Sunday, July 13, 2014

It's Greens Season! Swiss Chard Pancakes

My parents visited last week. In the middle of our ice cream, beach and seafood tour, we also visited our favorite Island farms. After picking up our farm share one day, my mom and I enjoyed some time in the kitchen together. 

Sandy greens surrounded us. She pulled basil leaves. I chopped chard. The occasional inchworm crawled out. After a few minutes into it, my mom giggled and confessed, "I don't even know what half of these things are!" 

Before I signed up for the Whipporwill Farm share, ten years ago, neither did I. Since then, I've enjoyed learning about what grows here, trying new foods and figuring how to cook things like garlic scapes and turnips. Now, I can appreciate the various shapes a carrot can take and have graduated from sauteing every veggie I could't pronounce (celeriac or broccoli rabe anyone?) in olive oil and garlic. 

My little family has discovered that almost everything from the farm share goes well in an quiche, quesadilla or quinoa salad. And, you know where else . . . the pancake batter! Yesterday, we made these savory cakes for an afternoon snack. They were quite the crowd pleaser!




It's Green Season! Swiss Chard Pancakes
adapted from The Locavore's Kitchen by Marilou K. Suszko
2 T unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
2 clove garlic, minced
1 bunch chard, stalks & leaves separated (ask mom to finely chop them)
1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 c millet flour
1 t sugar
1 1/2 c buttermilk, plus extra to thin
oil or butter for griddle




Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and chard stalks and saute for about 6-7 minutes, until veggies are soft and fragrant. Add leaves and cook for about 2 minutes. Season with salt & pepper. Let cool.

Combine flours, baking powder and sugar in mixing bowl. Stir in buttermilk until ingredients are moistened. Add veggies and stir gently. Batter should be thick, but pourable. Add additional buttermilk, if necessary. 

Heat greased griddle over medium heat. Pour batter (about 1/4 c for each pancake). Let cook until bubbles appear on the surface and the edges of the pancake look lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Flip the pancake and cook an additional minute. 

We added a dollop of greek yogurt and drizzled them with local honey. Mmmmmm


Tatsoi pancakes anyone? Who knows what we'll be putting in our pancakes next week? Nothing seems to be able to escape the Silva griddle!

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