Five Minutes Later, Pancakes

Sometimes, you get a craving for a totally inappropriate thing, at a totally inappropriate hour, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.  Your mind is made up; the universe has decided.  You submit to your instincts and go far, far out of your way to make it a reality.  In New York, it's famously easy: you can call somebody, and 15 minutes later you've got banana ice cream with a side of pickles. Call me pregnant, but the other night it was 10pm, and the only thing I wanted was pancakes--but I didn't want them too sweet.  Also, I wasn't willing to do much work, or buy a bunch of ingredients, because every time I buy buttermilk for pancakes it ends up going bad in my fridge. I went to the cookbook shelf.  Last year I picked up this bright yellow cookbook called Morning Food , which has just been published in a new edition with a less exciting cover.  It's based on this place in California called Cafe Beaujolais , which is apparently famous for its breakfasts.  It's full of simple, assured recipes and the sides of each page have little quippy snippets from the authors, who I presume are also the restaurant's chefs.  The second pancake recipe in the book (after "Healthy Pancakes"--forget that) is for Cottage Cheese Pancakes.  Does cottage cheese belong in a batter of pancakes?  Yes.  It makes them moist and tender, not too cloyingly (you can add syrup later to your heart's content), and allows you to get a crispy exterior while avoiding any dryness inside.  You won't even know it's there, but you'll notice how good the pancakes are. The best part?  All you do is throw everything into a blender and mix.  So tomorrow, wake up 5 minutes earlier and make these for somebody you love.  They'll think you worked a lot harder than you did. Cottage Cheese Pancakes from Cafe Beaujolais

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup small curd cottage cheese (also called "California Style")
• 2 tbs vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup frozen berries

Serves 2. Adapted from Morning Food . Any reasonable kitchen should have everything but the cottage cheeese on hand.  Take all the ingredients, except the frozen berries, and dump them in a blender.  Turn on low speed until all the ingredients are mixed well.  Using a hot griddle or non-stick skillet greased with butter, pour them in three inch circles, topping with frozen berries (they won't bleed into the batter this way).  You'll want relatively high heat. Warm some maple syrup (the real stuff) in a small pot, throwing a few berries into the heating syrup if desired.  Flip the pancakes when a few bubbles begin to appear, or underside is a nice golden brown, about 3-4 minutes per side. Make sure the heat is hot enough to crisp them, but not so hot as to burn them.  The first couple never come out quite right, but you'll get into it.  Serve with hot syrup and butter.

Cottage Cheese, Pancakes, Uncategorized