Oreo Pancakes

Oreo, Oreo, wherefore art thou Oreo?

                        In my pancakes.

You might ask me why I put Oreos in my pancakes this morning. 

                       One of my answers might be “Why not?” 

If I think of putting Oreos in something, it will probably happen due to my dangerous and forbidden love affair with milk’s favorite cookie. I come from the noble house of Dieting and he comes from one of my family’s enemies – Nabisco. But how can I resist that Oreo cookie goodness? Alas, a cookie by any other name does not taste as good. (I’m looking at you, WhoNu and every other Oreo imposter!)

I usually make myself some kind of fruit smoothie for breakfast but I wasn’t feeling it this morning. It’s dreary out and I wanted something hot but eggs didn’t sound appealing either. Pancakes came to mind! At first I was considering making Cranberry Orange pancakes (another experiment I’ve been waiting to try out) but I don’t have any oranges in the fridge! Apparently, ‘twas not to be. (But I will make them someday when I have everything I need for my cooking adventures). If I couldn’t make Cranberry Orange pancakes, what could I do? Not even sure how, but Oreos popped into my head and it was like when Romeo first spots Juliet in the crowd at the Capulet’s party. “Did my heart love till now?” (Side note: I HATE Romeo and Juliet. It is by far one of my least favorites, ranking little higher than Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, and Coriolanus.)

I’m making a very short story quite long, aren’t I? To get to the point, I made Oreo pancakes on a whim. It’s definitely something I’m going to play with though, because, while they were tasty, I want the Oreo flavor to be in every bite. But I won’t hold out on you so I'll share what I did this morning with the note that I’m going to revisit this recipe with improvements. You are welcome to play with it as well! That is one of my favorite things about cooking. :)

1 ¼ c. flour

1 egg

1 c. milk

¼ c. oil (like canola)

¼ c. sugar

1 heaping tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

5-6 Oreos

Butter or nonstick spray for your pan

Crush the Oreos, don’t make them all a fine powder. Leave plenty of chunks. It makes the pancake more interesting.

Mix your dry ingredients and then add the egg, milk, vanilla, and oil. Whisk until combined but don’t over whisk. You want light and fluffy pancakes, not stiff ones.

Add the Oreo crumbles and stir until just combined.

Heat your pan on Medium and grease it to prevent sticking. I think that heating the pan after you make the batter is best because it gives the Oreos time to start breaking up into the batter. Next time, I might even let the Oreos sit in the wet ingredients separately for a while so that more Oreo flavor comes through in the pancakes when it’s cooked.

Pour batter on to the pan or griddle and wait until bubbles start rising and popping on the surface of the pancake then flip. Wait about 2-3 minutes depending on how big your pancake is then serve!

Now since this is a work in process, I don’t have anything to serve it with. I’m sure that maple syrup would be fine but it hardly seems to go with Oreos. I ate mine as is but that has been a quirk of mine for years with all kinds of pancakes.

Any suggestions?

Guacamole

Mexican is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods. (Odd considering I’m not even remotely Mexican or of any kind of Spanish descent that I know of, being half Italian and half French Canadian). And even though it is completely inauthentic, Taco Bell has been known to satisfy a Mexican craving on rare occasions. But when I’m not looking for the fast and easy way to tame the beasts that are my tastebuds, I love (and I mean LOVE) to make guacamole and margaritas! MMM!

Now recently, I went to this popular restaurant in my neck of the woods that gets a lot of great press because of their guacamole. Particularly because they make it fresh for your table should you choose to order it. Once you’re seated at your table in this restaurant that I haven’t named but will now (Mezcal), you’re greeted by the sight of a molcajete (the Mexican mortar and pestle that originated long before the Mexicans) and three gorgeous Hass avocados.

Of course, the thing about avocados is that, when left at room temp, they ripen like most produce. I tested our table’s avocado selection (I’m something of an aficionado of avocado ripeness) by picking it up and giving it a light press with my thumb. An avocado that isn’t quite ripe enough will not give when you press it but if it’s overly ripe it will have little to no resistance. I like avocados that are right in the middle, there’s a slight resistance but your thumb can definitely feel the avocado give a little. When avocados are somewhere in the middle of that ripeness scale, you’re going to get chunky guacamole but with a great balance of creaminess. When it’s a softer avocado, you’re going to get very smooth and creamy guacamole, its flavor, I think, is a little milder.

To get to the point, our table’s avocados were too soft in my opinion, yielding an overpriced molcajete of guacamole that was lacking in flavor. (We ordered the House guacamole which was more traditional, perhaps the other two recipes are more flavorful but it really all starts with the avocado for me).

I make awesome guacamole. Really, I take a great deal of pride in my guac (hahaha). I have been known to eat it with a spoon because I love it that much.

Now here’s what you’ll need:

2 avocados (test for medium ripeness!)

1 lime (for juice AND zest)

Cilantro

1 jalapeno

1 vine ripe tomato or 3 small romas

Cumin

Ancho chili powder

Chipotle powder

Cayenne

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Salt and pepper

2 qt freezer bag (yes, a freezer bag)

You may have noticed that there’s quite a few spicy ingredients in my guacamole, my family enjoys the kick from the jalapeno and the spices contrasting with the cool avocado flavor. You can adjust to your flavor profile of choice. Note: If you don’t like cilantro, I don’t recommend making this purely because I can’t imagine my recipe without it but I have seen Italian flat leaf parsley substituted for cilantro. It won’t taste the same at all but I know there are plenty of people who hate this particular herb.

How to make Renée’s Guacamole

Open your freezer bag and prop it so it stands on its own. You will be using the bag in place of a bowl. This makes the mixing more fun AND prevents oxidation which will turn your avocados brown.

Halve and pit your avocados. (Please be careful while doing so. I had a nasty slip of the knife that damaged my finger – the tip has no feeling – while pitting an avocado over the summer). Zest your limes. Be sure to only remove the green, you don’t want the white pithy part because it is NOT tasty. Green = YUM but White = YUCK.

Scoop the avocados out of their shells, making sure that any brown sections aren’t included. Put avocados and zest in the bag and immediately cut your lime in half and squeeze one half’s worth of juice over the avocados for flavor and to slow oxidation.

Cut and seed your tomato(es). I like to dice mine into small pieces because my sister doesn’t care for tomatoes but if they’re small enough she doesn’t notice. Then into the bag.

Cut your jalapeno in half lengthwise after removing the top then remove the vein and seeds. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EYES. The oils from the capsicum will BURN. Now, depending on how spicy you want your guacamole, determine how much of the jalapeno you’re going to use and then finely dice and toss into the bag. I use a small jalapeno and usually the whole thing (minus the seeds and vein of course).

Tear about a handful of cilantro leaves from the bunch and give them a medium to rough chop and then into the bag.

Once again, depending on your flavor profile, add the cumin, ancho chili powder, chipotle powder, and cayenne. I use a sprinkling of each. It’s different every time.

Sprinkle the onion powder and garlic powder into the bag as well. I use the powders for flavor distribution (and because raw garlic is awful and my sister doesn’t care for chunks of onion).

Salt and pepper to taste.

Now zip up your bag and make sure you get as much of the air out as possible. You get to mush the avocado with your hands! Make sure you mush and mix well for maximum flavor distribution. Release any extra air you can as you go. I like to leave mine a little chunky but you can make it as smooth as you want.

Put in the fridge to let the flavors “marry” or serve immediately with fresh lime squeezed on top and tortilla chips. To serve, snip a corner off of the bag and squeeze out into a bowl if you’re expecting it all to get eaten. Storing it in the fridge without cutting the bag will keep it green longer.

 

Tofu Piccata (Yes, you read that correctly)

For those of you who don’t know, I love meat. Variety is the key to my diet and this extends to my protein sources. Since I do all of the dinner planning at home, if not all of the cooking, I make sure that we have a different protein source every night. There’s no way we will have chicken two nights in a row. I just won’t allow it! Ok, so maybe occasionally it happens but let me assure you it is a rare occurrence.

Wanting to broaden my protein source horizons, I decided to go vegetarian for about a month and a half. I’m on week 2, I think. While it has been sad to still be planning meat-filled meals for the rest of my family knowing that I won’t get to taste their dinners, I’ve been managing quite fine without chicken, pork, beef, turkey, veal, lamb, etc etc etc. I chose to give up fish as well making dining out very difficult. Would you believe that Applebee’s does not have any straight up vegetarian meals on their menu? I had to order a subpar broccoli and fettuccine alfredo sans the chicken.

After turning down an invitation to a steakhouse, which I felt sorry about but honestly the only vegetarian thing the restaurant had on its menu were overpriced vegetables, I opted for drinks with some friends at the 99. Deciding I wanted something substantial to go with my awesome $4 margarita (!!!), I took a gander at the menu but couldn’t find anything to order from the entrees section and had to opt for fried cheese sticks from the appetizers.  

I’ve become very indignant on the behalf of vegetarians trying to dine out with friends as a result.

Anyway, to the food, this was my first foray into tofu as the main attraction. I did some looking around for recipes that I could start with but grew irritated with the ongoing Asian theme. As much as I love Asian cuisine, I wanted something different since I’ve had quite of bit of Asian fare since going meatless. Not finding anything, I decided to make something up!

You don’t see Italian and tofu together often; do you? I did some searching and turned up nothing for Tofu Piccata so that’s what I chose to make. I think our favorite Chicken Piccata recipe is Giada de Laurentiis’s recipe which can be found here so I began there and started making some adjustments to her recipe to make it vegetarian.

The chicken was obviously the first thing to go but I nearly missed the addition of chicken stock when I was revising. Giada’s recipe calls for ½ a cup of stock so I replaced it with a dry white wine that wasn’t included in her recipe but does feature in other piccata sauces. I selected an extra firm tofu and sliced it into about ¼ inch slices and dredged them in flour after pressing out as much water as I could. (Honestly, I think pressing the tofu was the hardest part). Then I pan fried them in a little bit of butter and olive oil and removed from the pan to make the sauce.

Taking fresh lemon juice and capers, I combined them in the pan with pinot grigio. (I used Black Swan’s pinot because it’s smooth and crisp AND it was on sale. So use whichever dry white wine you prefer.)  Once I added the tofu back to the pan after the sauce came to a boil, I quickly realized that the absorbent nature of tofu was making fast work of my sauce. I added a touch of vegetable stock to save the day.

Once plated and garnished with parsley alongside some multi-grain penne, I took my pictures (a little impatiently) and then tried out my creation. There are many words that could describe that first bite but I think delightful is the best. :) I may even go so far as to say that it is better than chicken piccata. (Yeah, I went there. Rob says I’m ballsy.) 

Taken with my phone so the image quality isn't as good.
But I wasn't going to get my camera back out once I started eating.

When you have chicken piccata, the sauce sits on top of the chicken but let me tell you about tofu piccata! Remember how I said the sauce was absorbed by the tofu when I returned it to the pan? Ooooo weeee! Piccata flavor absolutely permeates every bite of the tofu making it completely delectable.

I’m going to have let some of you down and withhold the recipe for now since I want to do some tweaking. I definitely need to make more of the sauce since so much of it gets sucked up into the tofu and I may even skip the dredging of the tofu in flour since its probably an unnecessary relic of the original chicken piccata recipe. As soon as I have adjusted it to my liking, I will be sure to post the full recipe with instructions!