Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

I am so excited to share this recipe with you! I have never made my own pancake batter before. I've always believed that the shake and pour variety were more my bag until I made these banana pancakes today!

To me pancakes mean a desert - I love nothing more than an American style buttermilk pancake with gooey maple syrup and vanilla ice cream. However, today my love affair with buttermilk pancakes has come to an end as I have now found a new love...savoury banana pancakes served with warm maple syrup and crispy bacon.

Now, this is the type of dish that you would not want to serve on a weekly basis... queue heart attack on a fork! But...every now and then when you wake up a little fuzzy from the night before and you need a stodgy meal to cure the aches and pains but couldn't be bothered getting dressed up to go out for brunch...this is the meal for you!

My mouth is still watering from these pancakes and using the sour cream in the recipe is the midas touch. The centre of the pancakes oozes deliciously with melted banana and sour cream. The combination of fluffy pancake and oven crisped bacon is a party for your taste buds.

And can I just say that taking the time to dust a little icing sugar over the plate is truly and utterly the icing on the cake!!

I encourage everyone to try this dish at least once in their life time - you will not be left disappointed.

Enjoy!
x

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Unsalted butter
• 2 ripe bananas, diced, plus extra for serving
• Pure maple syrup

Note: I also added to this dish rashes of crispy bacon cooked in the oven at 200 degrees celsius until brown and crispy.

Method

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing only until just combined.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until the butter starts to bubble. Ladle the pancake batter into the pan to make 3 or 4 pancakes. Distribute a rounded tablespoon of bananas on each pancake. Cook for 2-3 minutes until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. 

                                       

Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute until browned. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, add more butter to the pan and continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve with sliced bananas, maple syrup, icing sugar and crispy bacon.

                            

Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon

Hello everybody! It's been well over a month since I last blogged and my sincerest apologies. However I do have a good excuse...I've been away on holidays for 7 weeks!

Matt, Sadie and I had a brilliant 2 weeks away together in Bali to celebrate my best friends wedding. The trip was pure bliss and we were spoilt rotten. Bali is such an amazing place and the locals are some of the kindest people I have ever met. We can't wait to get back there for another visit.

Sadie and I then travelled on to Sydney, our home town, for 5 weeks of catching up with family and friends. We both had a blast and it was so sad to leave but we couldn't wait to get home to Matt and become entrenched once again in our daily Doha life!

My first weekend back in Doha and we were invited to a cocktail party by our very good friends John & Catherine. J&C live on the same compound as we do and most of our weekends are filled with drinking, eating and swimming in the pool.

It was a fun filled cocktail party, as each couple had to bring their own cocktails to make for the guests. Matt and I decided on Mojito's as they are my favourite (i make mine with lemonade instead of soda water). Anyway, I thought it was also my duty to take along some canapes for us to snack on!

I have adapted this recipe from Nigella Lawson, the only thing I changed was adding sour cream to the top of the pancakes. These little morsels of deliciousness were gobbled down very quickly. We also decided that they would make a great posh looking hash brown minus the sour cream and salmon and instead served with crispy bacon (or turkey bacon for us here in Doha!).

I hope you enjoy!
x

Ingredients

3 eggs
125ml full-fat milk
2 spring onions, finely sliced
2 x 15ml tablespoons olive oil
60g instant mashed potato granules
40g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup sour cream (optional)
300g smoked salmon
1 small bunch of fresh dill

Method


1. In a jug, whisk the eggs, milk, spring onions and olive oil together.

2. Stir in the potato granules, flour and baking powder and finally the lemon juice.

3. Heat a flat griddle, and drop 15ml tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the hot griddle.

4. Cook for about 30 seconds a side, or until golden brown and firm enough at the sides to flip.

5. Once you have made the pancakes, and they've cooled a little, top with a small blob of sour cream and then tear off tiny strips of smoked salmon and place on top.

6. Decorate each salmon topped pancake with a tiny feather of dill.