Nutella Filled Pancakes

Letter # 1

Dear Blog,

       I haven't been doing any blogging lately. There are a few reasons behind this. Firstly, all the cooking that I have been doing lately turned out delicious but didn't look picture taking worthy. I have made delicious chicken with lentils, strawberry jam and then used that jam to make fruit leather and super yummy maple glazed Brussels sprouts. These all tasted great but did not look pretty.

       Secondly, being a novice photographer that I am, indoor lighting does not work well for me. Initially when I started this blog, I did take pictures on my kitchen table with the yellow light shining not so bright and post them. They are terrible. But now that I have taken pictures using natural light for the entire month of February I can not go back to taking pictures in my kitchen in the evening. I got some standards to meet in my own eye. Hence, no pictures worth posting.

        Last but not least, I put a lot of pressure on myself about blogging. The recipe has to be perfect (which must be- no excuse there!), the pictures have to be good (I try my best), and then write a nice post which needs to be interesting and funny (I don't consider myself funny) such that readers will like it and may be come back and visit again. Not being able to do this on a regular basis (thrice a week) was making me feel like I am not fulfilling my own expectations. When the food I was making in the evening after my work as a scientist in a lab, didn't look pretty, I was so upset with myself. I went to bed disappointed with myself. I felt that may be blogging was not a good idea as I am not good at writing. I always used to get the lowest grade in English language and highest in Math and Science in school. I love cooking but the pressure of blogging was taking the fun out of my cooking.

        That's why, I decided to write this blog like a diary. Let you (my blog) be my extension. I would like to continue sharing recipes here. Now, today's recipe is nutella filled pancakes. It does not necessarily need to be nutella, it can be peanut butter (that will be very nice), jam of any fruit or chocolate. So, this isn't a recipe really. It is about how to make pancakes a little more interesting.
Here are some pictures taken in natural light which looks good in my novice photographer's eyes:

I used:

Pancake mix (store bought or homemade). Because I made these for my husband and myself, I used gluten free pancake mix. Gluten free homemade pancake mix recipe here.

Few teaspoons of nutella or fruit jam or chocolate sauce.

Powdered sugar to make them pretty!

This is how I did it- 

Prepare the pancake mix following the package directions but the milk. Add a little less milk (I used almond milk to make it dairy free) than the package instructions. The pancake batter needs to be little thicker than usual.

Heat up a skillet on medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the pancake batter. Add about ¼ teaspoon of nutella in the middle of the pancake. Cover the nutella with a little bit more of the pancake batter (This is why the batter needs to be thicker than usual. If it is too thin, the batter will not cover the nutella, instead run to its sides). Flip and cook the other side of the pancake for another minute or two. Serve them warm with powdered sugar on top.

The pancakes can be filled with jam or peanut butter. The key is to not add too much filling such that it will spill.

Servings: For about 10-12 pancakes, I started with ¾ cup pancake mix.

Until next time, without much pressure of blogging but happily cooking,

Love,
Smita

Sunny Side Up on Potatoes

I was home alone because the other half was in San Francisco conferencing. I woke up very late and wanted to treat myself to a wonderful breakfast or brunch. Nothing better than eggs, potatoes and bacon. As much as I like fried potatoes but hash brown is my favorite.

So, while my bacon was getting perfectly crispy in the oven, I grated some potatoes. Chopped some onion and tomatoes. Made a bed of hash brown, placed a perfect sunny side up egg on it, add the tomato and crispy bacon pieces, sprinkle chopped cilantro, season with salt and pepper and you have your breakfast ready in 30min. Oh, what a treat!

Oh, that perfect morsel- bacon, tomato, hash brown with little bit of the runny yolk.

Warning- I don't use oil in making any of it. Oops! I use bacon fat :)

To make this wonderful breakfast/brunch, you need (for 1 serving, can easily be scaled up):

1 medium size Russet potato, grated using a box grater
1 small yellow onion or half a medium onion, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
1 egg
2-3 strips of thick cut bacon or as many as you like
salt and pepper for seasoning
Chopped cilantro or parsley

How:

Line a baking tray with foil and place the baking strips an inch apart from each other. Place it in a cold oven and turn it on to 400°F. Putting the  bacon in a cold oven and then turning it on is the key to perfectly crispy bacon. The bacon should be perfect in about 17-20 min. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn. The time depends on how long your oven takes to reach the temperature. Take the bacon strips out of the baking tray and drain on paper towels. Let it cool.

While the bacon is getting perfectly crisped in the oven, grate the potato, chop the onion, tomato and some cilantro. Put the grated potato in cold water to prevent them from turning brown. When ready to cook, put the shredded potato in a cheesecloth and wring out all excess water. The more its dry the more it will be crispy. Although here, I didn't make them crispy (enough crispiness from bacon). But you can.

Put about a tablespoon of bacon fat from the baking tray on to a small pan on medium heat. Add the onion. Fry for a min and then add the shredded potatoes. If you want them crispy, then lay them in a single layer and don't disturb. Let it crisp up on one side for 2 min and then turn over like a pancake.  If you want mushy, like I have here, fry the shredded potato with onion stirring them until they are brown. Season with salt and pepper. Place the potato on a plate.

Add a teaspoon of bacon fat to the same pan on medium heat. Crack a fresh egg on to the pan. Be careful not to get any shells in there (I need not say that!). Cook till the white part is no longer slimy. Place the egg on top of the potato you plated earlier.

Add the crispy bacon (I just break it into small pieces), chopped fresh tomato, cilantro. Season with salt and pepper and enjoy!

Breakfast In a Cup

I don't know about you, but everyday morning is a rush time. And time is almost always cut short from breakfast! No time to sit down and have breakfast. Do you also want breakfast to go? This is the perfect recipe. Have it in your car, at the bus stop, train station anywhere. Also, the best part is: make it ahead, refrigerate or freeze, pop it in the microwave for a min and a satisfying breakfast ready in no time.

It has eggs, sausage and cheese in a tortilla cup. Satisfying and fulfilling breakfast!

Also, I'll let you in a little secret- I like this so much, I don't just eat it for breakfast. I love it as an afternoon snacks. Put some ketchup or hot sauce on it and enjoy :)

Doesn't this look pretty?

You can see all the sausage and egg in there. I used spicy italian sausage. If you are in no mood to eat spicy sausage in the morning, no problem, switch with breakfast sausage or even chicken or ham.

You need (for 12 cups):

9 eggs

1½ cup ground sausage (I used spicy italian sausage. You may use breakfast sausage, ground chicken, turkey or even ham)

6 tortillas (I used uncooked flour tortilla. You may use cooked flour tortilla, corn tortilla- for gluten free options)

⅓ chopped cilantro (You may skip this or use parsley or wilted spinach)

½ cup chopped scallions

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used a mix of Cheddar and Jack)

Salt and pepper to taste

Cooking oil spray 

How:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Brown the sausage in a skillet on medium heat. Drain the excess fat on a paper towel and let it cool. If using breakfast sausage links, brown them and cut into small pieces.

In the meantime, whisk the eggs with scallions, cilantro with salt and pepper and keep aside.

Cut the flour tortillas into halves.

Start the assembly. Oil spray a 12 muffin pan. Place one half of the tortilla or two quarters or three pieces (whichever works for you) in the muffin cup overlapping such that the bottom of the cup is covered. Press the tortillas gently in to the cups. The edges of the tortilla should stick up higher than the muffin cup sides. Oil spray the inside of the tortilla cup.

Equally distribute the sausage in all the cups. Add the egg mixture over the sausage. Top it with cheese.

Bake for 20 min until the eggs are firm. Check with a toothpick.

If you want to store them for later, cool them and put in a large (gallon) freezer bag and store in your refrigerator for the next few days. Put it in the microwave for a min to warm them up.


For more options visit the BREAKFAST page:

Gluten free, Dairy free, Eggless Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup

This is not by choice. My husband has recently moved to a gluten free diet. Also quit dairy and eggs. He is doing great with these restrictions. But this has challenged my cooking, specially breakfast.

I didn't have much knowledge about gluten free diet until recently. Well, in short, you can't have oats, cereal, granola, pancakes, cookies or anything for that matter unless it is specially made gluten free.

For now, we are buying gluten free cookies and cereal. We were also buying gluten free pancakes mixes. They don't taste quite like pancakes nor do they look like one. They look brownish rather than yellowish!

Now in a family of two (me and my husband), I am not making two different breakfasts, hence I started eating gluten free pancakes too. Dissatisfied by a few of the gluten free pancakes mixes available at the store, I started looking up recipes online and perfecting them over time. Here are the things I learned:

Flour: If you plan to buy all purpose flour mix, King Arthur has a nice gluten free all-purpose flour. However, if you want to make your own mix, some of the great gluten free blogs such as Gluten-free goddess, gluten free on a shoe string, gluten free girl are great places to get ideas.

Dairy free milk: Rice milk and almond milk are great options. However note that rice milk is thin (quite like skimmed milk) while almond milk is thicker (quite like full fat milk) in consistency. So, you might need to adjust recipe accordingly.

We were kind of getting tired of having maple syrup with pancakes every morning. 

The other day, my grocery store had the most beautiful looking strawberries. Also, I love strawberries! Made a very simple syrup with strawberries. Loved them on our pancakes. In fact, it was so good, I had a few spoonfuls of syrup right out of the jar. Shhh!

You need (Makes 8 pancakes):

For pancakes:

1 cup of  GF all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur's)

2 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon maple syrup (You can use sugar or honey- note that the sweetness will differ)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

¼ cup unsweetened apple sauce (I used Mott's natural apple sauce. You can definitely use sweetened and flavored apple sauce, just note to adjust sweetness)

¾ dairy free milk (I used unsweetened almond milk here. I also use rice milk at times. Use as much as needed for the mix to come to the right consistency.)

For strawberry simple syrup:

1 lb strawberries, hulled, chopped

⅓ cup granulated sugar

⅓ water

pinch of salt

Method:

For pancakes:

Add all the ingredients in a bowl except milk and mix (I don't bother to separate dry and wet ingredients). Add the milk and whisk until there are no lumps. I first added ½ cup milk, and then slowly added ¼ cup milk to reach the right consistency (not too thick, not too runny, somewhere in the middle is the right consistency.)

Put a griddle or pan on your stovetop on medium heat. Add ¼ cup of the batter for each pancake.

Cook for a few minutes until you see bubbles in the middle of the pancake, takes a minute or two. Flip the pancake and cook the other side for about 30 seconds.

Serve with fresh fruits and homemade strawberry syrup.

For syrup:

Prepare the strawberries. Add the strawberries, sugar, water and salt in a small sauce pan on medium heat. 

Simmer for 15 min or until the sugar is dissolved and the berries become soft.

Transfer to a blender and blend to a smooth syrup. Chill before serving.

Maple Walnut Muesli with Strawberries

Walking through a farmer's market on one fine sunday morning introduced me to this Swiss breakfast cereal-muesli. I devoured that small little cup that morning. I figured it has oats, yogurt and fruits and exclaimed "Honey, I can make this at home" to my husband.

Coming home, the research started. Then I came to know that muesli does not just have oats, these are oats not cooked but soaked. Love it! Breakfast I don't have to cook. And, you can make this is large quantities, store it in your refrigerator and have it another time (those crazy - I am late- weekday mornings!).

I have made muesli a number of times but it wasn't quite hitting the right spot. It tasted great but something was missing. Then reading the muesli recipe on "Back to Basics" cookbook by Ina Garten gave me the idea of adding Granola to it. Right, it was missing the crunch. Without the granola it's too mushy mushy!

Coming to the flavor of muesli, it's very common to use strawberry flavored yogurt. That's great but there's nothing like fresh berries. Wouldn't you agree? I also added nuts for more bite into this recipe. Thinking of which nut to add, I thought of walnuts and my favorite flavor to go with that is maple. Hence, the maple walnut muesli. On a side note-I love maple walnut ice-cream!

You need:

¼ cup instant oats (I used Quaker 1-minute oats)

¼ cup granola (I used Quaker granola with raisins)

2 tablespoon chopped walnuts

1½ tablespoon pure maple syrup

pinch of salt

¼ cup hot water (I used the hottest water from my tap)

4-6 large strawberries, hulled and chopped/quartered

1½ teaspoon sugar

7oz plain greek yogurt (I used one 7 oz container of Chobani plain greek yogurt)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Method:

Soak the oats, granola, walnuts in the hot water with maple syrup and pinch of salt for 15 mins. While the oats are soaking, prepare the strawberries, add the sugar to them and allow to macerate. Mix the vanilla with the yogurt. Separate the oats in two parts, top with yogurt and berries and serve!