Rothikan Pancakes

Buttermilk pancakes with an egg in the middle and fresh mint orange refresher

The night before, I swore we would all go to The Morning Glory diner down the street from my apartment. I rallied the crowd, telling them it would be a bomb diggity breakfast after a longish night. Well, the next morning I woke up with a desire to cook and save some $ bills.

The idea for breakfast was organically conceived, I swear. No pigs in blankets, and no eggs in baskets. In my defense, I didn't even know that was a 'thing' when I first made the egg in pancake deal. I don't even have a name for it. I should... like... "sun in a cloud" cakes. No. In my receipie book they are "Rothikan Pancakes", which is an utterly fantastic name that was born only after serious consideration on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Buttermilk pancakes can be fluffy and light if you do it right. The secret? Do you want to know the see-cer-ret? Make the batter a little while before you serve (like 20 minutes). Leave the batter to rest in the fridge while you do other stuff. It will puff for you like an angel. My guess is that the gluten in the flour has a chance to relax so that when you put the batter on a hot griddle/pan the carbon dioxide bubbles from the Baking Powder have a more pronounced effect on the pancake. However, only do this if there's Baking POWDER in the batter. Baking soda's ability to leven a substance declines very soon after mixing (in other words, bake right away). However, baking powder has a double rise effect that will activate when heat is applied. I'm sure Alton Brown has a more detailed explanation... delivered in perfect diction and at hyperspeed.

While the batter was sitting, I peeled the first blood orange of my life. It was a little creepy... those tiny cellular sacs filled with blood-red juice. I think I yelped. 2 1/2 of those into the blender with about 11 big ice cubes and a handful of fresh mint. I hate to honk my own horn but it was pretty refreshing.

Pancakes:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 Tbs sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups buttermilk
• extra eggs for the "sun"

1. Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, BP, sugar, salt)
2. Combine eggs and buttermilk in mixer
3. Add dry to wet ingredients gradually and stir slowly
4. Heat griddle or pan on medium high heat

If you want to put the "sun in the cloud" follow the following:

1. Pour about a half cup of batter onto a warm griddle or pan (coat with something fatty like non-stick spray or butter
2. flip
3. Immediately use a spoon to cut out a small hole from the cake
Turn the heat to medium, crack the egg in the hole
4. Let it sit for a few moments, turn the heat down to medium-low
5. Cook for a couple of minutes on this side till the bottom of the egg cooks
6. Using two spatulas (one underneath the cake and one on top of the egg), flip the cake trying to keep the egg in place while flipping. Gather your wits, and do it quickly. I should have taken a picture of this for demonstration purposes.
7. Let it cook on this side for a few more minutes. Keep the heat low so you don't burn the cake while you're waiting for the egg to cook. Tip: I think it's way better if you keep the yoke runny.





Here's one last hint: if you're making lots of cakes, you might need to rinse the pan down inbetween say your 4th and 5th cakes. The pan usually gets too hot over time, oil burns and smokes, leftover pancake jiblets get burned, etc, etc. This makes the new cakes burn without fail, booooo. So if you 'wash' the pan occasionally, it solves this problem.

Sun in the cloud pancakes with iced mint blood orange juice on the side. That's a damned mouthful. Literally. Rothikan Cakes anyone?