Asparagus-Spinach Pancakes

ingredients.

1 c. milk
3 eggs
1/3 c. sour cream
5 oz frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed
1/4 lb. asparagus, peeled and trimmed
3 T. freshly grated Parmesan
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. plus 1/3 c. olive oil
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

directions.

Heat oven to 400°F. Place the asparagus on baking sheet and toss with 2 teaspoons olive oil, 1/4 teaspoons salt and pepper. Roast for 40 minutes, tossing occasionally. Remove from oven and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs. Stir in the sour cream, spinach, asparagus, Parmesan, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add the flour and mix until well combined.
In a large skillet, over medium heat, heat 1/3 of the remaining oil. Make 4 pancakes (about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake) and cook until golden brown and slightly puffed, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Working in batches, make a total of 12 pancakes, adding oil as necessary.

I made the batter about an hour or so ahead of time and stuck it in the fridge while I was preparing the other dishes. I wasn’t sure how they would turn out having made the batter ahead of time, but it didn’t seem to matter one way or the other.

This was Dad’s favorite dish of our entire Christmas day meal. Personally I’m a little bit amazed to discover that I like almost any kind of pancake made with almost any ingredient. I really enjoyed this dish as well. I doubled the recipe because I had a lot of spinach and a lot of asparagus. We munched on some of the asparagus after it was done roasting (incidentally, roasted asparagus tastes the same as roasted Brussels sprouts), and not a lot of the asparagus went into the batter. I ended up chopping the asparagus up a bit because I thought it would be weird to have a big stringy piece of asparagus in your pancake.

Perhaps because not much asparagus even went into the batter the batter turned out a little thin. (I added half a cup of flour right and it still looked thin.) Or maybe the pancakes are meant to be thin. Even though the griddle was set at the hottest possible temperature, the batter still spread out when I scooped it onto the griddle. I had to work the batter back toward the middle of the pancakes to keep it from spreading out too much. I tried to make these pancakes small. I swear, I did. No matter what I did they spread out to be about the same size as my head. Oh well.

We debated over butter or no butter when eating these pancakes. In the end we spread a little bit of butter on top before eating. As dad said, what did Julie Powell say in the movie Julie and Julia? You can never have enough butter. Or something like that.

Recipe rating: 