Cr'itter Cakes
by
James Ewing
All the sailing magazines have them. Recipes that trick you into reading more with a title like “Easy”, “Simple”, or “Quick”. The backup story lulls you as it weaves its magic of glorious sunsets, tropical beaches, or hearty northern fogs. The bait is set – and the switch is pulled. Glassy-eyed you read through the list of ingredients. Your eyes take them in but your brain does not process words like “1 cup dried porcini mushrooms”, or “2 cups wilted baby spinach leaves”, or “set your pasta maker up for 1-inch square ravioli”. You robotically reach for the scissors, clip the recipe, and file it in the box to be cooked a week from next Tuesday. The appointed day arrives and, now clear headed, you pull out the recipe. You scan the list of ingredients and sadly realize that 1) you are about 250 miles from the closest spinach and 2) you are now living with the five-and-a-half BILLION people that wouldn’t know a porcini mushroom if it walked up and smacked them on the butt. I count myself among them.
Recently my partner Ann and I found ourselves in just such a predicament in the Grenadines. These tiny gems lie scattered in the southeastern Caribbean between the larger islands of St. Vincent and Grenada. The gentle breezes, spectacular sunsets, and glorious snorkeling let us forget about time. Days turned into more days. The days combined into weeks. We sat tranquilized into forgetfulness by these stunning samples of sailing magazine photography rendered live. One morning I awoke from this dream and while enjoying coffee in the cockpit I heard from below “We have no food.” I hear this a lot. Loosely translated it means “You have to cook.” I have no problem with this because I love to cook. I enjoy taking the locally available fish, produce, and groceries then whipping up something weird – but edible. Tofu Korma comes to mind. My morning reverie shattered I climbed below to assess the situation.
We have no food.
Two weeks out of the last market and two days away from the next our supplies had dwindled away. The edibles had been reduced to a few eggs, canned milk, some onions and garlic, the last pound of flour, some butter, and the contents of the spice cabinet. There were two plantains the color of coal with this fuzzy white stuff growing on the ends. A piece of mahi-mahi lay hibernating at the bottom of the freezer. I was in my element. Pardon the mis-applied metaphor, not to mention the ego-stroking self aggrandizement, but if our meager supplies had been lemons we would have drowned in the lemonade.
Of this necessity were born Cr’itter Cakes. We had Sweet Plantain Cr’itter Cakes for breakfast and Curried Mahi cakes for dinner. A feast that kept us set for yet another day in paradise.
Easy, Simple, Quick Cr’itter Cakes
The Basics: 1 Cup Dried Porcini Mushrooms.
Just kidding…
The Real Basics:
Eggs: 0 to a few. Changing the number of eggs takes you from something very much like pastry through cake and on to crepes. I usually use at least one but I bet you’d get a killer popover like thing if you omitted them altogether.
Flour: Wheat or Corn. For that feeling that you’re actually eating something. Use wheat flour to get on the pastry/cake/crepe track or corn meal for something that would be like an arepa or cornbread.
Liquid: Milk – UHT, evaporated, or reconstituted. I suppose you could use fresh but then you’d be making the thing with the dried porcini mushrooms. I’ve also used sourdough starter with success. Use a little for dough, more for batter, still more for crepes.
Well that’s not much of a recipe. You’re thinking. And you would be correct. Here are a couple of examples to get you started. They each feed two hungry people so scale them up if you’ve got more.
Cooking Fat: Oil or butter. Use in the mixture and for cooking.
Miscellaneous: Salt and baking powder. None to some. Use this for light, fluffy cakes. Less gives a heavier texture like a tortilla.
Toppings: Anything you want. I like soft fruit for breakfast Cr’itter Cakes and fish/chicken/meat with a savory sauce and vegetables for lunch/dinner cakes. Put it on the cooked cakes, mix it in the batter, serve it alongside. It doesn’t matter.
So if you’ve got some of the above mentioned ingredients or – and this is the great part – anything else. You’re set. Blessed with eggs you get a meal reminiscent of crepes. Fruit and flour? You’ll be feasting on a fritter. Make them sweet and you end up with something like what North Americans call “pancakes” and the rest of the world calls… not really sure, but I bet they call it something. Make them savory and spicy with a little chicken or fish and you have a rich satisfying dinner. You’ve got room to experiment and bend the recipe to fit whatever it is you have growing in your refrigerator.
Breakfast Cr’itter Cakes
1 very ripe soft fruit, berries, etc. In the tropics plantain, mango, or soursop work well.
1 egg
½ cup milk or sourdough starter
1 cup wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp cooking fat, butter or oil
In a large bowl mash up the fruit – if you’re using berries you can mash them or leave them whole. Mix in the egg and milk or sourdough starter and combine thoroughly. In a small bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt and stir to mix them evenly.
Savory Dinner Cr’itter Cakes
This one has a Chinese taste similar to Egg Foo Yung.
1 cup water
2 – 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 – 2 bullion cubes – vegetable or chicken – or equivalent in powdered bullion
Thickener – corn starch or flour
2 Tbsp cooking oil
1 medium to large onion or 2 smaller ones
0 – 2 cloves of garlic (optional)
0 – 2 cups of crunchy vegetables – celery, canned water chestnuts, broccoli, etc.
0 – 2 cups of soft vegetables – bean sprouts – fresh or canned, shredded carrots, mushrooms, etc.
Toss this into the fruit/liquid combination and stir until blended completely. Some lumps are OK. If you’re using oil just stir it in with the rest. If you’re using butter melt it first (unless you’re far enough south that it already melted). You should have a fairly runny batter that is starting to bubble nicely.
Spoon into a greased hot frying pan and cook until top starts to bubble. Flip over and cook until the cake puffs up or – if you didn’t have any baking powder – until golden brown.
Serve hot with butter, syrup, honey, preserves, or powdered sugar. Yum.
0 – 2 cups of cooked fish, chicken or tofu. (Great use for leftovers)
2 Tbsp of soy sauce
2 Tbsp flour
5 – 6 eggs depending on how hungry you are and how big the eggs are
¼ cup of cooking oil
Cooked white rice.
First make the sauce. Bring the water and soy sauce to a boil. Dissolve the bullion. Thicken to a gravy consistency. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. (This works well on a gas barbecue to keep the heat out of the boat.) Dice the onions and garlic and cook until soft but not mushy or caramelized. Stir in the crunchy vegetables and cook until hot. Stir in the soft vegetables and fish/chicken/tofu and heat thoroughly. Remove from heat and mix with soy sauce. Sprinkle flour over everything and stir to absorb soy sauce. Set aside. In a large bowl beat the eggs. Stir in the vegetable/meat mixture and stir until evenly combined.
Pour ¼ cup cooking oil in the skillet and heat up. (I usually clean the skillet first but that’s not necessary.) When the oil is hot spoon the mix into the skillet. (I make them about 4-5 inches across to keep them easy to flip.) Cook for a few minutes until golden brown then flip them and cook about the same amount on the other side. Remove and drain on a paper towel. Keep cooking until the egg mixture is gone.
Serve either on or alongside the white rice and covered in sauce. Don’t worry if you make too much. They are great as leftovers.
Those are a couple of examples. You can do more along those lines or just go and try anything you want. I’ve made Cr’itter Cakes with just about anything I could lay my hands on except – up to now that is – dried porcini mushrooms.
