Friday, April 2, 2010

Mascarpone Pancake with Grapes and Blue Cheese Sauce


Our neighbor, Pi Soo, gave us 4 blocks of cheeses her husband brought back from France. Apart from the blue cheese and goat cheese, which I'm familiar with and distinctive enough to distinguish, I have no idea what the other two blocks are. Pi Soo, too, has no idea what they are besides "this one is the strongest". Thanks.

Today's pancake is yet another showcase of putting what's available to the table. I vaguely remembered making some blue cheese grapes salad some time ago - I knew this sweet fruit and acquired cheese will work in compliment. But it somehow didn't seem right to have blue cheese salad for breakfast.


Then my thought wandered into ricotta pancake, sour cream pancake, cream cheese pancake.... etc. What about blue cheese pancake? I don't see why it wouldn't work. But I wasn't going to risk the most important meal of the day on my experiment and decided mascarpone pancake would be more of a sound thing to do.

Since Adrian was making a savory omelet with the "strongest cheese", it seemed gastronomically correct to balance it out with a little more sweet. Hence the addition of honey, which went surprisingly great with the blue cheese sauce.


Ingredients:
(serve 2)
Blue Cheese Sauce
  • Blue Cheese
  • Cream cheese (soften at room temperature)
I didn't measure the amount used. The cheeses were more or less in equal part. You may add a splash of whole milk to thin it out if necessary. Blend the ingredients to a smooth consistency.

Roasted Maple Pecan
  • Pecan nuts, roughly chopped
  • Coconut oil
  • 1 tablespoon Real Maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon natural cane sugar
Use just enough coconut oil to coat pecan nuts evenly. Toss the nuts with maple syrup and sugar. Bake in the oven at 150C for 10 - 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool.

Mascarpone Pancake
  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 - 2 Tablespoons natural cane sugar
  • 1/4 cup homemade mascarpone (soften at room temperature)
  • 1/4 cup whole milk
  • 1 egg (lightly beaten)
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
To serve
  • Seedless green grapes and black grapes, halved
  • Nectarine, cut into wedges
  • Blue cheese sauce
  • Honey
  • Roasted Maple Pecan
  • Mint leaves
  1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and sugar. Set aside.
  2. Whisk together mascarpone, milk, egg and vanilla essence.
  3. Fold the mascarpone mixture to flour mixture. You may add more milk to desired consistency. Stir in lemon zest to combine.
  4. Coat and heat a 8" saucepan with coconut oil. Pour 1/2 of the batter to the heated pan and fry until the surface is bubbly. Flip and fry the other side till lightly browned. Repeat with the remaining batter.
  5. Serve with fresh fruits and blue cheese sauce. Sprinkle with pecan nuts and drizzle honey around. Garnish with mint leaves.

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