thanks for the aromaries.

You've abandoned your fear of putting chocolate into a perfectly good-looking chili. Maybe you even sprinkled some shredded cheese on top, you wacky risk-taker. It was worth it, right? However, since it's just you and my husband eating from that big pot (if he can smell it, he'll be over... perhaps I should have included that warning previously), you're stuck with a couple of dishes worth of leftovers. And now you're getting excited about this whole thinning of the line between sweet and savory. You've been craving chocolate-covered pretzels. Coconut chicken. Mango curry. And have I got the perfect solution for you: cornmeal pancakes.

I first had cornmeal pancakes at the now sadly defunct Royal Canadian Pancake House in New York, on Second Ave around 17th St. I've never really been a pancake person, so I wasn't too excited about this choice of restaurant. I was eating there with several friends before heading up to Central Park for the Rocket From the Crypt show at Summerstage. It was the 4th of July.

Cornmeal pancakes, like chocolate chili, bridge the sweet-savory gap perfectly. The finished product can be just as easily topped with breakfast syrup as with black beans and salsa. Or, in this case, leftover chili reheated on the stovetop. The way to get Marc to enjoy leftovers (neither one of us is a big fan of leftover food) is to refocus the meal on a new main dish. This works for both of us. As Marc pointed out, they're not so strange with chili. They're practically cornbread. As an added bonus, the smell of these pancakes cooking is just about the greatest aroma you could possibly have around your house.

Here's the recipe, adapted from the Joy of Cooking:

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Cornmeal Pancakes

Makes about 18 pancakes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. yellow cornmeal
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 c. milk
4 tablespoons butter, melted, plus extra for the griddle
1/4 c. syrup
2 large eggs
small can of yellow corn
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Optional extras:
1 c. chopped fresh broccoli
1/2 c. chopped chile peppers

Whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, butter, syrup, and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir them together. This batter will be much thinner than normal pancake batter. Stir the corn and cheese into the batter. If you want to add broccoli or chiles, now's the time to stir those in, too.

Preheat your oven to 200°F, and place a cookie sheet on the rack inside. Heat up a nonstick griddle or fry pan on the stovetop. Melt about 1/2 tablespoon of butter on the hot surface. Once the butter looks foamy, spoon 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Leave room for the batter to spread. Cook until the tops of the pancakes are starting to look cooked around the edges. Turn and cook until the underside is lightly browned. As you finish the pancakes, scoop them onto the cookie sheet in the warm oven so they'll all be warm when it's time to eat. If things on the griddle start getting sticky, you can melt a little more butter in between batches. I find that the batter has enough grease in it that things stay pretty much non-stick without assistance, but I use a non-stick fry pan, and on something like cast iron your results might vary.

I tend to go a little crazy with the accompaniments for these pancakes, with shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream, chopped cilantro, and pancake syrup (to be used alone, not with all that other stuff). Now enjoy!

Posted at 10:13 AM in category feed me, baby.