I love cooking with buttermilk. There is something about it that adds a great flavor to whatever it’s used in. I’ve talked about the gourmet burgers that I made for a Father’s Day cookout. What I neglected to mention is the great cole slaw recipe that I made for the event as well. It was Nigella Lawson’s recipe for New Orleans slaw, and it’s one of my favorites. There is buttermilk in the dressing, along with maple syrup, and it is really delicious.
The problem with the recipe, and so many others is that it calls for a very small amount of buttermilk (in this case only a quarter of a cup). I’ve never seen buttermilk in small quantities, you usually have to buy a whole quart of it. Luckily there is an easy answer to use up all of that deliciously sour milk: pancakes!
I know I relish the opportunity to make buttermilk pancakes whenever I have some leftover buttermilk in the refrigerator. In fact, I don’t even bother to make pancakes unless I have buttermilk. I love the texture and flavor that the buttermilk adds to the flapjacks.
There is a great, super simple recipe for pancakes over on Epicurious. With only five ingredients it’s really hard to mess up, and they always come out great. The great thing about pancakes is they are delicious any time of the day: breakfast, lunch, or dinner; pancakes always taste good, and they’re really versatile (as Debbie has written about many a time). I like to change up my buttermilk beauties; sometimes I douse them in maple syrup, other times I use local honey. Sometimes I just smear them with fruit preserves, or stick chopped fruit into the batter.
If you’re a little scared of buttermilk, and I know a lot of people who are, I urge you to go pick some up the next time you have a hankering for flapjacks and try out a some buttermilk pancakes. You won’t be sorry.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jul 05, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
