Pancakes!!!

I’m a creative person and this thankfully extends to the kitchen. I’m also extremely choosy with food plus I live alone (mostly) so I have had to develop strong culinary skills. I learnt to cook by trial and error and in my current state I can confidently challenge most women; I am like the new breed of men, the kind who don’t get bullied by their wives or girlfriend through food. PS dear future wife, you cannot demand I choose between sex and dinner. I will choose sex, screw you silly then go make myself dinner. If you like remain boneless on the kitchen counter, when you are blinded with hunger and find yourself eating raw tomatoes and pepper you will realize that I – The Zibah will not be bullied.

Dear readers, kindly ignore the rant above; I tend to give in to momentary bouts of ZD (Zibah dementia).

I remember growing up as a child and being excited when mom would announce that we were going to have pancakes for breakfast during the weekend. I would look forward with frenzied anticipation and even manage to not wet the bed in celebration of pancake weekend. Pancakes-golden brown fluffy sweetness shaped like a tennis ball. If pancake was a god, I was its loyal bitch. Years later I had accompanied mom to the store to grab grocery when I had stumbled upon a row of pastry ingredients and my attention had been drawn to the stack of pancake mix. The wrapper had several images of extremely attractive ‘pancakes’ that looked nothing like the balls mom makes. “What wizardry is this?” I had whispered in shock then hurriedly went in search of my mother and pulled her back to the shelf.

“Mom that can’t be pancakes, yours never looks like that” I asked innocently

Unfazed, she had happily told me to ignore the ‘foreig’n pancakes as hers were much better. “Even if it  looks like akara?” (beans cake), I had pursued. “Yes sweetie” she replied and all was forgotten till recently. My mom is a terrific cook however when it involves pastries or anything containing flour please run as fast as you can (I’m sorry mom).

Akara (Beans Cake)

At the end of the Mrs Ibironke post, I had randomly announced that I was whipping up a mean stack of pancakes. Well it was no lie. I did a little research into “foreign pancakes” and selected 2 recipes; one from a local blog and the other from a well, foreign one. The local blog asked me to ‘shook‘ pepper and onions into my mix. I was trying to dissociate my idea of pancakes from akara so I was having none of that. I eventually went with the recipe from the foreign blog with a little tweaking. See below:

INGREDIENTS

1. 1 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
   Zibah: I had no means of measuring 1 cup so I measured out what I felt would fill my stomach instead.
2. 2 tablespoons sugar
   Zibah: 2 spoons seemed inadequate. I concluded that the owner of the recipe was diabetic and thus I poured a full cover measure of sugar
3. 2 teaspoons baking powder
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt
   Zibah: I honestly didn’t like the idea of salt in the mix so I added a pinch only
5. 1 cup milk
6. 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, or vegetable oil
   Zibah: I settled for vegetable oil
7. 1 large egg
8. 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
   Zibah:: no clue what this extra tablespoon was for 

Others
Assorted toppings, such as butter, maple syrup, confectioners’ sugar, honey, jams, preserves, sweetened whipped cream, or chocolate syrup
Zibah: I had none in stock. The local blog recipe had suggested ‘custard’ or ‘pap’.

DIRECTIONS
STEP 1
Preheat oven to 200 degrees; have a baking sheet or heatproof platter ready to keep cooked pancakes warm in the oven. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

STEP 2
In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, oil and egg. Add dry ingredients to milk mixture; whisk until just moistened (do not over-mix; a few small lumps are fine).

STEP 3
Heat a large skillet (nonstick or cast-iron) or griddle over medium. Fold a sheet of paper towel in half, and moisten with oil; carefully rub skillet with oiled paper towel.
Zibah: ‘skillet’ ‘griddle’? Wasdat? I grabbed my small frying pan

STEP 4
For each pancake, spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter onto skillet, using the back of the spoon to spread batter into a round (you should be able to fit 2 to 3 in a large skillet).

STEP 5
Cook until surface of pancakes have some bubbles and a few have burst, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter; cover loosely with aluminum foil, and keep warm in oven. Continue with more oil and remaining batter. (You’ll have 12 to 15 pancakes.) Serve warm, with desired toppings.
Zibah: after frying I transferred directly to paper plate. No aluminum nothing for me
And now….. The result

Voila

Oh and here is my first attempt *chuckles*

I followed the local blog’s instruction on this one. The result was this hideous pancake which i still ate

I did good right? Oh just say it.

Chef Zee 👏

 

August 27, 2014April 27, 2016 by Zibah! Categories: Educational, Zibah!Tags: bachelor, Cooking, Food, Kitchen, pancakes, tutorial 10 Comments