Pancakes for Dinner

There's nothing wrong with pancakes for dinner. You don't have to pretend they're crepes either. It's especially nice to have pancakes for dinner when the weather is hot and you're tired of eating salads.

Multi-grain pancake mix is a wonderful thing. I use Arrow Mills organic or Bob's Red Mill. Arrow has a grittier texture, probably due to more corn meal. I like both just fine.

I don't follow the package directions. I grew up eating my mom's very crepe-like pancakes made from scratch -- we never owned a single box of Bisquick or Aunt Jemima -- and so I know that proper ones include eggs as well as milk and oil. 

My recipe to make enough pancakes for two hungry adults plus leftovers for next day lunch or breakfast:

Beat 2 eggs, add 1/3 cup milk, a good splash of walnut oil. If you want a nice savory note, add either vanilla or almond extract, about a teaspoon.

Stir in at least 1 cup of the packaged mix. Here comes the tricky part! If you want thin cakes, which I never do, keep adding liquid until the texture is quite loose -- nearly as goopy as before you added the floury stuff. I like thicker cakes, because I like to add stuff into them, so I adjust liquid/mix to make a quite stiff batter.

Then I add the solid stuff we like. Verrrrrry thinly sliced bananas are excellent. Tiny wild blueberries, either fresh or frozen. Corn, either fresh or frozen, preferably white; grated corn will add more liquid to the batter, so make it extra-stiff if doing this. Theoretical additions: diced strawberries, chocolate chips, flaked coconut, anything not too chewy or crunchy. At least in my kitchen. Add at least 1 cup of solids, or you won't notice them. If adding corn? Really add corn. Lots of corn. Make these into corn fritters if you're going to add corn.

Butter or coconut oil are the only cooking fats I'll use for these, but do your thing your way. I like the butter just browned before I add the batter. Each cake should be about 2 tablespoons of batter, for ease of flipping and quickness of cooking. My 2 nonstick pans hold 5 and 6 cakes each, if I didn't goof up and make the batter too thin.

While side 1 is cooking, I can decide to sprinkle stuff on the uncooked side. Preferably sliced almonds, if there are bananas or berries in the mix. No need to toast them first, they'll toast nicely when you flip the cakes.

Is anything better than just butter and maple syrup for topping pancakes? Well, depends. For breakfast I'm happy with that, but for dinner I like more substance. Fruit is a wonderful thing. Whatever is in season and goes with the pancake theme works great. So berries with berries or bananas, or peaches with berries, whatever you like. Banana pancakes deserve some butterscotch sauce and clotted cream, Fosterizing them.

Corn pancakes/fritters go with pretty much anything, surprisingly. Last fall I mixed sauteed apples and fresh figs with butter and maple syrup. They were darned tasty. 

Sauteed apples with cinnamon & vanilla. Rum would be excellent too. 

Mascarpone is a wonderful, wonderful thing. It goes with everything. Everything, I tell you. 

Fresh strawberries and nectarines, in this case, over corn cakes.

I wanted pancakes but there wasn't much fresh fruit in the house last week. I did however have a pint of sour cherries I'd intended to pit and freeze. I thus discovered that cherry compote is a FABULOUS thing on corn and almond pancakes, especially with mascarpone.

And it's super easy to make, being essentially cherry pie filling. Pit cherries, put in small saucepan with a little water, 2 tsp cornstarch, 1/4 cup or so of sugar, and some almond extract. Simmer VERY gently until the cherries start to soften. Add more water if you added too much cornstarch. Add a little amaretto or, preferably, kirschwasser. Taste, add more sugar if needed. This is also a great topping for ice cream or cookies for desserts.

The nicest wine to enjoy with these pancake dinners is chilled Prosecco, dry and light and fruity and crisp. Vinho verde is good too. 

Fuente del RITMO

Finding a great new wine is always a thrill! The shop nearest my house now has a refrigerated walk-in room with all the white wines in stock, and for some strange reason I always feel more adventurous picking wine from there instead of the regular shelves. Maybe it's the idea that I could drink it right away...?

Discovered a Spanish white called "Fuente del Ritmo", Centro Espanola, La Mancha, 2012. Made from a grape I never heard of, Airen. I feel kind of silly about that. My explorations of Spanish wines clearly leave something to be desired, well beyond Tempranillo and Albarino!

It turned out the wine was absolutely perfect for a quick throw-together meal of green veggies, roasted potatoes and smoked trout fillets with capers. Another bottle went great with sashimi.

Cool, refreshing, semi-dry, full-bodied. The overwhelming flavors were tropical fruit -- lychee, pineapple -- with a strong peach element. Reminded me a bit of peach schnapps or a great Moscato! Nice acid on the back of the tongue too, which is why it was sooooo good with fish.

Imma buy MORE.

Oyster Bay Suavignon Blanc 2008

I've had the shock of my wine-drinking life! Thanks to spouse, we've made a thrilling discovery. He's been doing household paperwork and decided his thirst required a nice crisp white wine. (No remarks. He's macho as they come, but he's got a lotta depth. And he'll drink pretty much anything as long as it tastes good...lager, stout, suav blanc, zinfandel, rum, scotch, you get the idea.) Fortunately I had one chilling in the fridge: Oyster Bay Suavignon Blanc 2008, from New Zealand. I figured I'd save it for a nice dinner of fish and veggies, or chicken, or salad.

I had different plans for tonight's dinner: I had a couple bottles of beer chilling too. Because dinner was spicy black beans with sun-dried tomato chicken sausage, served with a polenta casserole.* Spicy black beans with Suavignon Blanc?!? Horrors! The wine could never withstand such an assault! Never!

Well, duh. Spouse was entirely right. The wine was delicious with the food. Better than even a lighter less tannic red wine would have been. Better than a Riesling or Gewurtztraminer? Dunno. Maybe. This is a rich, complex Suav Blanc: fruity, dry, flinty, but also spicy, nearly as aggressive as an unoaked Chardonnay. Sipping it alone it's just plain delicious. I'm impressed.

*Spicy black beans: saute chopped onion, chopped red pepper, chopped zucchini, sliced chicken sausage (Al Fresco All Natural brand, from the supermarket); add 1 can black beans, 1 chopped beefsteak tomato, 1 ear corn sliced off the cob; add spices salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, oregano, thyme, Penzey's Chili 9000 blend. Cook about 20 minutes total.
Polenta casserole (based on a 1997 Food & Wine Magazine recipe): chop & saute (in grapeseed oil) 1 small onion, 1 small red pepper, 1 yellow or green zucchini; cool slightly. Beat 2 eggs with 1-1/2 cup milk; add 3/4 cup cornmeal/polenta, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, salt, 1 tsp dry thyme. Combine with cooled veg. Pour into casserole dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Makes 4-5 servings.

Fishy Experiments

We tried fresh sturgeon last week. That is, I saw fresh sturgeon fillets at the fish counter at Agata & Valentinas, and decided it was high time I finally gave it a go. Being told the texture was dense and firm, similar to Chilean sea bass, and that it takes well to broiling, grilling, sauteing or roasting, I went with sauteing.

The first time I cook a "new" type of fish I try to keep it as simple as possible, so we can really taste the fish itself and not just the seasoning. So I used butter/olive oil as the cooking fat, and used only salt and pepper on the fish. The fillet was about 3/4 inch thick, and cooked up in the usual amount of time, less than 10 minutes.

As warned, the skin was rubbery and not appealing to eat. The flesh itself was not flaky, cooked texture very similar to tuna, firm and meaty. And it tasted a bit like tuna too, like yellowfin steaks cooked well done. Interesting. But no compusion for a repeat.

Then we tried Alaskan black cod fillet, which also was abundant in the fish dept. I know I cooked it at least once or twice before but couldn't remember the results, which probably says much. This is the fish that Japanese restaurants (Nobu first, I think) marinate in miso before grilling. I did the minimal-seasoning thing again, in butter/oil again, but I added a dash of Penzey's Sunny Paris seasoning. The skin and flesh both browned nicely. The flesh was amazingly light on the tongue, like sole or turbot, and quite tasty. I'll use less oil next time...

Local wine store's March sales include Notro 2007 Torrontes, a lovely white wine from Argentina. The label boasts pairing with salads, light fish dishes, and spicy Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine. They're right! Excellent with all the white fishes we've been eating. And with sushi too. REALLY good with sushi.

Please note: Penzeys Spices ROCK. I miss Ariana's Caravan being the spice merchant of Grand Central's food market, but Penzey's is totally cool too. I have never in my life used pre-blended seasonings other than Herbs de Provence or curry powder, feeling they were somehow cheating. And yes, pre-mixed curry powder is not subtle and I really only use it on a few vegs like buttered corn, when I'm too lazy to make my own mix for a small quantity. But Sunny Paris is completely addictive, utterly delicious, and I never would've thought of it myself. Contains purple shallots, chives, green peppercorn, basil, tarragon, chervil, bay leaf and dill weed. Smells a bit sharp in the bottle, but once it hits the warmth of the pan it transforms and blossoms into come-hither yumminess perfect on fish, chicken, veggies, mashed potatoes and eggs. The price is pretty steep but a little goes a long way. Entirely worth it.

50 American Wines

This article is a must-read for wine-drinkers. How close have I come to multi-state wine experiences? I regularly drink California, Oregon and Washington State wines, and now and then New York state rieslings and dessert wines from the Finger Lakes region. I've had Long Island wine too, but I won't rush into that. I might've had a bottle of white wine from Virginia once, but with my aging failing memory can't swear to that. (And looky, I took the trouble of looking up Gary V's book and website, as his recommendations tend to rock.)

Beer, now that's another story! I've had local brew in every state I've ever visited other than Kentucky. I've drunk beers from all the favored microbrew regions. As much as I love the idea of expanding America's wine industry past the usual suspects, maybe Kentucky should stick to bourbon and New England should stick with IPAs.

Inkberry Shiraz Cabernet 2006

This blend of 60% Shiraz 40% Cabernet Sauvignon is exactly as advertised. Intense dark color? Yes. Deep rich flavors? Yes.

Like most reds, the wine needs to sit in the glass at least a few minutes to breathe. The aroma remains full and fruity with overtones of leather. The flavor improves, the tannins soften, the fruit comes forward and the spicy notes envelop your tongue. The blend carries the best characteristics of both grapes. Definitely a Drink Again selection, especially at less than $10.

We drank this with massive slices of rare rib roast. There is no easier thing to roast. I coated the 2-bone, 4 pound roast in olive oil mixed with kosher salt, black pepper, thyme and Herbes de Provence. The wee adorable Butterball potatoes sharing the pan were coated in more of the same. 20 minutes at 450, 50 minutes at 400, 15 minutes resting. Carve. I made sides of boiled and buttered brussels sprouts, and some pan-fried white mushrooms. We also had the leftover green beans, turnips and stuffing from yesterday's wonderful meal at Spouse's cousins.

The delicious sweet potatoes with candied pecan-praline topping that another cousin made is, however, dessert instead. Warmed a bit in the microwave, eaten with whipped cream. Nom.

Megapanos Savatiano 2006

Regional wine of Spata. "Renowned grape variety of Mesoghea." "All dishes of Mediterranean cuisine."
Greek wines rock. This one is new to me, a cut above the usual fairly bland Demestica and Botari offerings. The color in the glass is a rich honey-gold. The bouquet, and the taste, reminds me strongly of the strong syrupy dessert wine served in thimble glasses by my fave Med UWS restaurant. This is far drier, but just as luscious and yummy. The scent is leather, honey, a hint of strong bitter apple cider, nearly like a really good aged mead. The taste builds on that impression. The finish is floral and spicy.
This would be my choice to replace the ubiquitous chardonnay in aperitif glasses. Love.

Three White Wines

Gaujal de Saint Bon Picpoul Cuvee Dames 2006, Coteaux du Languedoc
The bottle is pretty, first of all, deep green of shape reminiscent of reisling, with elegant ring at the base and ocean waves around the neck, a celtic cross embossed above the label. I'll admit the bottle was one reason I picked up this wine in the first place, that and the price ($11 at Best Cellars), and the store's enticing description.
The wine is delicious, fresh, summery, crisp. I really don't test the temperature when I serve chilled wine, either it's cold or not, but this wine does want to be cold. Per the recommendation in the links I found, next time we'll try it after it's breathed a bit.
We've had it with fish, chicken, vegetables, and it's always appropriate.
I have to confess I like the wine's story too. Wine making ladies!

Espiral Vinho Verde
Is vinho verde worth contemplating? Heck yes. Some of it is just grape-juicy water, and insipid. This stuff is not. It is dirt cheap, a Trader Joe special, and so we were excited to try it just for the price. It is in fact very tasty, bubbly, fresh, light, and exactly what one wants of this type of wine. The only other VV we like as much is the blue-lace label one who's name escapes me, but for some reason this summer it was not stocked in my local UES wine shops. Boo.

Santa Julia Chardonnay Organica 2008 Familia Zuccardi
I dislike oaky chardonnay. It's more an endurance feat than an enjoyable glass of wine. So I'm always hunting fresher chardonnays to pair with roast chicken and sometimes salmon, as the richness of those foods just cries for a rich wine complement.
This Argentine offering emphasizes the tropical fruitiness of good chardonnay, instead of burying it in an oak coffin. And it's organic! Woot! The label suggests seafood, grilled mushrooms, chicken or salads as partners. I'd agree with that.

Rheingau 2005 Pinot Noir Edition Maximillian

Our friends poured us this wine, and after we sipped and said "Nice! Very nice!" they said they bought it at Trader Joes for about $6, and oh by the way it's German. As one of these friends grew up with a family Rhiesling vineyard in Germany, he knows a thing or two. Not only is this pinot noir very nice to drink compared to most red wines in this price range, as he said, "for a German red wine it's amazing you can drink it at all!"

While it's not successful as a pinot noir compared to highfalutin' pinot noirs that go for $25 or more, it certainly beats every other bottle I've had in the $15 or less range. There is nothing complicated about this wine. It has no tannins whatsoever. It's rich, sweet, grapey and at 11.5% alcohol very very easy to drink. Very very very easy. Yum.

Domaine des Cassagnoles white wine

Domaine des Cassagnoles 2007, Vin du Pays des Cotes de Gascogne.

Nice for a late-summer sushi dinner. Fragrant of lemons, reminiscent of a nice minerally suav blanc. I noticed a lemon/lime zest finish. Crisp. Dry. Yummy. A very likeable wine overall, perfect for seafood or salad, light cheeses and fruit, or even sipping. And a screw-top to boot. And I paid only $11 for it. Happy.

Vina Aljibes Rosado 2006

Another intriguing Spanish rosado came to our table tonight. Vina Aljibes, "vino de la tierra de Castilla" looks elegant with its silver label trappings, and provides surprises in the glass. "Obtained from our best Syrah grapes, this rose is produced using a low temperature fermentation process." I've had Syrah-based roses before and quite liked them, so here goes.

First off the color is not the typical rosy pink of a rose or rosado. It's dark in the clear bottle and in the glass, the color of mixed fruit juice like a cherry-cranberry mix. The bouquet is rich, fruity, spicy. Chilled, the flavor is dry and spicy, very distinctly mingled cherry, black-currant and blackberry, but not jammy like a full Syrah or sugary like some roses. I think there's some black-pepper notes too.

Spouse thinks it would go very very well with lamb but might overwhelm beef unless it's richly sauced! (I'd rather have a red with beef, hands down.) Also he suggested glazed ham and chicken mole, but not any plainer version of chicken. And veal stew or veal parmesan, richly seasoned, would work well. Perhaps a rich vegetarian curry, or one of my fave pasta/bean/bacon dishes. Definite no to fish or seafood. I think tomatoes would clash, but Spouse disagrees. We'll have to try.

We drank this with irresistible pork chops I found on sale, very simply browned on both sides in olive oil with salt, black pepper and oregano crust. The key to really tasty pork chops is to get that fat well-browned, if only on one side. Sides of organic broccoli, organic golden haricots vert, final sugar snap peas of the season (what kind of microclimate does that one Greenmarket farm have, for heavens sake?? all the other ss-peas were gnarly and looked inedible) and an heirloom striped/ridged zucchini sauteed in the pork drippings with sliced red pepper and Vidalia onion. To follow, a peach/white peach/raspberry/blackberry pie.

Rose Rioja #1: Aradon Rosado

A pleasant discovery! The label was plastered with 2005 silver medals, the 2004 vintage bottle was less than $12, it's summer, I love Spanish rosado wines, I chilled it tonight to eat with leftover Indian food. What a good idea that was.

The color is beautiful, a rich pale scarlet. Chilled, the bouquet is rich and fruity rather than floral, worthy of a full red Rioja. Spouse's first sip made him think, "Hemp???" and then "Hops???" Fuggles hops, not Cascade. Mine made me think plum, raisin, white pepper, with sharpness appropriate to a rosado. It's spicy on the tongue, and lingers well with berry overtones.

Loved it with our Indian meal. As Uber Queen of leftovers, I have set ways of handling certain ones. Our favorite takeout makes combo meals of appetizer/entree. We ate the ka-choris and all the Malai koftas and one carton of rice and most of the saag panir Friday. An hour ago the 2 potato samosas and their spicy chickpea sauce were chopped up and heated in the same pan as the second carton of rice; a roll-cut zucchini and handful of frozen haricots vert were heated with the remaining saag. Thick fresh-made Greek yogurt (from the neighborhood Greek grocers) mixed with honey, salt, black pepper and cumin makes terrific quick raita.

It was 93 freakin' degrees outside today but never got warmer than 81 in the house, even without using the a/c. We braved the heat and brought towels & sheets to a cat rescue team, found wonderful vintage porcelain cups and some wacky Time-Life books at a church street fair, went home to recover, then did Street Fair Safari on First Avenue to bag Copa soaps for both of us, a non-fruity carry bag for Spouse's cell phone and Moleskin notebook, black socks for Spouse (born and bred in NYC, he cannot imagine buying socks in a normal store), and a couple of bargain phalaenopsis orchids for me. Lunched at the Barking Dog, where truly excellent french fries are just an everyday pleasure. Came home and vigorously attacked the sloppy bagfuls of yarn stash lurking by the bedroom a/c...wrestled it into submission, forced into the large wood cabinet! Discarded several battered shopping bags, uncovered a few skeins I'd been hunting to no avail, returned missing knitting needles to the jar. Knitted more stuff for a friend's baby trousseau. A good day. A good day.

Tasty tasty rioja

We drank another bottle of 2006 Sierra Cantabria last night.

I first started buying it maybe seven or eight years ago, from one of my local wine shops. Imagine our surprise and delight that several of our friends also knew about it. One of them, possessing a formidable palate for all things beer, wine and liquorish, had already discovered that for a red wine it took readily to light chilling! Predictably the flavor was quite different, but not diminished as with most chilled reds (other than lambrusco).

Unchilled, the bouquet was a glorious mix of roses, violets and raspberries; drinking it leaves tantalizing memories of those scents on your tongue, with the softest of tannins and just a hint of sweetness. Chilled, the sweetness is less noticable but the fragrances were still there. A great sipping red. Great with steak or pork or pretty much anything at all.

Then Wine Spectator did a huge feature on Spanish red wines, and to my dismay they gave Sierra Cantabria mega-points. And of course the wine vanished from my local shops. There were still a couple of shops selling it here and there in NYC but at higher prices, and mostly more recent vintages. My local guy figured the wine was being snapped up by restaurants.

The buzz must be over. The wine is back in my local wine shops. I am however a bit surprised at the vintages being so recent for a good rioja. We drink plenty of red wines fairly young, as they're meant to be drunk, but I'm used to seeing riojas at least 4 or 5 years old. Never mind. I've been buying it, and we've been loving it again.

Last night it went great with comfort food, fresh green linguine topped with the world's easiest meat sauce: 1/2 lb ground pork and a package of chopped cremini mushrooms, browned in olive oil with oregano and black pepper, mixed with a pint of Agata & Valentina's Pomodoro Sauce. Heaven.