spring onion and chilli pancakes

Pancakes for breakfast are always welcome and these savoury spring onion and chilli pancakes are no exception. You can put them together very easily in no time at all but they feel like a real treat. Enjoy them as they are or do as I did and enjoy with a soft poached egg and some crispy bacon.

Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
salt and pepper

1 large egg
2/3 cups milk
3/4 cups plain (all-purpose) flour

2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan

4 or 5 spring onions (scallions), finely chopped white and green parts

1/2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)

vegetable oil for cooking

1. Put all of the ingredients apart from the spring onions into a blender and blitz for a minute or so or until everything is thoroughly combined. You can mix everything together by hand but this way is so much easier.
2. Add the spring onions and stir through or very briefly pulse the mixture to bring everything together
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan and add a tablespoon or so of oil then pour in 1/4 or 1/3 cup measures of the mixture. Turn the pancakes over once bubbles have formed on the top then cook for another minute.
4. Serve with some crispy bacon and chilli sauce or add a poached egg for extra decadence.

banana and coconut pancakes

There's nothing much I can say about this recipe. They're simple, delicious and a great weekend breakfast treat. If you've got a blender or food processor you can make these pancakes even faster by throwing everything in together and blitzing until it is well combined.

Ingredients (makes 8-12 pancakes)
1 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp dessicated coconut
2 bananas, mashed
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil

1. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, coconut, sugar and salt. In another combine everything else (bananas, egg, milk and oil). 
2. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet and whisk everything until it is thoroughly combined.
3. Heat up a skillet or non-stick frying pan over a medium heat then pour the mixture into the pan using 1/4 or 1/3 cup measures. Once bubbles form on the pancake flip them over and continue to cook until they puff up and are golden brown on both sides. 
4. Serve with syrup, butter, yogurt, fruit or whatever you fancy. 

thai feasting - part 1 bangkok

I was lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Year in Thailand. It was the perfect way to escape the usual pressures and expectations of this time of year and to get some sunshine too. It has taken me a while to get round to posting about my adventures and I will explain why soon. I've recently been checking out this website called Import Food. It's got lots of great videos and excellent recipes too. Well worth an explore if you're interested in learning more. Enjoy!

Whenever I go somewhere on holiday I always try to seek out new tastes and ingredients in an attempt to better understand the flavours that make up country's food. In a short trip I was never going to completely get to grips with all of Thai food. Instead I decided to set myself the challenge of seeking out the best pad thai I could find and to indulge in the kinds of street foods that I can't get back in London.

Pad thai quest part 1

Pad thai is the national street food dish of Thailand. On most street corners you can find a cart dishing it out. Like most national dishes, everyone has their own way of putting it together but this video recipe from SITCA is a great place to start. This recipe also seems to come close to the dishes we ate. We started our search at Thip Samai because it is recommended in numerous food and travel blogs as serving 'the best' so we had to give it a go. This was going to be the pad thai by which all others were going to be measured so it made sense to start at the top. Thip Samai serves numerous variations on the standard dish but we went for the 'superb pad thai'.

Once you've place your order you're brought a selection of accompaniments. We got banana flower, bean sprouts, spring onions and lime segments. On the table were already pots of crushed peanuts, chilli sauces and chilli flakes.

Here's the pad thai when it arrived. I loaded mine with extra peanuts and chili flakes because I'm a bit of a chili fiend given half the chance. I was particularly taken with the presentation of the dish with the noodles carefully wrapped in a fine omelette. 

Now, perhaps unsurprisingly I'm a bit of a greedy person so a little later I was after something else to eat. Close to our hotel in Bangkok was a busy little market stretching the length of the street with numerous tasty treats on offer. If in doubt in a new country I'll go for something I've never had before and I couldn't resist finding out what 'coconut egg' was. During the rest of our time in Thailand I never found another stall serving these curious little things but it's definitely something I want again. They were crunchy, crispy gooey, sweet but a little savoury all at once. A very special little thing. I've done a some internet research since returning and I think it was Khanom Buang. Check out this page for more info. This is a neat video showing how another lady makes them.

Our next culinary stop was at one of the ubiquitous roti pancake carts in the same market. Normally when making crepes and pancakes you start with a batter and pour it out on to a hot griddle. Not with these glorious beauties. The stall holder started out with a little ball of dough and deftly pulled it out so that it was transparent and paper thin before putting on the griddle. Here's a lovely video of a stall holder in action. The skill of the food stall holders in Thailand is incredible. The speed and skill they repeatedly demonstrate is awe inspiring.  I couldn't resist the classic banana and nutella combo topped off with a drizzle of condensed milk. Yum!