Pumpkin Pancakes

It is amazing what ideas you get when you binge watch the Great British Bake Off on Netflix.

I always associate pumpkins with Halloween. When I started travelling, I began to see Pumpkins in a new light. I had childhood memories of carving pumpkins, but never actually tasted one before. “Maybe we’ll have some pumpkin pie” whistles on the radio. The lyrics from Walking Around the Christmas Tree felt weird to me when I was younger because I would always associate pumpkins with Halloween. Now I’m a fan. It’s not just Pumpkin Spice Lattes that should have all the glory. Pumpkin is a really good thing to have in any cuisine. The pumpkin salad I had at a hotel in Japan, was one of the best salads I ever had in my life. Pumpkin curry works a treat. Pumpkin pie is lush. Having been a big fan of the sweet potato pancakes from Korea, I decided to try and make some myself at home. It worked out really well, so I thought maybe try pumpkin ones too.

I‘m no master chef or expert in culinary cooking. Asian cusines, especially Japanese and Indian always inspire me to experiment because sometikes they have flavours and techniques that you would never really consider in traditional cooking. The most important ingredient is off course the flour the pumpkin purée. Whether you buy this in a shop or scrape the pumpkin up yourself is down to you, but I like to scrape the pumpkin out and blend it with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. To make things easier, I stick everything in a bowl and blend/whisk it together then I put the mixture in the pan until it’s cooked on each side.

I’m still experimenting with this one. Some batches of pancakes have been more successful than others. I try to get an even mixture of pumpkin purée and flour. What I love about pancakes is that they are versatile and can be used in either sweet or savoury dishes. You can add any sort of toppimg you wan. If you are vegan or have a nut align you can replace the egg and butter with non-dairy alternatives. I have also tried making Pumkin pancakes with just pumkin purée and eggs with inspiration from a banana pancake with just two ingredients so it can be gluten free too.

Ingredients

Teaspoon of cinnamon (recommended)

Teaspoon of nutmeg (optional)

Teaspoon of ginger (Optional)

2 eggs - the eggs reallot help bind everything together.

50 Grams of melted butter/oil - the faspts will stop it sticking to the pan.

100ml of coconut milk - to help give it some flavour and a little kick. Any milk will do though, but I love this milk the most.

Sweeterner of your choice - honeys and syrups a,ways work well.

Flour and baking powder -

Pumpkin Purée/pumpkin

Tools

A can opener if you have a can or a knife. If you have a pumpkin, you can use cutlery to scrape the good stuff out of the pumpkin.

A stove.

A frying pan.

Something to flip the pancakes in.

An electric whisker will make things quicker, but a fork or normal whisk will work too.

Instructions

If you have a Pumkin, open it up, deseed it, and put all the filling in a bowl, and blend it. If you have it canned, you can skip this step.

Then prepare all your ingrediants and throw them all in a bowl with your purée.

Whisk everything together until it’s thick like custard. If it’s too dry you can add more milk and it’s it is too runny either flour or oats might help.

In a heated pan with some oil, add a little bit if the mixture at a time to a size of your choice. Cook each side around 3 to 5 minutes or until its fully cooked both sides. Repeat this until you get the desired amount.

Dish up, add toppings of your choice and enjoy!