Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes per batch
Yield: 15 to 20 pancakes
At his restaurant, chef Terczak serves these pancakes with grilled sausages, glazed onions (see recipe), applesauce and sour cream. He also may ladle warm cream around the pancakes.
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 to 1 1/4 pounds Idaho potatoes, peeled, chopped
1 medium onion, peeled, chopped
Vegetable oil for frying
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1. For batter, put milk, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, butter, potatoes and onion into food processor or blender. Puree briefly, making sure mixture doesn`t become totally smooth. Bits and pieces of potato and onion are essential to the texture of the pancakes.
2. Make a test pancake. Heat a teaspoon of oil in non-stick pan. Add 2 tablespoons batter. Cook until brown, about 2 minutes, then turn and cook other side until brown, an additional 2 minutes. If the pancake is runny, add additional flour to the batter; if it is too thick, thin batter with a little milk. Add oil as needed.
3. Make pancakes with remaining batter. Keep warm. Garnish with parsley.
BAKED HAM WITH SMOKED HAM HOCKS, BLACK-EYED PEAS AND SWEET POTATO
PUREE
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 2 hours
Yield: 12 servings
This is a restaurant presentation made up of 5 individual recipes, any of which may be used separately.
Hock stock:
5 pounds smoked ham hocks, see note
8 cups cold water, about
Black-eyed peas:
1 cup olive oil
2 ribs celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 tablespoon dried leaf thyme
10 cloves garlic, chopped, about 1/4 cup
1 pound dried black-eyed peas
1 can (28 ounces) Italian tomatoes drained, chopped
3-4 cups ham hock stock, recipe included
Salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Sweet potato puree:
6-8 medium sweet potatoes, about 3 pounds
1 1/2 cups applesauce
1/2 cup unsalted butter
Ham:
1 Pre-cooked ham, 15 to 20 pounds bone-in, or 6 to 9 pounds boneless
8 ounces apricot or red currant jelly
Sauce:
2 cups hock stock, recipe included
1 cup each: pineapple juice, orange juice
1/4 cup each: cornstarch, cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces
1/2 cup golden raisins, plumped in dark rum
1. For hock stock, wash hocks and put them in a heavy-bottomed pot. Cover with cold water, heat to boil, skim, then lower heat and simmer until tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove hocks and cool. Pour off cooking liquid (hock stock) and reserve at least 6 cups. Pick meat from cooled hocks, discarding fat and bones. Tear or chop meat into small pieces. (This step may be done in advance. Refrigerate stock and hock meat separately.)
2. For black-eyed peas, heat olive oil in a large pan. Add celery, onion, carrots and thyme and cook over medium heat until vegetables are tender. Add garlic. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Add peas, tomatoes, stock, salt and pepper to taste. Heat stock to boil, lower heat, cover pan and simmer over a low flame until peas are tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Lift cover from time to time and add water if needed. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Reheat if necessary just before serving and stir in butter.
3. For sweet potato puree, heat oven to 375 degrees. Put potatoes on cookie sheet and bake until tender, about 1 1/4 hours. Remove from oven and allow potatoes to cool for 1/2 hour. Cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out pulp. Discard skins. Measure pulp and transfer to the bowl of a food processor while still warm. For each cup, add 1/2 cup applesauce and 4 tablespoons butter. Puree until smooth. Transfer to the top of a double boiler and keep warm over hot but not boiling water until needed.
4. For ham, heat oven to 450 degrees. Melt jelly over low heat and brush it over the ham. Cook to heat ham thoroughly, 15 to 20 minutes per pound. The surface of the ham will scorch. Brush it again with jelly during cooking. Keep warm.
5. For ham sauce, combine 2 cups of hock stock, pineapple and orange juices in a saucepan. Heat to simmer. Combine cornstarch and 1/2 cup cold water to make a slurry. Pour most of this into the simmering liquid. Stir and heat to boil until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Remove any scum that comes to the surface. Adjust thickness of sauce with remaining cornstarch or extra stock. Just before serving, whisk in butter and raisins.
6. Slice the ham and serve with pieces of ham hock, black-eyed peas, puree and sauce.
Note: Chicken stock or broth may be substituted for the hock stock.
BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING CAKE WITH CARAMEL SAUCE
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
10 slices white sandwich bread
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus 1 cup
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups milk
1 vanilla bean, split
3 large eggs, plus 3 yolks
1 recipe caramel sauce, recipe follows
Confectioners` sugar
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Toast under a broiler or in a toaster oven. Lean toast against a verticle surface to cool without becoming soggy.
2. When cool, trim crusts and discard; cut each piece into 2 triangles. make concentric circles of the triangles with the long side of each pointing up in a 1 1/2-quart souffle or casserole. Leave center empty. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon over toast. Set pan aside.
3. Scald milk and vanilla bean in a saucepan. Whisk or beat eggs and yolks with 1 cup sugar until sugar dissolves and mixture is smooth and lemon- colored in a mixing bowl. Gradually pour hot milk into the egg mixture, stirring constantly. When all the milk has been added, use a ladle or large spoon to remove froth from the surface. Remove vanilla bean and scrape soft interior of vanilla bean back into the custard.
4. Put pan with toast in a larger pan. Heat water to boil in a tea kettle. Carefully pour custard into hole in center of toast circles. Transfer both pans to a shelf set in the middle of the oven and pour hot water into the larger pan until it comes half-way up the sides of the toast pan. Bake until custard is risen and set but still soft, about 40 minutes. Remove cake pan from oven and water bath. Cool on a rack.
5. To serve, cut room temperature cake into 6 or 8 portions. Dust serving plates with confectioners` sugar, then use a cake knife and rubber scraper to transfer portions to plates without losing custard. Pour caramel sauce around the cake and serve.
CARAMEL SAUCE
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: About 1 cup
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream, at room temperature
1. Put butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Pour sugar atop butter; do not stir. Melt sugar over medium heat until mixture is brown and bubbling, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir with a whisk and continue cooking until caramel is very brown and almost at the point of scorching. Immediately begin whisking in small amounts of cream. Continue until caramel has a syrup consistency.
3. Pour sauce through a strainer into the top of a double boiler. Keep warm, or reheat, over hot but not boiling water before serving. –
