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Zucchini pancakes, two ways
By Ann | September 19, 2008
Squash, courgette, zucchini, call it what you will, but the vegetable is threatening to take over the world! Or, at least the market (and certainly the garden). It’s everywhere, it’s cheap… and it’s one of the main ingredients of Mark Bittman’s “vegetable pancakes” from his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, a recipe that we recently sampled. (It’s also one of the book’s “20 essential vegetarian dishes.”)
It’s an ingenious concept, actually — combine 1 lb grated zucchini (or turnips, winter squash or sweet potatoes) with half a grated onion, one egg, one cup flour, salt and pepper. Add a bit of milk to form a thick batter. Grease up the griddle and you’ve got yourself some fritters. Easy peasey, right?
Except… they didn’t taste very good.
Instead of a light, bready texture, the pancakes (photo above — I served them with some leftover ratatouille) were gluey in the center, as if the batter hadn’t cooked enough. Should I have cooked them more? I’m not sure. It’s true my pan was too hot at first, but after the first batch, I thought I had the problem under control. No, it was as if the zucchini sweated too much, making the center soggy. Indeed, Mark B.’s general instructions for “the basics of vegetable pancakes and fritters” (which I read after I made them, clever me) say: “Water is the only potential pancake problem. If you’re using raw vegetables high in moisture — like zucchini or onions — after grating, wrap them in a towel (or gather up in fistfuls) and give them a good squeeze.”
Apparently, I should have spent less time last night constructing the perfect kir (so hard to find the proper proportion between the creme de cassis and white wine) and more time squeezing vegetables.
And yet… in her book Barefoot Contessa at Home, Ina Garten has a recipe for zucchini pancakes, which I tried a few weeks ago. It calls for:
3/4 lb zucchini (vs 1 lb), grated
2 tablespoons onion (vs. 1/2 onion) grated
2 eggs (vs. 1 egg)
6-8 tablespoons flour (vs. 1 cup)
1 teaspoon baking powder (vs. none)
Salt and pepper
Combine ingredients in the same manner as Mark B. (Note: there are no instructions to squeeze the veg) and fry on the griddle. These pancakes turned out light and delicious, without a hint of gluiness. Was it luck? Skill? A better recipe? You tell me.
Topics: Cooking the Books | 8 Comments »
8 Responses to “Zucchini pancakes, two ways”
Comments
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September 29th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I made the Barefoot Contessa’s pancakes
this weekend and they were very tasty.
However, they were a little gluey as well.
Without a weight scale it was hard for me
to judge 3/4 pound and maybe I needed to add
a little more flour and baking powder. Regardless the whole family loved them….I think they
would even be good with a little chopped ham
or bacon.
September 30th, 2008 at 4:23 am
I’m so happy you all liked them! I think it’s a good recipe (despite the possible gluiness). I’ve been thinking they’d be delicious topped with some sour cream and a sliver of smoked salmon. Wouldn’t that be an elegant first course?
October 9th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
First visit, and I’m engaged! I love zuke pancakes, but make them ad hoc with ‘enough’ zucchini, several eggs, dill, feta, and only a few tablespoons of flour, just enough to stop the runniness. They don’t rise but they taste good. Think latkes…
October 11th, 2008 at 4:21 am
Susan G –
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your tips on zucchini pancakes — I love your idea of latke-style and the dill and feta sound delicious. Do you think your version would work with other vegetables, too? Maybe turnips or parsnips? It’s getting harder to find zucchini these days…
January 24th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
[...] pancakes, which I believe are also included in her Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook (thanks to Ann Mah’s blog for that [...]
January 26th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
I too tried Ina Garten’s recipe for Zucchini pancakes and just loved them. I added about 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese and substituted one half italian bread crumbs for one half the flour. No gooie-ness. They were wonderful. You can do so much with this recipe.
February 17th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
I also tried these pancakes, but felt they lacked a lot of flavor. The next time I made them, I sauted the zucchini and onion in oil first. Then I dried them on a paper towel. I also added 1/3 cup of parmesean cheese, and that made all the difference!!
They were so much better than Ina’s original recipe!!!!
April 17th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
I have this recipe for Chickpea and feta rissoles, that includes grated zuccini/cougette/baby marrows, which is similar to this recipe. It doesn’t have the gluiness but it sticks to the pan because of the feta but it is really tasty and fresh tasting.