green pancakes with lime butter

there is a new Ottolenghi cookery book out and inevitably i’m thinking about tracking it down given how much i like their first one. this is not good as i still have a few recently purchased cookery books which i’ve not cooked from and i’d on a book-buying-ban until i remedy this. 

thankfully, the recipes, which are all vegetarian, include a lot from the column which Yotam Ottolenghi writes for the Guardian, which means that a taster of things to come was published a couple of weeks ago so i’m able to put off a purchase.

several of the recipes caught my eye, including the puy lentil galettes, black pepper tofu and mee goreng. however, i decided to start with the green pancakes with lime butter.

David and i had these for brunch, polishing off a full batch which should have served three to four. it was in a good cause – the pancakes are delicious, i adored the lime butter and they kept me going all day. give them a try this weekend…

yotam ottolenghi's green pancakes with lime butter (serves 3-4)

100g unsalted butter at room temperature

grated zest of 1 lime

1½ tbsp lime juice

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp white pepper

1 tbsp chopped coriander

½ garlic clove, finely chopped

¼ tsp chilli flakes

250g spinach, washed

110g self-raising flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 free-range egg

50g unsalted butter, melted

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cumin

150ml milk

6 spring onions, finely sliced

2 green chillies, thinly sliced

1 free-range egg white (i added the extra yolk to the pancake mix with the other egg)

olive oil, for frying

put 100g butter in a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until creamy. stir in the zest, lime juice, salt, pepper, coriander, garlic and chilli. tip out on to a sheet of clingfilm, roll into a sausage, twist the ends to seal and chill.

wilt the spinach in a pan with a splash of water. drain and, when cool, squeeze to remove as much moisture as possible. chop and set aside.

put the flour, baking powder, whole egg, melted butter, salt, cumin and milk in a bowl and whisk until smooth. add the onions, chillies and spinach, and mix in. whisk the egg white to soft peaks and gently fold in.

pour a little olive oil into a heavy frying pan and place on a medium–high heat. for each pancake, ladle in two tablespoons of batter and press down gently. you should get smallish pancakes about 7cm in diameter and 1cm thick. cook for two minutes a side, until you get a good golden-green colour. transfer to kitchen paper and keep warm. repeat, adding oil to the pan as needed, until the batter is used up.

to serve, pile up three warm pancakes per person and place a slice of flavoured butter on top to melt. keep any leftover lime butter in the fridge, for smearing over baked sweet potato