Bourbon Berry Pancakes

Yay for Pancake day, Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, which ever you prefer. Pancakes are such a wonderful vessel for experimentation, sweet or savory, breakfast or dessert, healthy or indulgent.

This is my little nod to the Mardi Gras festivities on Bourbon street. Not one for the kids, blackberries bathed in bourbon are a perfect combination nestled inside fluffy pancake envelopes and topped with a sugar crackling.

I have a nostalgic soft spot for Aunt Jemima’s pancake mix, so that is the batter I have used here. Feel free to tut and disapprove, and use your favourite batter or recipe. If you have a great from scratch recipe I’d love to try it.

Makes about 6

Ingredients

8 oz fresh blackberries

1 apple, you can omit the apple and double the blackberries or add in 8 oz of raspberries

Pancake mix

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

2-3 tbsp bourbon

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup sugar

cooking oil

butane torch

8 inch frying pan

Peel and core the apple, dice it into 1/4 inch pieces. Place the apple and 1 tbsp of water into a saucepan on a medium heat, put the lid on and gently cook until just tender, about 7 minutes.

Remove from the heat and drain any liquid, add the washed blackberries and pour over the bourbon, replace the lid and leave to macerate while you prepare the batter.

In a jug or bowl, mix together 1 cup of pancake mix, 1 egg and 3/4 cup of milk. Beat until all the lumps are gone. You may need to add a splash more milk, this recipe works best the batter is a little runnier and the pancakes aren’t overly thick.

Heat a little oil in the pan over a medium flame, coat the entire surface, I pour out any excess. Ladle in some of the batter, roughly 1/4 cup and swirl it around so it covers the bottom of the pan in a nice even thinnish layer. Watch and wait for the bubbles to form and pop before flipping the pancake over. You want it to be cooked, but still rather pale. Cook for a few more minutes on the other side. Slide onto a plate and fold in half. Repeat until the batter is gone.

Pour half of the bourbon from the fruit into a glass, and some apple juice and ice if you like, and you have a tasty cocktail!

Douse the fruit in maple syrup, spoon the mixture into the each of the folded pancakes. Sprinkle with sugar and use the  torch to caramalise it. Repeat the sugar/ carmaelisation until you have the desired crust.

Enjoy F.

Bourbon berry pancakes pdf

Recipe: Super Tasty Quinoa Dinner

My little neighborhood in Queens was buried under over two feet of snow yesterday- so I rummaged through the pantry to look for something to eat, as one does in such a situation. I like quinoa, but if it’s cooked with just water it can be pretty bland and I need some flavor in my life. Allow me show you how I like to cook it.

Sauteing your peppers and onion first to get them caramelized, as well as using tomatoes with jalapenos adds a lot of flavor. Feel free to use plain tomatoes if you don’t enjoy a little heat, but you should try it, it’s really quite mild and adds a little zing! On the flip side- if you want to intensify the bite add in a 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne to the onion mix when you add the garlic. Yum!

Directions- Makes approximately 5 cups

1 tsp olive oil

1 small red onion, diced

1 small bell pepper, seeded and diced (red, yellow or orange)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (14.5oz) Del Monte Petite Cut Tomato with Jalapeno

vegetable/chicken stock or water

1 cup quinoa

salt pepper to taste

Optional:

3 cups fresh spinach, rinsed, trimmed and roughly chopped

cilantro

In a medium sized saucepan add the olive oil, red pepper and onion. Cover and sweat the onions for two or three minutes until the onions are translucent. Uncover and saute until veggies start to get a little bit of color, approx. five minutes. If it starts to get too dark, too quickly, turn down the heat and splash in a little stock to de-glaze the pan.

While that cooks- drain the canned tomatoes, reserving the tomato liquid in a measuring jug. Top off the liquid to 1.5 cups with stock or water.

**Add the minced garlic to your pan and saute for a minute more to cook the garlic slightly.

Add the liquid and tomatoes to the pan, bring to a simmer. Add the quinoa, lower heat, cover and cook until tender, about 15-20 minutes.  Turn off the heat. At this point you can add the optional spinach (I didn’t have any this weekend, and I’m not going to tromp through three foot snowdrifts to get some 🙂 so there aren’t any in my pictures, but I normally would add it) add the spinach to the pot and put the lid back on for two or three minutes minutes to wilt the spinach. Fluff with a fork.

     

Salt and pepper to taste, chop up a bit of cilantro to garnish if you’re into that sort of thing- which I am. This is one of my favorite sides with a nice grilled fish or chicken, and it’s hearty enough to have as a vegetarian main on it’s own or with the addition of some grilled tofu.

**note- the reason that I don’t add the garlic at the beginning is because I like to caramelize the onion and pepper to get the fullest flavor possible and minced garlic would burn and taste bitter well before any browning would happen.

Video: Make Bread by Hand

Come make bread with us!

Here’s something fun to try this weekend- maybe as a test run for some fresh bread for thanksgiving? Let us know what you make- #florriemarie on instagram.

preheat oven to 450F

makes two boules (round loaves) or four batards (small torpedo loaves)

You can also halve the recipe.

1/2 – ounce salt
1/4 – ounce dry active yeast
1 pound 8ounces – bread flour
1 pint – tepid water

Mix well and knead on clean surface until dough is soft and pliable.
Let rise in a lightly oiled bowl until doubled in size.
Shape loaves and let rise again.
Score loaves and bake for 30-40 minutes.
10 minutes into baking- quickly toss a 1/4 cup of cold water into the bottom of the oven to create steam.
Wait 15-20 minutes after baking before cutting.

 

Chocolate Nut Granola

I love a little crunch with my yogurt in the morning, I find it really satisfies my hunger. This is my first attempt at granola, I’d call it an experiment that worked out pretty well. I’ll be using this recipes as a case to play around with different ingredients in the future.

1 ½ cups of  rolled oats

½ cup of flax seeds

½ cup of unsweetened coconut

½ cup of your favourite nuts crushed

¼ cup of cocoa powder

¼ cup of honey

2 tbsp of  olive oil

2 tbsp of coconut sugar

½ tsp of salt

Heat the oven to 300 degrees

In a bowl, combine the cocoa powder, honey and olive oil in a bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined and there are no lumps.

Stir the oats, seeds, nuts and salt to the wet ingredients until they are coated and glistening.

Spread out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with the sugar.

Pop it into the oven for 15 minutes, check and stir. Let cook for a further 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Then devour, but seriously, store in an air tight container.

F.

Spicy Mushroom Noodle Bowls

2 cups Beef Broth

8 oz baby bella mushrooms sliced (or your favorite mushroom)

1 tsp Olive Oil

1 1/2 tsp Butter

Udon Noodles (prepare according to package directions)

2 tbls Hoisin Sauce

1 1/2 cups baby kale or bok choy chopped

3 spring onions sliced

1/4 cup Bamboo Shoots, sliced

1/4 cup Water chestnuts, sliced

1/4 cup Bean sprouts

1 tbls Lemon Grass slices (jarred packed in water)

Sriracha Chili Sauce to taste

Serves 2

In a medium saucepan bring broth and the hoisin sauce to a simmer over low heat. Set aside.

Cook the mushrooms in two batches. In a frying pan add oil and butter and the diced mushrooms, sauté over low heat until browned (approx. 5 minutes).  Add to broth.

In the same pan, add the remaining oil and butter and sauté the sliced mushrooms until browned (approx. 5 minutes).  Add sriracha to taste, set aside.

Add noodles and kale to broth, to warm through.

Divide the noodles, broth and kale between two bowls, place the sliced mushrooms on top and finally sprinkle with the bamboo shoots and sprouts, water chestnuts and lemongrass.

Enjoy F.

Coconut Oatmeal

1 cup of coconut water

3/4 Coconut milk

1/2 Cup of steel cup quick oats

2 Tbsp raw sugar

An assortment of toppings, some of my favouites include dried cranberries, dried apricots, slivered almonds and mini chocolate chips.

This recipe makes oats for one greedy person (me) or enough to share with your loved one.

There are many ways to cook your oats, I choose quick oats because I can’t plan the night before what I want for breakfast the next morning. I also like a little bite left in my oats. So this is how I cook them;

In a sauce pan, bring to the boil the coconut water and 1/2 a cup of the coconut milk.

Add in the oats, turn the heat to medium low and pop a lid on.

Cook the oats for around 7 – 10 minutes, I stir every so often and do the bite test.

When you have reached your softness preference, stir in the remaining coconut milk.

Pour into the bowl(s), sprinkle with sugar and pile the toppings into the middle.

Nom nom F.