Pandanus Hotcakes With Coconut Custard

Wendy of Table for 2...or More is one of the first few food bloggers I had gotten to know when I started blogging a year ago. She was one of the first few who started to drop by with encouraging comments and useful advice at my blog. I still recall when I first visited her blog, her space was somewhat quiet and 'uneventful'. Then, all of a sudden, as if touched by a magic wand, her blog became a big hit overnight. Her blog reminded me of a book I had read... Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point - a book that explains and analyses the 'tipping point', that magic moment when ideas, trends and social behaviours cross a threshold, tip and spread like fire....

Wendy's style is very different from mine. Hers is an unpretentious blog that shares with readers, useful housewife tips and experiences. Mine is frivolous and self-indulgent - the polar opposite. The frivolous side of me is seldom drawn to house-wife creation but the practical side of me am usually able to pick up elements at these sites and try to make them work for me. Wendy has yesterday issued a challenge to her readers to come up with a creative version of her Sponge Cake Pancake. When I read her terms and conditions... and there was a long list of them... I frowned and wondered how could I celebrate creativity with so many do's and don'ts... but suprisingly, there and then, I already knew what I wanted to do and I hope I am still working within the boundaries of her terms...

I had wanted to work with a pandanus/coconut flavoured pancake,served with Thai Pandan Custard. I first saw the Thai Pandan custard at Ellie's site where she created the popular Thai street food of fried bread dough with Thai Pandan custard (kaya).  I recently ate that in Bangkok with L and had wanted to make it by myself. The custard is a more runny version of our Kaya jam and is perfect as an accompaniment to the sponge cake pancake (some call it hotcakes).



Wendy's recipe is very simple.I modified it by adding coconut milk and pandan juice to it. With beaten egg whites added separately into the batter, the pancake takes on a light and spongy texture which was delightful. The addition of coconut milk and pandan juice gives it moistness and fragrance.
This was then served with a knob of meltig butter and a generos drizzle of Pandan custard.

I will keep this post short and let you ponder about other ingenious way of cooking this pancake.


Recipe :

Pancake
3/4 cup       Coconut Milk
4 eggs         Separated
1 cup          Plain flour
Pinch          Salt
50g             Butter for frying

Pandan Coconut Custard (From Ellie's Blog)

3-4 pandanus leaves
2 egg yolks
Pinch of salt
3 cups coconut cream
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
3 tbsp tapioca flour
1/2 cup milk

Method :

Pancake

1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
2. Mix Coconut milk,egg yolk and sugar together.
3. Mix (2) with (1) and stir until smooth. Add Pandan 3 tbsp of Pandan juice.
4. In a separate clean dry bowl, beat egg white with 2 tbsp of sugar until stiff peaks are formed.
5. Fold (4) into (3).
6. Heat a frying and add a little butter. Drop 2 tbsp of batter into the pan and fry over medium heat for 2 mins. Turn the pan cake over and fry the other side until pan cake is cooked through.

Pandan Coconut Custard

1.Wash and drain the pandanus leaves. Finely chop the leaves, then puree them in an electric blender with as little water as possible. Strain, pressing against a sieve to extract as much of the very green and grassy pandanus water as possible. Set aside.


2.Mix the egg yolks with the salt, coconut cream and sugar in a bowl. Combine the flours in a separate small bowl and stir in the milk, then work this into the egg yolk mixture. Strain in a small pan.

3.Heat over a very low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and cooked. This should take about 20 minutes. Stir in the pandanus water (I have added 1/2 tsp of pandan paste to add a deeper shade of green to the custard) and simmer for a minute or so before taking off the heat and allowing to cool.