Corn pancakes

Sometimes, a recipe just falls into your lap and cries out, "make me, make me right now!"

The other day, my boyfriend went to a dinner party, and of all things, he decided to bring me back corn -- two ears of leftover, already-cooked corn. What am I gonna do with this? No idea.

And then, Smitten Kitchen posted this recipe. And as I looked down at the sad little heap of leftover chow fun I'd been about to dig into for breakfast, I knew that it was fate. Pancakes, you would be mine.

I looked at the recipe, and then I wasn't so sure -- "I know I don't have any cornmeal," I thought. "Probably no buttermilk, either." But amazingly, I did have some buttermilk tucked away in the back of the fridge that was actually still good, and as for the cornmeal, well, while I'm sure the pancakes would've been even better with it, I used oat flour instead (got almost a whole bag to use up still after making granola bars) and they were still really tasty.

Corn Pancakes
From Smitten Kitchen
2 tbsp butter, plus additional for brushing pan
3/4 c kernels cut from an ear of sweet corn
1/8 tsp salt plus a pinch
1 egg
1 1/4 c buttermilk
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 c flour
1/4 c cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Melt butter in a large skillet. Add corn kernels and saute until slightly browned. Remove kernels to a bowl and wipe out pan. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the corn.
2. Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and remaining salt in another bowl.
3. In the bowl with the corn, add the egg, buttermilk, vanilla and sugar and whisk together. Dump in the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined but still lumpy.
4. Heat up the skillet and brush with butter. Ladle in a quarter-cup of batter or so per pancake. When they're dry around the edges, flip them over; cook until golden on both sides.

Blueberry pancakes

Our freezer is still packed full of blueberries from our recent picking expedition, so I decided that rather than going out to brunch on Sunday, a homemade breakfast was in order. How better to use up blueberries (aside from muffins, of course) than blueberry pancakes?

Of course, this was right around the time I remembered that blueberries, like the Cookie Monster's cookies these days, are a sometimes food for me -- I really do get tired of them awfully quickly, so I found myself picking around them after a pancake and a half or so. No matter, though. The pancakes were still quite good, so good, in fact, that my boyfriend, not much of a pancake eater, said he'd eat them again whenever I want to make them. :)



Blueberry Pancakes
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking
1 1/2 c flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c buttermilk
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1-2 c blueberries, fresh or thawed if frozen

1. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, butter and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together briefly until just combined.
3. Heat up and grease your griddle or a large skillet. Pour 1/3 cup or so of batter at a time onto the griddle, then scatter blueberries over the top. When the edges go a bit dry and the bubbles in the batter start to break, flip them over and cook until both sides are lightly browned.