Dinner Disaster

Rarely do I have a cooking disaster. Well, pretty rarely, except for last night when it was mega-failure all the way around. My aim was to use the griddle on the uber-stove that I have not used once in nearly 15 years. Yes, not once because DH was "pancake master" when we actually ate pancakes which we don't anymore (TMCarbs). At any rate before we sell the house I thought "why not?" Big mistake.

Am I the only one left who has Abby Mandel's Cuisinart Classroom cookbook, c. 1984?  Her section on egg whites is my greatest souffle-making aid, as are many of the recipes learned in book - it took me into food processor cooking and I have never looked back.


One of my fav's

 Well to digress for just a moment - soon after DH and I were married we vacationed on Chincoteague Island at a B&B whose name I forget. Breakfast was $$ pricey but sounded like a treat so we splurged on the most expensive pancakes in the country, maybe even the world. And they were worth every penny, the lightest, highest, fluffiest pancakes ever seen. That they contained stiffly beaten egg whites was a given but how did they rise to more than an inch thick while cooking? That question has plagued me for more than two decades.

Consulting Mandel's Cuisinart cookbook for an egg-white fluffy recipe "Pancakes Comme Chez Soi" seemed to be the answer to high and light. So I made the effort to make pancakes for supper - just pancakes and strawberries with a little syrup: what could go wrong? 







And I needed the rehearsal because the calendar says February is coming, that means Valentine's Day so I thought these sentimental pancakes would made a perfect sweetheart dinner. Should anyone else have this notion I would caution you to try something else.



Not mine, a stock image



First of all, it was a lot of work. Secondly the recipe called for both ricotta cheese and plain yogurt (which I have leftover in abundance). Since I am far out of practice at multi-tasking the jobs of gathering the ingredients, separating the eggs, warming the griddle and getting the measures ready seemed to take forever. Got the egg whites/sugar processed high and fluffy but they seemed a bit wobbly to me.  Keep going - get the cheese and egg yolk mix together and fold into the the whites.  Keep going.  Got the griddle turned up.

The first pancake is always a dumper, but this was a disaster - wait: I forgot the flour. Quick add the flour and fold into the egg mixture. Griddle not hot enough.  Try again.  Small pancakes, rather thick browned around the edges but seemed raw in the middle. Keep going.

Finally one is done if a little over brown. Keep going. Dinner will be in five minutes. Turn the first batch, spoon on the second batch. First batch is not browning - turn up the heat. Twenty-five minutes later with a griddle that kept getting too hot and too cold, mini-pancakes are ready to serve - sorta.  Thank goodness for lots of strawberries - the heavy cheesy mix is barely noticeable. Oops - left the griddle on - smelled way too hot. Dinner a la disaster. 
Wait - I forgot to add the milk - no wonder they were so thick. And my flip-time is way off. Something about making soups and salads that one forgets grilling altogether.

But they still were not all that high, why not?  Re-reading the recipe this morning I realized the instructions called for 2/5" rings, oiled, placed on the griddle to drop the batter into meant the ring would force the egg whites to rise - just like a souffle. Why didn't I think of that!  The pancakes were a disaster but I think I know the secret of the very-high-fluffy-pancakes, at least in theory. Whether I ever choose to prove the theory is doubtful.  At least not this year.

Abby Mandel is not forgotten, her cookbooks still sell on Amazon.com and I learned sadly that Mandel died in August of 2008.  My Chicago friend Marlena, who recommended that I buy the cookbook, was a neighbor of Mandel's on Chicago's Northshore. At the time I did not even have a Cuisinart - who knew it would become such a valuable kitchen appliance? More valuable than the griddle for sure!
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