The saga of Ina's pancakes

Anyone who thinks that cookery writers effortlessly produce brilliant recipes like a rabbit from a hat should reassure themselves that we struggle like everyone else. Or at least this one does.

I've just spent the best part of two days (sorry, Matt*) trying to recreate some fantastic breakfast pancakes I had in a Chicago diner called Ina's last year. Appropriately enough they were called Heavenly Hots. When I finally extracted the recipe from the proprietor Ina Pinkney (who, as you can see from her picture, looks like a fairy godmother - exactly the kind of person who would make a perfect pancake) I couldn't believe it would work, it contained so little flour. But as they were the best pancakes I'd ever eaten I gave them a go.

I tried three different versions and just couldn't get them to hold together, despite mixing the ingredients ever so gently so as not to disperse the batter. I'm not going to give up, of course, but will have to wait until I hear back from Ina what I've done wrong. In the meantime I've rustled up a batch from the Foolproof Pancake recipe on her website which are almost equally good.

(*Matt, btw, is the book designer. A lovely guy and fellow Liverpool fan.)

Ina's Perfect Pancakes
Makes 6 large pancakes (so theoretically enough for 3, but suspect two would make short work of them)

10g butter + another small slice for greasing the pan
90g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
150ml buttermilk
50 ml whole milk (i.e. not semi-skimmed)
A few drops of vanilla extract (optional)
2 tbsp oil
Fresh fruit and honey to serve

You’ll need a medium sized frying pan or griddle.

Set the oven on to its lowest setting or turn on your plate warmer. Heat the butter in a small pan until melted and set aside. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, caster sugar and salt onto a plate. Lightly beat the egg in a medium-sized bowl and gently mix in the buttermilk, milk, cooled butter and vanilla extract if using. Sift the dry ingredients into the batter and fold in with a metal spoon - just enough to incorporate any pockets of flour but still leaving it looking alarmingly lumpy. (Don’t worry, it’s supposed to be like this).

Heat the oil and the remaining butter in a small pan and set aside. Heat a medium frying pan or pancake pan until moderately hot. Scrunch up a piece of kitchen towel dip it in the oil/butter mixture and rub it round the pan. Scoop out a coffee cup or small ladle of batter and pour it into the pan, tilting the pan a little so it spreads out to give you a pancake about 12cm wide. Cook for a minute until the surface is covered with tiny bubbles (about 1-1 1/2 minutes) then flip over the pancake and cook the other side. When both sides are lightly browned transfer to a warm plate in the oven and repeat with the remaining batter, greasing the pan lightly between each pancake. Serve warm with fresh fruit such as blueberries or strawberries and drizzle with honey or (less frugally) maple syrup

By the way, a useful tip. It's easier to get honey to drizzle - or measure it accurately - if you dip your spoon in boiling water first. Applies to golden syrup too.

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Loaves and fishes

I've been focussing on the respective costs of buying and making bread this week and must say the gulf between the two came as quite a shock. A 1.5kg pack of strong white flour, admittedly not the best you can buy, costs just 48p in Tesco this week. Strong brown costs 89p and stoneground wholemeal 93p. 1.5kg of flour is enough to make 3 big loaves. Even allowing for the cost of the other ingredients and running your oven at full blast for an hour that's a considerable saving.

I've posted the recipe for the bread I made yesterday (above) on Beyond Baked Beans. The original came from Signe, a young Norwegian post-graduate student (and trained cook) who is currently helping me out with the book. I was a bit sceptical of the idea of adding what amounts to a large bowl of porridge but it gives the loaf a fabulously moist texture. We've just had some toasted with honey for breakfast and it was terrific.

The other bargain buy yesterday was the dabs I bought for a song in the farmers market. Well, not quite a song - they were a pound each but because there was only one left when we'd bought our four they threw in a fifth free. There's not much fish on them so they're a bit fiddly to eat but the flavour is fabulously sweet - just as good as sole at a fraction of the price. We simply dusted them in a little seasoned flour and pan-fried them in butter.

Incidentally I was riveted to read on the site Sea Fishing when I looked up dabs that the recommended bait was 'a slightly stale lugworm'. I wonder how you tell if a lugworm is stale? Any fishermen reading this do tell.

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Couscous is local too

Felt the need for a break from the book so we went down to the centre of Bristol for the weekly farmers' market (where I got an amazing fish bargain, of which more tomorrow)

I'd also heard there was a Portuguese food shop round the back which I thought might be the best place to buy salt cod. There's a dish I remember having way back in Oporto which was a bit like a fishy gratin dauphinoise based on salt cod, potatoes and cream which I thought would make a good addition to the book.

The very nice woman behind the counter explained exactly how to make it but I rapidly realised it wasn't going to be a quick (or, of course, particularly healthy) option. What I should do, she said, was just cook it with potatoes, lots of onions and olive oil which sounds typically Portuguese but not quite so delicious. It'll keep for a few days though so I've got time to think about it.

The whole area is brilliant for adventurous foodies. The Portuguese family who own the shop (O Celeiro) also run a tiny restaurant and takeaway, there's a South African shop called Kalahari Moon (I think, although that does sound more like a place that sells crystals, always possible in Bristol), a Caribbean wrap stall, great cheese and olive stalls and an excellent Moroccan restaurant which serves couscous and - wait for it - o ye felafel lovers, felafel!

Of course we had to try it and I have to say it was very good. Quite different from the Israeli/Egyptian kind - curiously soft so they must have either added a lot of water to the chickpeas or incorporated some gram flour (the latter, I suspect). The spicing was spot on though and they served it with a really delicious yellow pepper and sultana relish I hadn't come across before and which would be good with carrot too, I think.

It also brought home that buying and eating local isn't just about supporting my charmingly old-fashioned neighbourhood shops but the rich variety of different food cultures that Bristol has to offer. I don't think I could live in a better place.

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Global food prices - the sobering reality

My efforts to save the odd pound here and there are put firmly into perspective by a sobering series of reports in the Guardian today and on their website

For millions of people it's not a question of cutting back but of surviving.

While food only accounts for an average 10% of the expenditure of UK households it can account for as much as 80% of that of poor families in the developing world. This Food Diary of a family in northern Cairo shows how prices have nearly doubled in the past year.

Two other things I read really struck home. First that land that could be used for growing food for Egypt's growing population is used to grow out of season crops such as beans and strawberries for the UK market. Second just how much fertile land it takes to feed livestock. According to the Guardian report, one acre of land can produce 138lbs of protein from grain but only 20lbs of protein from beef.

We should all be eating a lot less meat.

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Mexican salsa chicken

A hectic couple of days testing and writing up recipes. This is the stage of a book I don't enjoy. It's a bit like being 8 months pregnant. You wonder why you did it but it's too late to go back ;-)

However I'm more than happy with the last recipe of today. In fact I can't wait to make it again. It's an idea I picked up from the American food blog Serious Eats on which one of New York's most famous chefs Mario Batali was writing about a meal his Mexican babysitter (well, presumably his children's babysitter) made regularly for the family. It's based on tomatillos, a fabulous sharp tomato-like ingredient it's difficult to find here in the UK but I wondered if you could substitute tomatoes. The answer - happily - is that you can. My daughter, Kate, who is obsessed with salsa is just going to love this.

Mexican salsa chicken
Serves 4-6

1 kg chicken thighs or thighs and drumsticks
750g ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1-2 mild onions (about 200g in total) peeled and roughly chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1-2 chillies, de-seeded and roughly chopped
rind and juice of 2 limes (preferably unwaxed)
A good bunch or large pack of coriander, well washed and trimmed
3-4 tbsp olive oil
1-1 1/2 tsp salt
2 spring onions, trimmed and finely shredded (optional)

You will also need a large casserole or deep frying pan

Remove the skin from the chicken thighs and drumsticks. Skin the tomatoes by making a cut in the skin, pouring the boiling water over them, leaving them for a minute then plunging them in cold water. Put the peeled chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, chillies and rind and juice of the limes in a blender or food processor. Cut the stalks off the coriander, chop roughly and add them to the blender goblet then whizz together until you have a liquid but still rough-textured sauce. (You may have to do this in two batches.)

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in the casserole or frying pan and tip in the salsa. Add 1 tsp salt and the skinned chicken, turning it in the sauce, Bring to the boil then turn the heat down low and simmer for about 45-50 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the salsa reduced and thick. Roughly chop half of the coriander leaves (about 3 heaped tbsp) and add them to the pan. Stir and cook for 3-4 minutes then check the seasoning, adding more salt if you think it needs it.

Serve the chicken with warm tortillas or with brown rice, drizzling over a little olive oil and scattering over some more chopped fresh coriander and some finely shredded spring onions, if you have some. (It doesn't have to look quite as leafy as it does in the picture. I just got a bit over-excited as I usually do when coriander is around.)

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Scotch eggs and other yummy things

Just thought I'd draw your attention to Mark Hix' column in the Independent today where he offers some budget recipes including ham hocks in parsley sauce, meatballs and (my favourite) homemade Scotch eggs.

Unusually for a celebrity chef, Mark, who was brought up in Dorset, has his feet firmly on the ground. (Apart from admitting he did most of his shopping for the feature at Waitrose!)

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Mushroom 'caviar' Mark II

There are some recipes you get obsessed with and have to go on testing until you crack them. This is a fantastic spread that they sell in the takeaway of our local Bristol restaurant, Culinaria.

I asked the chef, Stephen Markwick how they made it and he just rattled off a list of ingredients - as chefs do. I had a go and the taste was fine but it was a bit heavy. This morning I popped by when they were making a batch and found the reason was that I'd used butter and hadn't added enough crème fraîche so hopefully this version will work. Have a try and let me know how you get on.

The only downside is you do need a food processor to chop the mushrooms finely enough. Or I think you do. Tell me if that isn't the case.

Serves 6-8
2 shallots or 1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
3 tbsp sunflower oil
350g button mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered
200g tub of crème fraîche
2 tbsp finely chopped tarragon leaves
Salt and pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice
Olive oil

Put the onion and garlic in the bowl of your food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Heat the oil over a low heat in a medium to large heavy bottomed saucepan or frying pan and cook the onion and garlic gently until starting to soften (about 4-5 minutes) Chop the mushrooms very finely in the food processor and tip into the pan with the onions. Stir and cook over a very low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes until the mushrooms have the consistency of a thick paste. Take off the heat, stir in the creme fraiche and return to the pan and cook for another 15-20 minutes until the mixture has thickened again. Stir in the chopped tarragon and season to taste with salt, pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice. Tip into a bowl and cool, trickle over a tablespoon or so of olive oil to stop the surface from discolouring and refrigerate. Serve at cool room temperature with wholemeal toast.

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