Sasha's Kitchen: Asian-Style Scallion Cilantro Pancakes

My mom recently sent me a wonderful new cookbook, but a women whose gardening books she had read, Sarah Raven, called Fresh From the Garden. The book focuses on fresh uses of seasonal, garden fresh ingredients and their uses in delicious seasonal recipes. So far, I have read the recipes for spring and winter and there's so many I want to try. The scallion/cilantro pancakes and rhubarb cardamom chutney were both delicious, and my husband and mom (cooking together for me) also tried a summer vegetable risotto that was a loose variation on the recipe in her book. Each of these three recipes were spectacular. This might just be my favorite new cookbook that I have tried in a long time! Don't skip out on Sarah's dipping sauce either - its the perfect match as I love sesame oil!

Scallion Cilantro Pancakes (from Sarah Raven)
makes 12 five inch pancakes or six eight inch pancakes - I doubled the recipe below for more because they were so good!

1/2 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 small red chile, thinly sliced (i used 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes instead)
pinch of ground black pepper
4 drops of sesame oil
canola oil for frying
5-6 scallions diced (green parts only)
small bunch of cilantro, freshly chopped

Dipping sauce
3 T soy sauce
2 T rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 T freshly chopped fresh cilantro

Put the flours, salt, egg and egg yolk and 1/4 cup of water, red pepper flakes, and sesame oil in a bowl and whisk together.  Allow to stand for thirty minutes at room temperature. Chop the scallions and cilantro and set aside.

combine the soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil for the sauce and stir in the sesame seeds. Also add the reserved white parts of the scallions left over from the pancake recipe.

Heat a teaspoon of canola oil in an eight inch nonstick pan over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Spoon in 1/2 T of the batter, tilting the pan to spread it over the bottom. Scatter the scallions and cilantro over the top, gently pressing them with a spatula. Fry until the underside is pale golden, about two minutes. Turn over and cook another minute or so. Transfer to a piece of parchment paper while you prepare the other pancakes. Serve right away with dipping sauce.

Sasha's Kitchen: Asian-Style Scallion Cilantro Pancakes

Molly D's Kitchen in Seattle: Butter Mochi

American pastries are usually made with wheat flour, which can provide great flakiness or a delicate cakey crumb, but if you’ve lived elsewhere and love food, you know that there are other textures out there. I grew up in Hawaii, and one of my favorite local treats is springy, soft rice-based mochi.

I know some mainland residents believe mochi is the ice cream-filled dessert they get at Japanese restaurants, but that’s mochi ice cream. Mochi is that little rice flour dumpling encasing the ball of ice cream. At its simplest, Japanese mochi can be made with just rice that is pounded into a paste and shaped, or it can be sweetened, flavored, and colored and wrapped around bean paste or peanut butter or fruit or anything else you want.

In Hawaii, cooks are also used to other Asian and Western influences, so we eat Chinese gau, deep fried poi mochi, and mochi banana bread. Most home cooks nowadays use mochiko flour instead of pounded rice, and the dishes they make can be sweet or savory and steamed, baked, microwaved, or fried for different results.

Hawaii’s Best Mochi Recipes is one of my favorite local cookbooks and a great source of all of the above. Today I wanted something eggy, and the butter mochi recipe on page 9 fit the bill. I've adapted it for my own, low-sugar needs, but if you want the beloved dense, crusty treat instead of the bready option I made, use two or three cups of sugar instead of my lowly 1/2 cup.

Butter Mochi

1 lb mochiko *

1/2 c sugar (see note above)

1 Tb baking powder

½ c butter or margarine

5 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 can coconut milk (12-oz)**

Melt butter and set aside to cool. In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix until batter is smooth. Pour into greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 375° for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and cut into squares. (If your knife sticks, try a plastic take-out knife.)

*I’ve included an Amazon link for mochiko in order to show you the box, but in many areas of the U.S. you can buy mochiko at Asian grocery stores, and in Seattle (and our last home in Denver) I could pick it up at the closest supermarket. By the way, brown rice flour will not produce the same result at all. It's a fine product, but it's not for mochi.

** The coconut milk does not add coconut flavor; you can sprinkle toasted coconut on top if you like.

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Molly D's Kitchen in Seattle: Butter Mochi