Growlingbelly

An organic egg fried in butter with chopped spring onions & black pepper on an English muffin, with tomato, basil and crispy bacon starts the day, and ends the week, very well.

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The picture that launched the need to blog…
Posted on Facebook, I got a sudden gush of comments from hungry friends. I couldn’t believe the response in a matter of minutes. Dozens and Dozens of hungry mates drooling to come over for my brunch. I loved this response and together with Sacha, we built a wordpress blog that weekend to showcase the food that makes our belly growl. Thus Growling belly was born.

So now more about the hotcakes. They are a great recipe by Bill Granger from his seminal cookbook, ‘Sydney food’. His are far more decadent served with melting honeycomb butter which I find too sweet for my taste. I’ve included the honeycomb butter in the recipe for you to try though. The ricotta hotcakes are very fluffy and rise like little cakes in the pan. The batter lasts in the fridge for a few days, so you can spread out the joy. Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the honeycomb butter
250g/8¾oz unsalted butter, softened
100g/3½oz sugar honeycomb, crushed with a rolling pin (you can use a Crunchie bar for this)
2 tbsp honey
For the hotcakes
225g/8oz ricotta
170ml/6fl oz milk
4 eggs, separated
140g/5oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch salt
50g/1½oz butter
To serve
blueberries, banana, strawberries, bacon and maple syrup
icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Make the honeycomb butter first. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Shape into a log on clingfilm, roll, seal and chill in a refrigerator for two hours.
2. Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.
3. Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.
4. Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop two tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan (don’t cook more than three per batch).
5. Cook over low to medium heat for two minutes, or until hotcakes have golden undersides. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden and cooked through.
6. Transfer to a plate and quickly assemble with other ingredients.
7. Slice one banana lengthways onto a plate, stack three hotcakes on top with a slice of honeycomb butter. Dust with icing sugar. You can use strawberries in place of the banana.
Note – hotcake batter can be stored for up to 24 hours, covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator. You can store leftover honeycomb butter in the freezer and slice as required – it’s great on toast!

A left-over chicken breast, some bacon, lettuce, tomatos, beetroot, mayonnaise made a great midnight snack.

just because one is in a field doesn’t mean one has to starve.