Raspberry Pancakes

After my pick-your-own raspberry bounty, I wanted to find a good way of using my well-gotten gains. I was happy to eat myself sick on the kilo of fruit, but that wouldn't have much impressed Mr. A&N. I had visions of elaborate raspberry-based desserts in mind, but the fruit didn't survive the bike ride back from the train, packed as it was in plastic containers. When I got home, most of the raspberries had been compressed under their own weight with the result being a kilo of raspberry mush.

This seemed an undignified end to the fruit picking affair, as well as an impediment to making little tarts with pert rings of raspberries to greet the eater. Luckily, my picking partner (and fellow-American) Amanda gave me the obvious answer of how the use the raspberries: make pancakes with them.

I like my pancakes to contain wholewheat, so they can be a bit healthier. I also resist putting too much sugar in the batter since I know I'll douse them in maple syrup when done - I believe it's a law in several US states that pancakes must be swimming in syrup before you're allowed to eat them. I know that's the law where I come from.
Wholewheat Pancakes with Fruit
Yields around 8 medium pancakes

• 2/3 C Wholewheat flour
• 2/3 C White flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbs, heaped, light brown sugar
  
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/4 C milk
• 1 Tbs oil
• 1/2 C fruit such as raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc.
  

1. Heat a skillet (preferably a cast iron one) over medium heat. Getting the heat of the pan right is very important - too hot and they burn, too cool and it takes achingly long. I also like to turn on the grill at a low temperature in order to keep the finished pancakes warm until ready to eat.
   
2. Combine the dry ingredients
3. Add the egg, milk, and oil to the dry ingredients and mix until there are no lumps.
4. The batter should be fairly runny at this point - thicker than just milk, but runny enough to pour off a spoon fairly quickly.
5. Add the fruit to the pancake batter.
6. Using a soup spoon or ladle, pour a spoonful of batter into the pan. Using a cast iron pan means you won't need to add much - if any - butter before adding the pancakes, but you may chose to add butter anyway.
7. Pancake is ready to turn when small bubbles ring the outside of the pancake. This should take 2-4 minutes.
   
8. Pancake is ready when the center is firm to the touch.
   

Gourmet Oils and Vinegars

The excellent blog, The Foodie List, today featured a gourmet food site called Oil and More. Based in Wrexham, Oil and More sells - wait for it - olive oils, nut oils, vinegars, and other such goodies. I have my eye on some peppery Tuscan olive oil and a sherry vinegar (which I often find hard to find). There is a 40 year old balsamic vinegar for £82 that I would love to sample but I fear my palette isn't nearly refined enough to warrant that kind of expense. For my more basic oils and vinegars, though, I shall be placing an order very, very soon. In the meantime, if anyone has had any specialty oils or such, let me know your recommendations.

Pick Your Own

On Friday, I went to pick my own fruit (and veg) with my good friend Amanda. We were both very excited for the experience - we live in London and couldn't believe there was somewhere within easy train distance where we could pick (and eat) our fill of fresh goods. We were even happier to be able to go with each other, since we both knew neither of our partners would have been ratcheted up to the same levels of excitement as each other was.

We went to Parkside Farms in Enfield which is easy reach from a couple of train stations, especially if you have bikes with you as we did. It was a lovely, bright summery day and riding our bikes through the (semi-) country lanes made us feel like we were kids on our summer holidays. Our main goal was to get raspberries, and I was happy to gather any other vegetables available. The farm was impressively large, and though there were a fair number of families out we never felt like we were knocking into people and competing for food.

That said, I'm an inherently competitive person and when I was placed in front of the object of my desire (i.e, raspberries) something within me clicked on and I began picking for all I was worth. I felt it was like the soft-fruit equivalent of a fantastic sale at your favorite store: I began grasping everything within my site and felt it very important that I get to the fruit before anyone else could. And yet that sensation brought me great joy, as did the picking itself. The raspberries were so ripe that the slightest caress made them come off in your hand, and I felt proud and protective of them as I gently gathered handfuls before depositing them in my basket.

We spent about an hour picking raspberries (around 1 1/4 kilos each) before moving on to the vegetables. The vegetable picking was less popular than the fruit, but since I was there to gain food for my table (and freezer) popularity didn't matter to me. I was able to fill a large bag of string beans as well as a half dozen courgettes, a bag full of spinach, and a bag full of onions. Scattered around the vegetable fields were raspberry casualties where eager pickers had a slip and lost their hard-picked bounty under their feet.
Both of us had a wonderful day out, being in the country and gathering our own food and cycling down hilly lanes in the breeze. It would be great if Mr. A&N ever decided to join me in a picking session, but I've at least found an enthusiastic picking partner in Amanda.

Food Blog Round-Up

Friday finds me feeling fantastic. I have the day off work, for once the sun is shining, and I'm shortly heading out with a friend to go fruit and veg picking. I've never been to pick my own foods (other than the ones I grow myself) so I'm excited about gathering and gorging myself. I'll be targeting strawberries, raspberries, and any vegetables on offer. Hopefully, jams, pies, and chutnies will come of it later today.

This week there have been a few blog posts around about picking your own foods, both the sort you get from a farm and the kind you find in the wild.

• Habeas Brulee has staged an exhibition in Brooklyn's wonderful Prospect Park to gather wild burdock root. She gives both a link to a guide to finding your own burdock as well a recipe for something to do with it once found.
• Brownie points has gone on a soft fruits search and came up with handfuls of raspberries. She also gives a guide for Portland, Oregon residents who want to go on their own searches.
  
• For those of you in the UK, the BBC food site gives a history of the rise pick your own farms, and the pick your own website (which is what I used) lets you find the farm nearest you. It searches farms in several countries - UK, US, Japan, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.