Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes-

-and it’s best friends:

Bacon, Parsnips & Basted Eggs!

Breakfast foods are BY FAR my favorite to eat (whether it is actually eaten at breakfast, inner fr 4 am matters very little to me!) Breakfast for dinner? YES PLEASE! Crisp salty bacon? Runny buttery eggs? Salty sweet browned pancakes! OH man, I just drooled! Here is one of my favorite Sunday morning breakfasts. It does not take long to make, the mess is minimal to moderate, and it’s really easy to juice up some fresh oranges if you’re so inclined! Fresh brewed coffee is, of course, a MUST as well. Morning just can’t become afternoon without it (I think I’m going to copy right this 😉 )!

The following recipe’s are a hybrid form my own experimentation, Cook’s Illustrated, and Quinciple. This is also more of how to prepare a breakfast meal as opposed to just one thing. You’ll see what I mean. Keep reading!

Ingredients:

Pancakes- (makes about 8-10 small-medium sized pancakes)

1/2 cup All-Purpose flour
1/2 cup Organic Stone Ground Buckwheat flour
1 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking POWDER
1/4 tsp baking SODA
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 cup butter milk*
1 large egg
1 TBSP unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Maple Syrup (get it at The Green Market in Union Square)

Bacon-

2-3 slices per person (EASY!)

Parsnips-

2 large parsnips (or one per person)
EVOO
salt
peppa
1 tsp rosemary, chopped

Basted Egg-

1-2 eggs per person
1 TBSP per egg (for frying)

*Side note: If you have milk, but you don’t have butter milk, do NOT panic! It’s really easy to make buttermilk. Just put 1 TBSP white vinegar or lemon juice in a wet measuring cup, then add milk until the 1 cup mark on the measuring cup. Then use however much your recipe calls for. See?! Easy! Breathe! Continue.

OK, first thing first. Preheat that oven to 450 deg F and prep ingredients. Oh, and if you haven’t already brewed coffee… WHAT THE HECK are you waiting for!? 🙂

Prep prep prep!

The parsnips take about 40 minutes to brown, so you want to get them going. Peel the tough skin form the parsnips. Cut the parsnips into equal bite sized pieces. It is important that the sizes are equal so they cook evenly. Place pieces into a bowl, drizzle EVOO and salt and pepper- toss together to coat evenly. Place parsnips in an over safe dish and pop into preheated oven.

Peel skin

Drizzle EVOO

Salt and Peppa!

Bake for 40 minutes or until brown

MANGIA!

Now that the parsnips are heating up, let’s make the pancake batter. I always like the batter to sit for a few minutes which is why I make it before cooking the bacon. Whisk all of your dry ingredients (flour(s), sugar, salt, baking powder and soda) in the main bowl that you will use to pour the pancake batter onto the pan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (milk, buttermilk, egg and melted butter). Slowly incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients mixing gently as you pour. It is important NOT to over mix! Set batter aside.

Combine Dry ingredients

Whisk dry ingredients

Whisk wet ingredients

Pour wet into dry ingredients

Heat up your grill pan to 350 deg F, or if you’re using a large non-stick pan, heat on medium high. Add bacon to pan and cook bacon as you like (I like mine really crispy). Place cooked bacon onto a paper towel lined plate and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. Wipe off excess bacon grease from pan. Leave about a TBSP worth to use for pancakes.

At this point, check on the parsnips. Give them a little mix in their baking dish to evenly brown them.

Sizzzzzlleeee

Absorb excess oil

Scrape off excess bacon grease

Pour pancake batter into pan so pancakes are about 4 inches in diameter (or to desired size). Sprinkle a few blueberries onto the wet side of the pancake that faces you. When the wet side of the batter starts to bubble, and the side down is golden brown, flip the pancake. cook another minute or two until the other side is golden brown. You will notice that the pancake is slightly crispy from using the bacon grease to non stick the pan 😉 . Place pancakes on a plate and tightly cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.

Check the parsnips once again. This time, give them a little mix, and add rosemary (about 5 minutes before they will be served, when they are starting to brown on the edges)

In the same pan, add a tbsp of butter and let melt. Slowly crack the egg right into the butter (it’s OK if you just drooled, imagine the smell of the butter slowly warming and melting in the pan!), TO baste the egg, place a lid over the egg. You can also add 1 tsp of water next to the egg right before you place the lid over top. This increases the moisture under the lid which creates a white film to develop over the egg. At this point, you can also heat up your maple syrup, about 25 seconds in the microwave. It’s almost time to MANGIA!

Buttaaaa

Basting the egg

Thin white layer= egg is done!

Put it all together, Sprinkle some Pinot Noir Flake Salt and some peppa onto you egg, some maple syrup on your pancakes, and ENJOY!!!

Side note: I used my Le Creuset ceramic baking dish to bake the parsnips, and of course, it was stained brown by the end. In under one minute with hardly any elbow grease, I was able to make my pan look brand spanking new again using my white vinegar and salt method. GO on, TRY IT!

Before {{wince}}

After! Like NEW!

Magic ingredient!

Mangia!

(P.S.- I know I promised a spring salad in my previous post, I will post this later today! The wait is finally over!)

xoxo MCN