Peach and Walnut Buttermilk Pancakes

Sometimes you just want good old fashioned traditional food. When that happens to me, if it is not a craving for garlic bread, it will be for pancakes. Buttermilk pancakes, of course. With some fruit in them. Blueberries are divine, of course. But so are peaches and nectarines, both of which are in abundance this time of year here in Southern California. These pancakes just makes me think of camping with my parents in Maine. I don't know why, because that was blueberry pancakes. Wild blueberries, to be precise. But maybe it's the comfort of a great space, seriously good maple syrup, and family. Pancakes are just not something to be made for one. That's the beauty of them. Making pancakes always means there are people around to share your morning cup of coffee with.


Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 large peach, diced small
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Butter as needed
Maple Syrup


Directions
In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the peaches and walnuts to this bowl and toss to coat. In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients. Pour wet into dry, stirring just enough to blend.

Heat a heavy pan over medium heat. Once the pan is warm enough that water simmers when splattered on the pan, melt 1/2 teaspoon of butter into the pan and spread to coat the surface. By the 1/4 cup full, pour the pancake batter onto the pan. I could do 2 at a time in my skillet. Once bubbles start to form in the center of the pancakes and the edges have solid rims, flip. (You might have to adjust the heat as you go, if the bottoms get to dark before bubbles form - every stove and pan combination is different.) Repeat until all the batter is used up (you can use less butter each time).

If I'm not going to eat them immediately (I'm cooking them all first and then serving the pancakes all at once) I heat the oven to 200 and put a plate inside that I place the pancakes on as the next round cooks.

Serve with maple syrup or a sprinkling of brown sugar.

Vegetarian Pho

Around here, Pho is something you get for lunch or dinner. Apparently it's meant to be a breakfast food. The things you learn. I had no idea! I started snooping around for the origins of Pho, and I didn't find much, except that although it is Vietnamese, it carries with it distinct French and Chinese influences. One of the main cross-cultural features is the french onion soup tradition of charring the onions to both add a sweet flavor and brown color to the broth, something that is different than other Asian noodle soups. Also, the name Pho, though no one seems to know where it came from exactly, could quite possibly be french. Pho as in 'feu' (fire, from pot-au-feu), pronounced almost identically.

So, with this new knowledge I decided to take on the challenge of making Pho. The soup as a whole is easy, rice noodles that just need to be soaked, gently steamed or sauteed vegetables, lots of lime and chile garlic sauces that can regularly be found in my fridge. The base - and hard part - is the broth. The important detail seems to be the charring of onions, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and star anise. As garnish, the mint, basil, and lime were frequent ingredients. The rest all varied by recipe. I'm sure this is not properly traditional, but what I put together sure made me very very happy.

Being a breakfast food, I decided to add egg. I did that japanese style with a sliced omelet. I need to look up if that's normally an option in Pho for breakfast or if that is simply me blending my food cultures.


Ingredients
(for 2)

For Broth:
1 sweet onion, quartered
4 garlic cloves, whole
4 star anise pods
4 cloves
4 green onions, cleaned
1 cinnamon stick
1 one inch fat piece of ginger, thickly sliced
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp fish sauce
4 cups water or mild vegetable broth (here I didn't use my normal boullion since it is herbed)

For Soup:
rice noodles (one handful per person)
2 tsp grapeseed oil
2 eggs
2 tbsp scalllions, chopped
1 zucchini thinly sliced
1 carrot thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped bitter green (like dandelion green)
1/4 cup basil and mint leaves, fresh
1 lime, sliced into quarters
bean sprouts (I didn't have any but I would use them next time)
chili paste, such as sriracha

Directions
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Place the rice noodles in a metal or ceramic bowl and pour the boiling water over them. Let sit for 15 minutes (or less, following the instructions on your noodle package). Drain.


In a thick bottomed medium pan, char the first 7 broth ingredients over medium high heat, stirring occasionally as they turn dark brown, about 5 minutes. Once well charred, add the remaining broth ingredients, bring to a boil and then turn the broth down to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Strain solids out of broth (tossing the solids, keeping the liquid - some mornings I need this spelled out for me!).


While the broth is simmering, make the omelet. Heat 1 tsp oil in an omelet skillet over medium high heat. Add scallions and gently wilt for 30 seconds. In a bowl, whisk eggs together and then pour over the scallions. Cook for 2 minutes until the edges become solid enough to put a spatula below. Flip over and cook top half for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and slice into 1cm thick slices.


Take the carrots and zucchini and saute in 1 tsp oil until they begin to get tender. Remove from heat.


Assemble the soup. Place noodles in the bottom of 2 large bowls. Spoon broth over the noodles. Portion out the remaining ingredients between the two bowls, laying each in their own section above the noodles. Squirt lime juice and chili paste over top.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

I woke up way to early this morning after a night of poor slept. In my haze, I tried to figure out what to do with myself so that I could either jump start my system or put me back to sleep. As I stared at my fridge looking for an early morning snack to get things going, all I really could see in there were veggies. Specifically, zucchini. lots and lots of zucchini. So, to zucchini bread it was. Or, did I want chocolate zucchini cake? I couldn't decide. In the end, I decided to take the cocoa powder and add it to the bread (as well as some cocoa nibs, since I had them but no chocolate chips in my pantry).

Some of the best loaves I've ever made emerged from my oven. The zucchini was bright green specks in caramel colored loaves. The chocolate was a balancing accent to the zucchini; tastable but in no way overpowering. This recipe needed to be written down. I sure hope I can repeat it.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup whole wheat white flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup ground flax seed

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground clove
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

3 cups grated zucchini

1/2-1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/4 cup cocoa nibs (optional)

3 eggs

2/3 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup yogurt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter and flour 2 bread pans.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Stir in the zucchini until it is well coated and mixed in.

Stir in the optional ingredients and mix well.

Mix together the wet ingredients and add to dry, mixing just enough to moisten everything.

Scoop into the bread pans.

Bake 50-60 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Lemon Blueberry Whole Grain Scones

I made these scones this morning out of a craving for scones and a desire to give a couple as gifts. I like doing scones in the morning because they take 10 minutes to prepare and can bake in the oven while I shower and get dressed. And then I’m greeted with wonderful smells and warm baked-goodness.

It’s always risky business to bake so early in the morning, especially when I decide to mix three recipes and didn’t pay attention to the fact that the one who’s fat/oil content I was following had only 2 T of butter because it called for 4 T cream cheese. I had been so excited for the 2T of butter, since I had only 3 sitting in my fridge. So I had to improvise. Hence the ice cream. Which was my favorite brand – worth every penny: stonyfield farm vanilla bean ice cream. They turned out so well that I think I will have to use ice cream every time! The perfect texture for me: not too cakey yet perfectly moist. The perfect flavor – not to sweet or sour. Just right. I hope, if you follow this recipe, they come out the same for you!

Ingredients:
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (the thicker the better)
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup dried blueberries

1/4 cup rounded scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. This can be cream cheese or double cream or more butter.

3 Tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup plain yogurt (can be non-fat)

juice and zest of one meyer lemon. Make sure it is a juicy one and you get all the good bits. Make it two if it seems dry.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the dried blueberries and keep mixing.
Mix the wet together in a separate bowl. Add wet to dry and stir until just moist.

Turn over onto counter and shape into two disks, about 1 inch thick. Cut each disk into 6 triangles.

Place on a baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes.
And voila!