Strawberry Pancakes

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1 1/4 all purpose flour
1/4 tsp of salt then keep the shaker out
1/8 tsp of cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp of granulated white sugar
1 1/2 tbsp of demerara sugar or raw sugar in smallish crystals...keep more in reserve
1 tbsp of vanilla
3 1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 1/2 tbsp of canola oil
butter
pint of strawberries

Strawberry topping:
Chop half the strawberries, add sugar, mash (I use the bottom of a highball glass) then chop and add the rest of the strawberries.

I wanted buttermilk pancakes one day and didn't have buttermilk, so I looked up how to make it. I tried a suggestion that worked...put whole milk in a bowl and a bit of white vinegar in there for 5 mins and then use it like buttermilk.

Here I used white balsamic because it tastes so good with strawberries.
Put those two (milk and vinegar) together in a bowl. It doesn't have to wait long...next add the vanilla, salt, sugar, cinnamon, canola oil and make sure it's been about 5 mins before you add the flour and baking soda. Stir...some people say sift, but fuck that. Lumpy is fine. It should be pretty thick...pourable, but thick.

Probably the rest you know...I'm not inventing pancakes.

Oh, and I actually eyeballed everything, and estimated it here....this should work though, but so would a lot of slight variations. It would not hurt to add more sugar and vinegar, especially if you tried it and didn't mind the flavor once already....it will make them, I dunno, tangy?

There were a couple innovations...

I tasted the first pancake and it was milder than I had hoped. This was the best innovation....while the first side cooked I sprinkled a bit of salt on the raw side up, and then some demerara....an even coat, somewhat restrained...I'd guess about a third tsp if pressed.

When I flipped it, the salted sugared side bubbled well, and had lots of deep bubbly pockets for strawberry juice. The sugar also caramelized and I got an occasional crunchy, salty bit. Nice...I might even add a little more next time.

The cinnamon was another innovation...I have a philosophy for sneaking cinnamon into dishes that don't normally use it. If this was blueberry I would use loads, but with strawberry you want just enough to have someone who cooks say, "Is that....cinnamon?"

Whipped cream...you know what to do with that!

Another good idea I didn't use was to put them on a cooling rack when they come off hot....not to cool, just to keep them from steaming on the plate...with making 4 pancakes, I made my two, and Boof got the second set...they were still warm.

Maybe the ideal would be to put a cooling rack on a cookie sheet in a warm oven...especially if you are making lots of them.

Boof says bacon with them. I think fried patties from loose ground pork with ginger and maybe soy sauce in it would be a nice complement. I would put a little of the cinnamon and balsamic vinegar in them, and I think a bit of minced onion, or just as well, nice onion powder would make them perfect.

This dish has a really nice full-mouth flavor. Does that make sense? I talk about that a lot. Like good coffee...it has a great smell and then it has a strong attack and a slow fade and the middle evolves in your mouth. Full-mouth flavors are often emotional experiences of a sort.

I could write a lot more to explain it...in my mind I graph it like an arc...sometimes a dish is weak on the start, or finishes astringent, or lacks a middle and graphically I see that as a dip. Doesn't make it bad, and the full-mouth flavor doesn't happen very often, but I like to notice it when it does.

I usually spend a lot of time critiquing my dishes.....this one, I just really enjoyed. Try it!

Response to a facebook repost by my friend Jessie.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/Kraiden/1300160676871.jpg


Um....payback for Pearl Harbor was getting firebombed and nuked...hundreds of thousands dead, millions injured and homeless. I love how when things fit with their world view it's god or karma (a terribly misused concept).

It keeping with that logic, it fits my world view to say that maybe god has blessed us with such xenophobic and self-centered citizens because he hasn't forgot about Hiroshima.

Actually...when you think about it, the Japanese killed god during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and we are replacing it with a plastic, Americanized version of karma.....which now has a personality a lot like the one god used to have, but without all the rules and speaking in thy's and thou's.

Karma can dance. Karma pops his collar and can close with cougars. Karma makes apps to make your day better. HA! We don't need to do colonoscopies anymore, we know that up people's asses it looks like "karma" is running things! Sardonic woot!

Seriously though....this is just residual costs of creating the "greatest generation". Convincing people that there is a black and white, true evil and true good without them noticing the irony in the concept that we believe you should be "free", and we will kill anybody who thinks differently, well...that's complicated.

I think "free" should officially be spelled that way every time.....with quotes around it.

The war posters, news reels and emotional news reports that geared the US up to sacrifice for the greater good in order to stop fascists (who's basic tenant was sacrifice for the greater good) from taking over their neighbors is still having ripple effects on fucking facebook! Again, HA!

Not that I want to be told what to do by some dictator. Fascism would have probably interfered with our ability to buy consumer goods, and that's why it lost....not because of, well karma or god or whatever.

Pearl Harbor was an attack on a naval base, and while it might have been good tactics militarily momentarily, the Japanese have, in so many ways, conceded over time (in their wisdom) that they miscalculated the unifying force of a unilateral, preemptive attack.

This is a huge positive effect of Pearl Harbor, that we see it as "evil" to just go attacking other countries. It would be a real shame if, as we emerged victorious from WW2, we began to use our elevated status in the world to attack....oh....oh dear.

If countries were elementary school children then the US and Japan definitely share test answers, pass notes, sit together at lunch, and possibly most importantly, swap pudding cups for brownies. They are our great friends. We are damaged by them being damaged. When they pay, we pay.

...And lastly, these people posting disdain for Japan and its struggles, as remnants of probably necessary, surely outmoded propaganda are not representative of the US as a whole. No, that's not what's troublesome about this to me. What pricks me is the full knowledge that these people aren't any worse than representative of Americans, and that Americans aren't any worse than representative of people.

I'm an asshole, you're an asshole as are the Japanese, karma bless their stupid hearts. I fear for a world where sarcasm is the steam valve for the transcendent man, but at least in America I am free to write about it on facebook.

A.