Good morning. Today we have for you:
When pancakes met oatmeal
Hello, friends. I hope you’re staying safe and warm. In much of the country, it’s a Sunday of snow, sleet, rain or a mix of all three outside. Here in Los Angeles, it’s still balmy, but even so, the slouch that sets in at the end of January calls for something warming on the stove. I’m making my oatmeal pancakes. Featured Recipe Oatmeal PancakesI flip and eat them in pajamas, tearing them apart with my fingers, picking up bites between sips of coffee at my kitchen counter. Even though I developed this recipe only last year, it’s the dish my kid requests when they’re back from college because it “feels like home.” These aren’t caky like everyday pancakes, tall like yeasted ones or fluffy like lemon-ricotta rounds. They’re not your typical flapjacks, but they are fantastic, especially on chilly days. Inside, these pancakes are creamy and impossibly soft, with the pleasant chew of a hot bowl of oatmeal and the earthy sweetness of honey. Outside, they’re crackly and caramelized from sizzling in butter, with a solid ratio of crisp edges to tender center. Even though the ingredients are pantry staples, they may not be what you stock. If you don’t have plain quick-cooking or instant oats, you can pulse old-fashioned oats in a blender or food processor into tiny bits. Plain yogurt, sour cream or milk mixed with lemon juice can replace the buttermilk. Ground flax gives these a nutty richness, but eggs can bind the batter, too. Maple syrup or brown sugar can stand in for the honey, and unsalted butter or oil work for cooking. However you make these oatmeal pancakes, you get a new form of an old favorite, a surprising and satisfying way to start the day. And for the other meals: Sheet-pan gochujang chicken and roasted vegetables: Yewande Komolafe created this recipe six years ago, and I’ve been making it since, including just this past Tuesday, when I swapped in potatoes for the turnips. It’s as timeless as ever, with its salty-sweet sauce bringing out the savoriness of bone-in chicken and the caramel notes of winter squash. If you’re hoping to meal prep, you can toss leftovers into noodles or salad for lunch. Salmon with mustard piccata sauce: The zip of piccata, with its buttery swirl of lemon and capers, gets a punch of heat from mustard to balance the natural sweetness of cabbage and the richness of fatty salmon. Kay Chun keeps the fish extra-tender by setting it on top of the sautéed cabbage to steam. She recommends hot English mustard for its sharpness, but notes that Dijon will also taste great. Creamy chickpea spinach masala with tadka: I was lucky enough to be on set when we were photographing this spectacular dish from Nisha Vora’s book “Big Vegan Flavor.” Each bite is a wonder: The curry-leaf-infused oil of a South Indian-style tadka sinks into a creamy blend of chickpeas, coconut milk, spices and tomato. I’m so excited for all the steps: toasting and grinding spices, adding vegetables and seasonings one by one to develop a depth of flavor that rivals the very best restaurant gravy dishes. It’s the kind of cooking that makes Sunday kitchen time gratifying. Vegetarian chile verde: A classic chile verde, with its hunks of pork shoulder surrendering to stewed green chiles, sits in you like a bittersweet memory, happy yet heavy and unmoving. I love it, but sometimes I want all the flavors without the meat. This version from Christian Reynoso captures the tangy complexity of tomatillos by roasting them with deep green poblano peppers before simmering everything with beans and broth. Poppy seed tea cake: This is the kind of not-too-sweet loaf that will be perfect with a hot cup of tea this afternoon and then again every day this week. Dorie Greenspan combines the nutty crack of poppy seeds with the floral fragrance of citrus in this tender, fine-crumbed beauty. I use a mix of zest and juice from a lemon and a tangerine and then skip the glaze because the cake tastes great without it and reheats nicely in the toaster that way. Thanks for reading. See you next Sunday.
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