In my last post I wrote you about a cheesecake with lemongrass and carrots and ginger and things. I have to tell you something ... ... I ate it all up and I enjoyed it. Might need to think about some exercise, though. I guess taking the rubbish outside will not suffice. However, that was not my original intention. No, I'm not talking about taking out the rubbish, nor was I talking about eating the cake. Whatsoever, you can't know what's on my mind unless I tell you clearly. I on the other hand can't tell you clearly, if I didn't arrange things clearly in my mind. Ahhhh, forget about the last few sentences. I try again! Originally I bought ginger and lemongrass for some Asian cooking. I go myself a Vietnamese cookbook called Vietnamese Bible by Jacki Passmore. I thought I could try a few recipes. So when I was out shopping I brought home some lemongrass and ginger ... that might come in handy ... or not ... or whatever. Here is what I tried from the book.
That's called 'Ga xao dau phong' or in English 'Stir-fried Chicken & Peanuts'. I have a lovely rice cooker at home. So I don't have to worry so much about the rice. Just wash and rinse it and then put it on cooking. When it's finished, it switches automatically to 'keeping warm'. The rest you could just call fresh fast food. Apart from cutting the chicken breast into pieces and the spring onions into rings, the rest goes faster then you could warm up an instant meal in the microwave. Once your pan or wok is heated up to high heat, you add some peanut oil and then stir-fry your pieces of chicken for four minutes. Then you add some fish sauce, the spring onions, some roasted peanuts and a few red chillies (which you have cut in rings as well ... sorry, I forgot to mention). Maybe some salt and pepper and ...
... eat! Right, you could of course add also some fresh coriander leaves, which I obviously did, although it was not mentioned in the original recipe. On top of it, if you make more rice, you still have some left to experiment a bit ... I did some sushi rolls afterwards to get the opportunity to let some wasabi climb up my nose. That is very ... nice. I only remember still when I tried wasabi the first time. "You have to use a fair good portion on your Sushi!" ... I'm glad I survived. Since then I use it only in moderation.
There comes a time in the life of a man, where he has to go nuts … Wait! That is nuts!
Let’s start again! Sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do, even if it is nuts … Hm, that sounds nuts, too.
Under certain circumstances things might just go nuts … argh … forget it. It’s all nuts anyway.
What I really wanted to say is: It’s time to prepare some nice sweet food and while doing that use some nuts, because I want it that way … and … read right to the end to find out.
Some time ago I read about a cake with pancakes and just kept the information in mind. You never know when things might come in handy. Well, today was that day. I was in the mood for a cake, but not really for the process of proper baking. On top of that, I still didn’t go shopping and was once again left with what was … eh … left at home in the storage.
This now leads to our ChoPeaPan-Cake.
Let me say just one more thing before I start.
Or well, put in a little story again. You might know the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indy has recovered the Ark and lost it. Now he is free again and the Germans want to get the Ark away with a truck. Here goes the dialogue between Indy and Sallah. Indy: “Meet me at Omar’s. be ready for me. I’m going after that truck.” Sallah: “How?” Indy: “I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go.”
In that spirit I like to go on here, making it up as I go. This is more or less a live post. It is the first time I try this cake. It might or might not be nice. We will see later. If not, this recipe might be usable with some adjustments. I try to include suggestions if necessary.
What you might need:
One 250 ml cup of spelt flour
The same cup filled with milk
One whatever sized free range (if desired organic) well, eh … egg
A pinch of salt
One tablespoon of cocoa powder
100 g of dark chocolate
100 g of butter
2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar
50 g or so salted or unsalted peanut butter (as you wish)
As many peanuts as it takes
Oil for frying
How you might do it:
Make a pancake batter using the flour, the milk, the egg, a pinch of salt, the cocoa powder and one tablespoon of vanilla sugar. Beat it all like nuts.
Meanwhile heat a drop of oil in a small pan. If you want a bigger cake, you might have to double the amounts and use a bigger pan respectively.
Before you begin frying your cocoa pancakes in the pan, start to melt the chocolate together with the butter in a bowl above boiling water. Have it going? Good!
Now go for the pancakes. You should get four.
What I did then is, I finished one pancake, put it on a plate and started a new pancake. While that was happening, I spread some peanut butter on the ready pancake and scattered some peanuts on it.
Then the next pancake, peanut butter, peanuts, pancake, peanut butter, peanuts and finishing off with the last pancake.
When the chocolate has melted and looks shiny and silky, you can add the vanilla sugar and let the mass cool down a bit before you pour it over the layered pancakes.
Since sufficient(?) time has passed, we can pour the chocolate over the pancakes and … end up with a cake swimming in a pool of chocolate (sorry, the photo with the swimming cake didn't work out - don't know, why I had just one shot).
So … off to the fridge with the cake and with me to the computer to write this (right here it becomes more live).
…
It has been one hour now. I go and have a look.
…
Not so bad, the chocolate solidified. That gives me the opportunity to transfer the cake to a fresh plate and start with scraping off and eating the chocolate sticking to the old plate. Yum yum – chocolaty and tasty! So our little experiment might have a happy ending.
The ChoPeaPan-Cake could use some decoration. We still have some peanuts left we can place on top, doing it carefully.
I got on all peanuts safely, apart from one. Maybe you can spot it on the photo … or maybe not.
In the end there is only one thing left to do: the taste check. After spending quite a little bit of time on that cake I can reward me with the final result. Or is it not a reward? Let’s see … or better say taste.
…
It took me some time to cut out a piece of cake for me and to take some final photos.
Now the final verdict:
I’m not quite so sure about the salty peanut butter. It tasted fine, but since I did use this one and not the other one I cannot judge what tastes better … hm … but I think it has it’s place. All in all it was not so sweet. You might want to experiment a bit with the amounts of sugar or the kind of chocolate you use – maybe a better quality chocolate would be useful here or even one with flavour – I would suggest a Milka chocolate with Daim pieces in it. I could imagine doing it that way and tweak the amount of sugar for the pancake batter might change a tasty treat into a divine one.
This is the point where you have to either trust my judgement or you have to do it as Indy says in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: “There is only one way to find out.” Then he took the holy grail with water and had a drink from it.
Ah … that was quite and adventure Indy had there.
And a nutty adventure we had here as well indeed (even without a bullwhip, Fedora hat and leather jacket).
