Savory Pancakes

Ham and Chive Pancakes

One thing seems certain about this period of quarantine: it is getting people back in the kitchen. From what I see posted on social media, people are cooking like never before in recent history—and enjoying it. I am no exception.

For me, I needed a break from cooking for a few years before I was ready to get back in the kitchen. I'm not sure that anyone outside the restaurant business can really appreciate how much a career in the kitchen can sap the joy out of cooking. But now I've got enough distance (and truth be told, the availability of time, now that I am no longer working) to get back in the kitchen.

I find myself stocking the refrigerator with basics now, just to have them on hand when I need them. This is one of the things about the restaurant that most people won't know. We had a dry goods pantry with over 750 items, including 15-20 different kinds of rice; an entire rack in the walk-in devoted to sauces, syrups, and garnishes, such as hickory syrup, chipotle honey, and salsa verde; and another rack devoted to pickles of all kinds from fiddlehead ferns to cauliflower kimchee. With a menu that changed with whim each night, I needed that kind of aresenal and now, at long last, I miss it at home. In just the last week, I have stocked the fridge with salsa verde, salsa roja, harissa, and salsa fresca. I can tell the cooking urge is coming back.

Another benefit, at least for Ann, of this forced quarantine is that I am cooking dishes for her that I never have before. In all our years, I had never made her French toast until just recently, even though we made it often in the restaurant as something of a luxury crouton at the bottom of a plate to serve as the foundation (and a silky sop) for the plate. And pancakes: I had never made her something so simple as pancakes until a few days ago, despite having cooked thousands in my life, including hundreds of wasabi-edamame blini that we used to serve with our prosciutto of salmon.

In long-winded fashion as I am prone, this brings us to the savory pancakes that I made for dinner the other night at Ann's request. These had about a half a cup of minced chives from the garden and about half a cup of finely diced ham included in the batter. These crisp four-inch cakes made a delicious if unorthodox dinner.

Basic Pancake Recipe

There is never any excuse to use a mix for pancakes, none at all, given this simple recipe which scales in pretty directly. This will yield about 18 4-inch pancakes.

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted butter
2 large to extra-large eggs
about 1-1/2 cups of milk

Mix the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients. Stir until just incorporated. The batter does not have to be entirely smooth: to do so is asking to overwork the batter and develop the gluten, resulting in a not-so-good pancake.

I never add all the milk at once. In fact, I don't even measure the milk. I know that a good pancake batter is thin enough to run to the full width of the pancake within a few seconds of hitting the pan. If you're not sure about the desired consistency of the batter, try a test pancake. If it has trouble spreading out, you need more liquid. I've seen line cooks trying to wrangle way-too-thick batter way too many times.

The only reason that I make 4-inch pancakes at home is because I can get three of them in my large skillet at once. Make whatever size you want.

One of the tricks of making good pancakes is moderating the heat of the pan so that the pancake browns on both sides while just getting done in the middle. Most of my line cooks would try to use a flame that was too high, until they got the hang of it. A moderate flame is what you want.

Pancakes are neat in that they come with a built in timer. As they cook, the baking powder creates carbon dioxide bubbles that leaven the cakes. The bubbles also rise to the top of the batter. When you have a good ring of bubbles halfway from the edge to the center of the cake and a brown, crispy bottom, you have the flame just right.

Make sure you have a thin film of oil in the pan for each batch. Oil is necessary to create the best crispy surface texture. Low fat pancakes are low joy pancakes.

Play around. Cooking is about playing around, learning tricks, and learning to trust yourself. Within reason, add ingredients to your pancakes such as ham and chives. Once you get pancakes down, experiment with the batter. You don't have to use just milk. You don't just have to use AP flour. Try taking a cup of old fashioned oats and soaking them in a cup of milk for 20 minutes and then building your batter with the remaining flour and milk. Try using cooked rice. Try adding cornmeal. Pretty soon, you'll be making wasabi-edamame blini too.