Easy Rainy Day Cornmeal Pancakes

Today in Osaka is a depressing grey drizzly kind of a day and since it's a Sunday (i.e. day of nothing interesting ever happening) I elected to have a cooking and cleaning day. I cleaned my stove, washed all the dishes and began sorting through the dry ingredients tucked away in my meager storage space. That's when I found the unopened bag of cornmeal that has been sitting in my cupboard for a couple of months now. Finally , today I decreed it to be Official Cornmeal Bag Opening Day (quite catchy, no?)
Anyway, I originally bought it to make some pumpkin cornmeal waffles but had to give the waffle maker back to my friend before I got round to it. So instead I decided to make flat waffles - otherwise known as pancakes. I couldn't find a recipe that I had enough ingredients for so I cobbled this one together from a few of them. I was very pleased with the results and decided to share it with you. These pancakes were a little crunchy and reminded me of a sweet taquito thus I decided to fold them over and eat them like tacos.

Anyway, here you go:

"It's a Crappy Sunday Afternoon" Cornmeal Pancakes

You will need:

1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 1/2 tblspoons lemon juice (I think vinegar would work too)

2 tblspoons oil (I used canola), plus some for greasing the frying pan

1 1/3 cups cornmeal

2/3 cup flour (I used all-purpose white)

1/3 cup brown sugar (optional)
1/2 tspoon salt
1/2 tspoon baking soda
2 tblspoons maple syrup

1 tspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Stir the lemon juice into the soy milk in a measuring cup or jug. Set aside for a couple of minutes to let the milk curdle.

2) Mix the cornmeal, flour, sugar (if using), salt and baking soda together in a large bowl.

3) Stir the oil, vanilla extract and maple syrup into the milk mixture.

4) Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry, stirring gently and being careful not to over mix.

5) Drizzle a little oil into a non-stick frying pan and heat to medium heat.

6) When the pan is heated sufficiently, add about 1/4 cup batter and spread the it out evenly using a spatula.

7) Turn the pancake over when bubbles form on the surface and the batter begins to look "set."

N.B. I found these pancakes to be incredibly easy to flip and didn't break a single one so don't worry if you are nervous about that.

8) Continue to cook on either side until a nice golden brown colour is achieved.

9) Serve immediately with the topping of your choice!

I ate mine with brown sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on the inside. I dusted the tops with icing sugar and a little cocoa powder and served them with a cup of Yogi Tea Thai Sweet Delight.

Other toppings that I think would be good are soyatoo/vegan whipped cream, banana slices, grated dark chocolate, strawberries, raspberries and maple syrup. They are very adapatable so you could also try adding other things to the batter.

These really hit the spot!

-- Sarah

Japanese Breakfast

In Japan, people don't have the same seperation in the West of what food is suitable for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The meal that most visitors are shocked with is breakfast. Of course, along with the import of Western culture, came Western food so many Japanese people now eat cereal, oatmeal, toast etc for breakfast. However, a traditional Japanese breakfast usually consists of some grilled fish, a bowl of rice, miso shiru (soup), some pickles, seaweed, perhaps some salad, tofu or another side dish such as natto. A raw egg is often also provided in hotel breakfasts, though despite my spying efforts, I've never actually managed to figure out exactly what the customer is intended to do with said egg. Anyway, it usually looks something like this...

Personally, it took me a good few months of living in Japan, before I could even contemplate eating a bowl of rice with salty pickles for breakfast! These days though, I quite often eat my dinner leftovers with rice for the first meal of the day. So would you like to try a very simple Japanese breakfast?

"Anything goes" Miso Shiru

The two essentials:

3-4 cups Kombu dashi (see my post here about how to make this)

1/3 to 2/3 cup Miso paste (I like to use a combination of sweet white miso and saltier red)

Red miso on the left, white miso on right

Your choice of ingredients! Why not try:
Carrots, sliced into rounds
Pumpkin, cubed
Onion, cut into thick chunks
Mushrooms (shiitake are especially good), halved or sliced
Daikon, cut into 1-inch sticks
Potatoes, peeled and cut into sticks or chunks
To serve: Spring onions/scallions, thinly sliced

Tofu time:
1 pack Silken tofu, cubed
1 pack Aburage (deep-fried tofu pouches), sliced into strips or triangles

Good combinations:
- Pumpkin, carrot, onion, aburage
- Silken tofu, spring onions (light miso)
- Potatoes, onions (dark miso)
- Daikon, aburage
- Shiitake, spring onions

Miso Shiru 101:

1) Heat the dashi until it comes to a simmer. Start adding your vegetables (as a general rule, the harder the vegetable, the longer is will take to cook. Thus, adding carrots and potatoes first is a good idea).
2) Once your hard vegetables have started to soften, start adding the rest of the ingredients.
3) Add the tofu (if using) and allow to heat through.
4) Now is the important part - don't kill all the nutritious goodness in your miso!!
When your soup ingredients are ready, turn off the heat. Remove a small amount of stock and make a paste with the miso. Add this back to the main pot and mix through. Continue doing this until the desired depth of taste is reached.
5) Add the spring onions and serve immediately.

My breakfast :)

(pumpkin, carrot, onion, aburage miso and ume/shiso onigiri)

-- Sarah