In the spirit of all things Fritter way back in December we
chose three very different fitter recipes. Jacquie was a good girl and posted
hers ages ago. Finally, I am reporting back…
I invited my common law father-in-law, Dave for lunch one
dreary Wednesday. I hoped to wow him with these spinachy treats made all the
more cheffy-sounding with the addition of lime butter. These are a savoury,
gourmet version of a stack of American pancakes with maple syrup.
The lime butter is quite easy, to put together, except our
studio is so cold that the butter that I left out overnight was no softer than
the butter in the fridge. An easy way to make flavoured butters with butter
that you forgot to leave out to soften is to grate the required amount of
butter with a fine grater such as one for Parmesan cheese. Microplane does a
most excellent one. The lime juice and zest and the chilli flakes add a lovely
piquancy to this butter that is great to use for other dishes, to sauté
vegetables in or, as my pal Yotam suggests, smeared on a baked sweet potato.
Yum.
I was running late (surprise, surprise) so there was no time
to wait for the spinach to cool after it was wilted. I almost scalded my hands squeezing
out the liquid. But this is a very important step otherwise the pancake mixture
will be runny and less flavourful. Perhaps I would wilt the spinach first so
that it has a chance to cool while I muck around with the lime butter.
The most onerous part of the recipes is whisking the egg
white and gently folding it into the batter so that the pancakes are light and
fluffy. No hardship at all.
I fried the pancakes on my tawa, designed for making
chapatis and perfect for pancakes.
I followed the suggestion of serving them with grilled halloumi. I also
made a delicious salad of roasted cubes of butternut squash with toasted
pumpkin seeds, and pomegranate on watercress, rocket and mâche with an olive
oil and pomegranate molasses dressing as well as olives, tomato chutney and
bread. It was a lovely meal all washed down with homemade elderflower cordial.
(I made 24 litres this summer – my best batch ever!)
These pancakes were nice enough, light and fluffy and not
too naughty (until you add the lime butter!) Not sure how easy they would be to
veganise as the eggs are central to the recipe. But I would not bother as the
vegan sweet potato cakes are soooo delicious even without smothering them in
the yoghurt sauce. The leek fritters are ace too. Perhaps my green pancakes
could be vepped up with a bit of goat’s cheese…
