New Year's Resolution + Honeycomb Pancakes - 4 stars

i'm trying a different new year's resolution this year. last year, i vowed to go to the optometrist and the dentist. i did both, though we won't talk about how many of the previous years i didn't do either! :)

this year, i decided i would pick out a type of cuisine, buy a cookbook, and cook my way through it. outside of excessively cheesy recipes, i MUST cook every recipe from the book by the end of this year. i vacillated between lebanese cuisine and moroccan cuisine, and settled on moroccan. i then had to decide between two different moroccan cookbooks:

Made in Morocco
by Julie LeClerc and John Bougeno


Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco
by Paula Wolfert

the reviews for Made in Morocco said it was a good cookbook, but not as authentic as Paula Wolfert's. i decided to try out Paula's. um... not the best idea. it's TOO authentic. i am not ready for that kind of authenticity. the "meat salad" recipes call for animal brains. the tangine recipes called for at least three whole chickens, or ten pounds of lamb. all of the recipes from Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco make massive amounts of food, look quite complicated and often require ingredients that would be extremely difficult for me to obtain.

i want to actually be successful with my new year's resolution, so i took another look at Made in Morocco. it seemed more appropriate for me, so i ordered it. it's fantastic! it has a ton of history and cultural information, and the recipes are much more practical. i'm really excited about working my way through it.

so... i made my first meal on saturday morning from this cookbook. the name of the recipe is honeycomb pancakes. to make them, i dissolved a packet of yeast in warm water, added a teaspoon of sugar, and then combined it with semolina flour, regular flour, one egg, salt, a bit of vanilla extract, and some tepid water. i was supposed to let the batter sit for at least an hour, but i was hungry. i only waited a half hour. bad idea - i'll explain why later.

to cook these pancakes, i warmed a nonstick pan over medium heat, brushed some vegetable oil on the bottom, and put a scoop of the batter in the pan. i did not flip the pancakes; instead, i let them cook until the bottom was golden brown and the top was solid and fluffy and full of holes. well - i got small holes in them, but they didn't end up nearly as fluffy as they should have because i didn't wait the full hour before cooking. i hate when i'm impatient! :)

they were really good though. they had a grittier texture than regular pancakes because of the semolina flour, and they were not sweet either. i served them with honey and butter, and they were just fantastic. i also had some amazing uli's fresh andouille sausage on the side. how un-moroccan of me! :-)

please email me if you would like the recipe - it's at home in my cookbook, so i can't add it right now.





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