For the first time last summer, Jerri and I spent a week in San Francisco, California, toured some wineries in the Napa and Sonoma valleys and visited our friends Bob and Jody at their home in Ashland, Oregon. Bob and I had shared an apartment in Madison when we were students at the University of Wisconsin and were still on speaking terms after that experience.
Jody rolls her eyes when Bob and I brag about our dinners at the apartment in Madison, but she got downright nasty when I told her that I had already posted Bob’s Mom’s Hot Dish to “Courage in the Kitchen.” She sneered, “You mean glop, right?” Not wanting to get thrown out of the house, I did not rise to the challenge but felt sorry for someone who could not appreciate real Wisconsin comfort food.
While she does not appreciate our gourmet meals of years past, she does make a wonderful pesto that we enjoyed on perfectly cooked pasta, and she shared the recipe she uses for some delicious pancakes made with rye flour and buttermilk. She got the recipe from a cookbook by Marion Cunningham that she bought when they lived in Oakland while Bob taught at Berkeley.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg (room temperature)
3 Tbs. butter, melted
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup rye flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
PROCEDURE:
This recipe works best if all the ingredients are at room temperature. Warm the egg in a dish of hot water for a few minutes, warm the buttermilk and melt the butter in the microwave. Put the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter in a mixing bowl. Stir briskly until the mixture is smooth and blended.
Stir the flours, salt, and baking soda together in a small bowl so they are well blended. Stir the dry ingredients into the buttermilk mixture. Mix them well, but don’t worry if there are a few small lumps.
Heat a skillet or griddle to medium hot. Grease the pan lightly and spoon out about three tablespoons of batter for each pancake. If necessary, spread the batter with the back of the spoon so it is thinned out a little. Cook until a few bubbles break on top.
Turn the pancakes over and brown them on the other side. Serve with plenty of butter and warm maple syrup.
NOTES: If the batter seems too stiff, add a little more buttermilk. Unless I am using unsalted butter, I use a scant half teaspoon of salt. This recipe makes about a dozen four inch pancakes. Double the recipe if you need more.
We first had these at home with chokecherry syrup. Wonderful way to enjoy some failed chokecherry jelly.
Courage in the Kitchen 