Nearly every culture or country cooks its take on what we call pancakes. France has its crêpes; Eastern Europe, their blinis. With those, we are familiar; with Finland’s pannukakku or Hungary’s palacsinta, not so much. Likewise, by and large, for Ethiopia’s teff flour-based injera or Colombia’s corn meal-based cachapas.
Cakes cooked in a pan are worldwide.
Korean cooks make pajeon, a pancake savory with scallion (“pa,” in Korean) and often kimchee or seafood. It is favored not only for its flavors, but also for its texture, soft and chewy on the inside, crisp at the edges and on its surfaces. No maple syrup for these pancakes, only a chile-hot dipping sauce, salty with soy.
The American (U.S. and Canadian) buttermilk pancake is similar, nearly ingredient for ingredient, to the Russian oladya, our pancake’s forebear by several centuries. We use buttermilk; in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, cooks use that or, more often, the fermented milk drink called kefir, or sometimes yogurt.
In Ukrainian, “oladya” is “oladka,” the basis for the word “latke,” the Jewish potato pancake. Both words, the Russian oladya and the Ukrainian oladka, derive from the Attic Greek terms “eladion” (“olive tree”) and “elaion” (“olive oil” or “oily substance,” such as butter), perhaps pointing to how and in what such cakes were fried and cooked.
In me, the American buttermilk pancake wells up waves of happy nostalgia. When I was growing up and nearly every Saturday morning, my father made his buttermilk pancakes for us kids. With the batter, he would write our names in capital letters: Billy, Mary, Betty, Kay and on and on. There were nine of us and we all had short names, but still, that’s a lot of pancakes. I am sure that my father was glad that no one of us was named Bartholomew or Jacqueline.
Each August while my dad was growing up, my grandfather, the bookkeeper for the former Fort Lupton Canning Company, would take my father to Denver for baseball games at the old Merchant’s Park ballfield on south Broadway.
They always attended the annual semi-pro baseball tournament that sported teams with names such as The House of David (all the players had beards). Before the game, my grandfather took my dad to a small diner where the cook made their favorite pancakes. That’s where my dad’s recipe got its start.
My dad’s pancakes
Serves 1 to 9
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 quart cultured buttermilk
- 2 eggs, beaten with a whisk
- 1/2 cube unsalted butter, melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions
Mix well the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix well the remaining ingredients. Gradually and gently add the dry ingredients to the liquid mixture with a wire whisk. Gently mix together, but do not remove all the lumps.
Bake the pancakes in any form that you wish on a lightly greased, hot griddle set to 375-400 degrees, if electric, or medium-high if the griddle is set over a gas flame.
Note: If you write a name on the griddle with the batter, it helps to write letters such as “C,” “L,” or “N” backwards because they cook more uniformly on the first side and hence will look better on the plate.
Pajeon (Korean scallion pancakes)
Makes 6 to 8 or more
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup very cold (if possible, refrigerated) water
- 1 small bunch scallions, ends trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths, then sliced in half longways
- 3/4 cup kimchee, diced if in chunks, and its juice
- Vegetable oil for pan-frying (2 to 4 tablespoons total)
Directions
Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the egg, water and kimchee juice and blend until the batter is smooth and runny, as if for making crêpes. (If too thick, add very cold water 1 teaspoon at a time.) Gently fold in the scallions and diced kimchee.
Over medium-high heat, in a non-stick skillet, add 2 tablespoons oil, swirling to coat. Ladle in enough batter and vegetables to form cakes 5 to 6 inches in diameter, each without touching any other. Cook until browned on one side (about 2-3 minutes), then flip and brown on the other side. Keep flipping until both sides are well-speckled brown.
Keep the pajeon warm on a plate covered in paper toweling while using up all the batter and vegetables, adding more oil to the skillet if necessary. Serve with a dipping sauce made of your favorite chile paste or sauce thinned with a bit of soy sauce.
Cook’s note: Pajeon mix is available at some Asian groceries, usually sold as “Korean pancake mix.” If using, the mix substitutes in this recipe for the egg and all the dry ingredients. Also for this recipe, you may use whatever other vegetables, cut up into small pieces, that suit your taste, even leftover vegetables, or fish or meats.
Reach Bill St John at [email protected]
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