For our final column of the year, we’ve got two family recipes that are easy to make and perfectly-suited to the holidays: Neil’s Nanny’s oatcakes and my brother Jason’s ricotta pancakes...
For our final column of the year, we’ve got two family recipes that are easy to make and perfectly-suited to the holidays: Neil’s nanny’s oatcakes and my brother Jason’s ricotta pancakes.
Neil’s nanny’s oatcakes
My grandmother is a famously bad cook. Friends and relatives alike go to great lengths to avoid her dinner invitations, and at Christmas she gets bundled onto the sofa with a whiskey and ginger, far away from the kitchen. There is, however, one towering exception in an otherwise diabolical culinary track record, which is her oatcakes. Brought over from Scotland to Nova Scotia as a staple in the early settler’s diet, my grandmother picked up the recipe in the 1920s from a deaf old aunt who had been churning them out daily since the 19th century. A living testament to the sustaining power of the oatcake, Nanny Nora is now 98-years-old and still going strong, despite nearly a century’s consumption of burnt carrots.
With a few 21st century adaptations, the humble oatcake is a perfect foil to many of the rich foods that clutter people’s shelves at Christmas. If, like my grandmother, you’re generally a lost-cause in the kitchen, this simple recipe is a great way to astonish your friends and relatives with your baking prowess.
300g rolled oats
300g plain flour (if you want to be virtuous or gluten free, try spelt flour)
100g unrefined caster sugar
2 teaspoons salt
170g vegetable shortening (cookeen etc – don’t worry, they removed the transfats in 2006)
170g unsalted butter
170ml water, or just enough to hold the dough together
Preheat oven to 190 Celsius. Mix dry ingredients, then cut in the butter and shortening until you have pea-sized crumbly bits. Add water and form a ball of dough. Roll out thinly, to about 1/8 of an inch, cut into rectangles and bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 15-20 minutes, checking after 10 as they are quick to burn if the oven is too hot. Serve with cheese and a slice of membrillo, or with leftover turkey or ham and a dab of cranberry sauce, or just on their own as a snack.
"Americans take their pancakes very seriously, and the holy grail is keeping them moist and fluffy, while still slightly crispy on the outside"
Jason’s ricotta pancakes (serves 4 - 6)
This is a recipe from my brother, who is a chef in the States. Americans take their pancakes very seriously, and the holy grail is keeping them moist and fluffy, while still slightly crispy on the outside. My brother's figured out how to do this by using ricotta, a subtle addition to the mix that gives the pancakes a savoury edge, and definitely keeps them moist. The recipe is very easy and makes a great Christmas or New Year's day breakfast; served either on their own or with streaky bacon and real Canadian maple syrup.
Dry Ingredients:
450g of White flour
3 tsps Baking powder
1 1/2 tsps baking soda
3/4 tsps salt
3 tbls white sugar
Wet ingredients:
250g ricotta cheese
130g unsalted butter (at room temperature or slightly above)
460g (2 cups) whole milk
2 medium eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg or a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Sift all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Stir all wet ingredients in another bowl until mixed. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and pour in the wet mixture, then whisk gently until well incorporated, but do not overmix. Butter a griddle or frying pan and place on medium-high heat. Fill a 1/3 cup measure to scoop the pancake mixture into the pan, though you can also make larger pancakes if desired. Cook on each side until golden brown, gently patting if needed to keep the shape. Serve each pancake right as it comes off the stove.
Ananda Pellerin is a London-based writer and Neil Wissink is a visual artist also based in London. More from The Hunger here, and contact The Hunger here.
