Original Recipe from Ottolenghi’s Plenty

Well you can tell it is summer when I start pulling out all of my Ottolenghi cookbooks.  I get so excited by the promise of eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and have made some of my favorite recipes featuring summer goodies from his cookbooks.  Funny thing is I found this yummy recipe for Green Pancakes which takes advantage of the fact that we still have some greens in the box.  The original was made with spinach, but I am switching it to chard.  I would also switch out the Green Chiles and use a bit of Basil, taking advantage or more share ingredients.  Perhaps some greek yogurt with a bit of garlic, parsley and basil blended in to top these could be a nice addition. 

1/2 lb Chard Leaves only, wash well and cut away the stems saving them for something else

3/4 cup Flour

1 heaping TB Baking Powder

3/4 tsp  Salt

1 Egg

4 TB Unsalted Butter, melted

1 tsp ground Cumin

2/3 cup Milk

6 medium Green Onions, finely sliced - you could probably use the tops of the onions from the share

2 fresh Green Chiles, thickly sliced

1 Egg White

Olive Oil for frying

Wash the chard well, don’t drain.  Put into a hot pan, cook until well wilted, you may need to add more water.  Put into a sieve to drain, and when cool enough to handles squeeze excess moisture, it won’t be as wet as the spinach would have been.  Roughly chop and put aside.  Put the flour, baking powder, whole egg, melted butter, salt, cumin and milk in a large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth.  Add the green onions, chiles ad chard and mix with a fork.  Whisk the egg white to soft peaks and gently fold into the batter.  Pour a small amount of olive oil into a heavy frying pan and place on medium high heat.  For each pancake, ladle 2 TB of batter into the pan and press down gently.  You should get smallish pancakes, about 3 inches and 3/8” thick.  Cook for ab out 2 minutes on each side, or until you get a good golden green color.  Transfer to paper towels and keep warm.  Continue making pancakes, adding oil to the pan as needed, until the batter is used up.