A Pancake Breakfast

Guys, last week I had a huge yen for pancakes. Not the instant ones where you just add water, but the old school, made from scratch kind that I love doing. Only thing was, at the time I didn’t have a single egg in the house. Thankfully, I do now. *grins like a Cheshire cat*

This particular pancake recipe has been shared with many of my friends and work buddies over the years, and I remember one special Valentine’s Day breakfast in particular (at my former place of work) where I made over 45 pancakes. You see, we had decided to stage a special Valentine’s Day brunch and among the menu items were my cinnamon pancakes and syrup, scrambled eggs, toast, turkey bacon, cheese and other little titbits. Took me a couple hours, but it was worth it a million times over to see everybody enjoy our collective spread.

Today, with all my chicks in the nest, the vibe was just right. So, I surprised the homestead by whipping up some of my tried and true cinnamon pancakes. Did some scrambled eggs and sausage too…

The party began with 1 cup of sifted all purpose flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. Next, I melted 1 teaspoon of butter in the microwave (but you can also use a teaspoon of vegetable oil in a pinch). I also cracked open an egg and poured out a cup of milk.

To mix, I simply dropped the egg and milk into the flour and mixed those up with my whisk. Then, I added the melted butter slowly while gently stirring everything together until I got this smooth, pourable batter. (No need to beat it like crazy, trust me.)

Next, ¼ cup of brown sugar gets sprinkled on and whisked in gently, and then a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg entered the dance. Whisked that in and boom, batter was done… or so I thought. I just needed to stir in a tablespoon more of milk to ‘loosen’ the batter up a bit.

My special little non-stick frying pan was placed on a medium low flame. I had previously cut up some tiny pats of butter to cook the pancakes, so when the pan was hot, I added one and let it bubble, then I poured in just a ¼ cup of the batter. Now, my trick to get a round pancake every time is simple; just pour the batter in the centre of the pan and it will spread out by itself without you having to tilt or shake the pan.

Once poured, I kept a close eye on the pancake as it cooked. Little bubbles began forming on the surface and the edges started to firm up. That’s when the pancake tells you it is ready to be flipped (which I did with my trusty spatula).

The underside cooked up in a matter of seconds.

All I needed to do was just slide it off to the plate and repeat the process until all my batter was used up. (Kept my rubber spatula handy to scrape up those last bits of batter as well.)

Voila! My pancake breakfast is complete with some scrambled eggs and cooked sausages. Deeeeelish!

All in all, I got about nine regular sized pancakes (plus the teeny little ‘baby’ you saw on my plate). The strange thing was that no-one requested any pancake syrup. My daughter said simply, “Don’t need it, the eggs have plenty flavour!” Not too long afterward the house just got really quiet, which meant one thing… the "itis" had kicked in.

Felt really good about that, hahahahaa!

So, thus ended my pancake adventure, which I hope to repeat again soon. Til my next kitchen foray, take good care of yourselves, and like I always say… doh forget to mind the pot.

Love and hugs!

Hazel's Sweet Hand...

It’s always good when college girlfriends can get together and reminisce over some good food, isn’t it? 

My girl Hazel and I have been doing the reminiscing part each month-end when we meet to go grocery shopping, so you can imagine how excited I was when she invited me over to spend the weekend with her and her family in San Juan recently.

“Don’t worry about food; I handling yuh!” she had said with a smile. My excitement grew when she mentioned that our menu would include something I hadn’t tasted in a long time… cow heel soup.

Now many Trinis love their cow heel soup with lots of provisions such as green bananas, dasheen and flour dumplings, but not us. Hazel’s cow heel soup was all about the spicy liquid and long before my arrival, the soup was already in production in her slow cooker, and the smell was intoxicating. Her recipe is secret, but I do know that carrots, potatoes, split peas, seasonings and some canned corn all had a delicious role to play in that pot.

And yes, I had to include a pic of said pot, hahaha!

I'm not ashamed to say that this was my bowl. It's so biiiiiiiig!

"Wait... did you just take my picture?"
(Everyone, meet my girl Hazel!)

And meet her bowl of cow heel soup too, lol!

The next morning, breakfast was a True Trini classic, bread and some tasty saltfish buljol studded with sweet onions and tomatoes, served with some sliced hard-boiled eggs on the side. 

We washed it all down with some orange carrot juice. There were a few zabocas (avocadoes) on the table as well, but they weren’t ripe yet.

(But just imagine that they were and smile at the thought… mmmmm…)

Instinctively, I reached for the butter bread and ladled on the salty goodness and topped them with the slices of egg. For the finishing touch, a sprinkle of pepper sauce which complemented everything perfectly. 

Later in the day, my girl picked some pommecythere (golden apples) from the tree outside her house, peeled them and produced a hot and delicious chow in no time with just the right amounts of garlic, hot peppers, chadon beni and salt.

I don’t have to tell you that by the time I spun around, the bowl of chow had
dwindled to just one lonely tenant.

My girl said, “No problem. He will go in the pepper sauce I'm making,” and coolly grabbed him and began to cut him up to put in her blender of garlic, chopped hot peppers, vinegar – and a couple other secret ingredients!

Sistren even hooked me up with a bottle as a lovely parting gift! Yaaaaay! :-D

My fellow foodies, it's easy to see that I had a great time chilling with my homegirl. Everything she prepared was so delicious, and I was truly happy to share her kitchen. Of course, I'll never forget the taste of her cow heel soup. She even laughed when I told her that with the first taste of her soup, I heard angels singing. (It's true!)

So, I'd like to say thanks for checking out my new posting, and Hazel girl, keep massaging that sweet hand of yours. 

And, like I always say, don’t forget to mind the pot!

Strawberry Jammin'!

Hi everyone! I’m back again, and I have definitely missed posting my food adventures. As you can see, I’ve changed my layout a bit and embraced more of a minimalist slant. Hope you like it too!

 

Well, I’ve just finished having a very interesting tea that included toast and strawberry jam. Not store bought, mind you, but my own home made version. Kinda strange, right? I mean, being Trini, we all know about guava jam, sorrel jam, mango jam... traffic jam… Even Granny used to make a wicked guava jam back in the day, and it went deliciously well with her home made bread. 

However, this strawberry adventure began when I received some delicious strawberries from my friends at Market Movers (Thanks guys!). My intent was to bake them into something equally delicious, but after washing them and seeing them looking all deliciously red and plump, the vaps came and kicked me hard to make some jam.

Mind you, I hadn’t made jam in “donkey” years, but like riding a bike, I never forgot how.

So, I carefully washed these lovely fresh, firm strawberries, removed the tops and cut them into fours.

I measured exactly four cups of the fruit. You can see there were a few half ripe ones in there, but that’s fine. (By the way, I also put a saucer in the freezer… you’ll see why later.)

Transferred the strawberries to my cooking pot. Next I added in some lime zest, the juice of half the lime and a cup of sugar.

Put my flame on medium high and watched it closely as it came to a foamy boil. Once it started bubbling away, I began stirring. You see, the thing with jam is that you have to keep your eye on it and stir it constantly. It’s not one of those things that you can walk away from once you start. Jam can burn in the blink of an eye. Trust me.

After about 8 to ten minutes of stirring the contents while at a rolling boil, the strawberries were nice and soft, but not falling apart. So, I took my potato masher and gently crushed them. Because I like my jam chunky, I only did it a few times before giving the mix a quick stir with the masher to release any stuck on fruit.

Next came the skimming part. This is where I removed the foam from the top of the jam – it gets rid of impurities and the end product doesn’t get those strange looking white streaks when you bottle it. After skimming and stirring some more…

I put in a teaspoon of vanilla essence and kept that jam moving with the flame on medium. By now, the entire house was smelling sweet and deliciously cosy… mmmm...

Remember the saucer in the freezer? That’s my tester. I took it out and put a little blob of jam on it and left it for a bit. Poked it with my finger and… it wasn’t setting. Solution? 

Let it cook some more. Upped the fire slightly and stirred it for all I was worth for nearly five minutes. Soon, the jam thickened up considerably and actually looked like what it was supposed to be (on my toast).

One more test with the plate. This time another blob went down and I ran my finger through it. The blob stayed separate, telling me it was at the setting point. I was definitely there. 

So, I turned off the flame and let it cool for a couple of hours and then poured it into a clean, sterilized bottle.

And there you have it. Strawberry Jam.

I really had fun making this, and the texture was just how I wanted it, with the pieces of fruit easily seen (and enjoyed). This amount (roughly 2 ¼ cups) should last me about a couple of months; of course, I keep mine refrigerated, but it’s not really necessary once your bottles are clean and sterilized. (See, I recycled too, hahahaa!)

And so, another fun food adventure comes to an end. Look forward to my next one soon, and until then… doh forget to mind the pot! :-)