them beautifully, they look damn good!

    ReplyDelete
  5. omg I am so making these tomorrow !

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails