Zucchini Frittercakes

It is I! I who have been up and away! It is me who has forgotten how to take photographs in a month! Hooray! It is I. It is me. Say hello to I-me. [Really lame but silly moods work like that sometimes. Deal with it.]
I spent a whole month away from the kitchen and I feel very strangely about it. I'm not sure I liked it. Being away from the kitchen that is. Since I've been back I've only been cooking at night and you can't take awesome photos of food at night. Or maybe I just can't take really awesome photos of food at night. I hate the yellowness of it all and I can't be bothered to sit and improvise for you or me or my blog. I, I, I. So many letter I's today.

You need: 

3 small or 2 medium sized zucchini (I used 1  extra extra large crazy zucchini. I should have taken a photo. Grrr. Now it's gone.)

2 large eggs

1/2 a red onion, diced into small squares

A handful of freshly chopped parsley

1 teaspoon of tumeric powder

1 teaspoon of coriander powder

1 cup of all-purpose flour

salt and pepper to taste (Unfortunately, I like a lot of salt so don't listen to my measurements and do your thing.)

1 teaspoon of chili flakes

Vegetable oil

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Grate the zucchini into a bowl using a large grater. No itsy-bitsy Microplane graters/shavers here. Stir in the diced onions, chopped parsley and eggs. Add the flour, coriander powder, turmeric powder, salt, pepper and chili flakes. For those of you who haven't used turmeric before, don't be scared of it. It's a wonderful wonderful things sometimes, but other times... not so much, especially if you add too much. Mix the batter and do a little dance for extra magic. If the batter gets too thin from the liquid in the zucchini, add tablespoon by tablespoon of flour until you get that soft and gloopy consistency you're looking for. Soft and gloopy! Very gross actually but the yumminess is worth the gloopiness. 

Heat a large pan over medium heat and then add a small splash of vegetable oil to it. Drop heaping tablespoons of batter into the pan and press down on each sizzly pancake. Cook the frittery pancakes for about 2 minutes on each side, until browned or... blackened sometimes, because that happens to the best of us. Place them on a sheet pan and keep them warm in the oven. Repeat until all the batter is used. Serve hot please. Promise?

Dip ingredients:

1 yoghurt cup

1/2 teaspoon of mint

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

salt

Place the yoghurt in your serving bowl. Add the mint, garlic powder and salt and mix. 

Thank you, FoodBuzz.

Buttered Up made the FoodBuzz Top 9 twice. Once for the Puffins at number 5 and the second time for Chocolate Cinnamon Goodness at number 7. So giddy! So silly!

Internet Withdrawal Dessert Goodness

Dear Internet,

You left our home for days on end and worried us. We thought you wouldn't come back. Then, when you did come back, you didn't bring your wireless wife with you, which made us worry even more. Would you really make us share a cable? Really? We thought we would have to set up camp at Coffee Bean and ask nicely for them to adopt us. We thought many nasty thoughts but thankfully those have stopped now that you're back with your temperamental wife, Wireless. But do you know the trouble both of you have caused? I haven't been able to update my blog and post my photos and they got sad and lonely when they were separated, not to mention scared. Shame on you for making my invisible friends worry. I love you. Don't leave. Please.

Love and fairy dust,

Addicted2U

Sneak peak:

My homecheflings, we're about to share an easy experience together. An experience that I haven't yet named. One that doesn't involve scary thoughts like bad Internet connections, ironing your own clothes and invisibility cloaks. Instead, think happy thoughts. Thoughts that involve cinnamon, chocolate, butter (and a possible heart attack but you never read all the way to that part in the contract). So here we go. You'll need:

1 can of condensed milk

1 teaspoon of dark unsweetened cocoa powder

Half a pack of digestive biscuits

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

60 grams of butter

Around 12-15 almonds, blanched, peeled and roughly chopped (Find out how here.)

Such ugly little things.

Of course, you can always just buy peeled almonds and chop them up but then you're no fun and you're missing out on the joy of almond skin popping. Blitz your digestives in a food processor or get a sandwich bag, put your biscuits in it, seal it, and pound away your rage. The sounds of the food processor makes up for the pounding rage so I'm sticking with that. 

Add your cinnamon and your butter. The smell. The smell. The smell. The smell. Joy.

Place your biscuit mix in a tart or springform tin and press down firmly into the bottom and sides of tin. Pack it. Tightly. You don't want a loose base. (No pun intended but haha!) Now, refrigerate your base for 15 minutes. In the meantime, get a saucepan. Pour one can of condensed milk into your saucepan and put it on low heat for a few minutes - I didn't time it so maybe 2-4 minutes. Don't let it boil. Add 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder and whisk away until it's super smooth with no lumps, clumps and unsightly bumps. Turn off the heat and add the almonds, now all chopped, into your chocolate condensed milk goodness. Stir. Mix until it's all combined.  

Take the biscuit base out of the fridge and pour your liquid mixture all over it until it's uniform and touching the edges. Put it back in the fridge and leave it for at least an hour to an hour and a half before slicing, serving, sighing and smiling. (Mine melted quite a bit because of the humidity.)

If you come up with a name for this, I'm listening! Happy weekend to you. 

The Puffins: beautiful little pancake muffins

I don't know if you've ever heard of these before but I hadn't and the lazy part of me got so happy it literally jumped up and made these the minute I saw them. Conveniently, it was also morning. 


Pancake muffins. What can I say? Pros: 1. You don't have to sit and flip your pancakes one by one. 2. It's super fast to make. 3. Everyone gets to eat at the same time 4. You can substitute the chocolate chips with just about anything or make them plain. 5. They'll make you happy. They'll make your kids happy. They'll make your whoever happy. No need to elaborate any more than this really AND I've got a lot of cleaning to do today so be happy with photos and a recipe my little friendlings and run along. And please, please, please... try these.

Mini Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins: (Adapted from Bakerella. Thank you, Essmat, for introducing me.)

1 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
2/3 cup of buttermilk (I used a buttermilk substitute - 2/3 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of vinegar left to stand for 5 to 10 minutes)
1 egg
2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup (I used pancake syrup because I had it around. I'd love to try this with honey or vanilla.)
2 tablespoons of melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Generously grease mini muffin pan. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk. In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined. Stir in your chocolate chips and keep a few to sprinkle on the top. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes. (My chocolate chips sadly didn't stay on top.)

Makes 24 mini pancake muffins. Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan. Serve immediately with warmed butter, maple syrup, pancake syrup, chocolate sauce, your call really. You really should dip these in something. They are, after all, meant to be dipped. And one of the best things about them is how they slip right out of the pan. I love things that don't make me scrub to get stuff out.