Sunday, June 11, 2006

Johnnycakes for Vito

I spent all day yesterday sick on the couch, and was able to catch up on some episodes of The Sopranos that I have been missing. Vito left New Jersey to hide out in small-town New Hampshire, and ended up settling down temporarily with a hot cook at a diner that makes him johnnycakes for breakfast. Watching Vito get served tall stacks of these cornmeal beauties every morning got me hungry for some. I have never had johnnycakes before, but I just sort of winged it after reading several recipes. The result was a really nice treat - more dense than a typical pancake, crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. It is essentially a cornbread pancake - traditionally made with white cornmeal (I think) but I only had yellow cornmeal on hand, which worked nicely. I also had some frozen raspberries, which I defrosted and served on the johnnycakes along with my favorite Morningstar Farms Veggie Breakfast Sausage Patties (not Vegan) and plenty of maple syrup. R.I.P. Vito.
Vito's Johnnycakes
Mix 2/3 c. cornmeal, 1/3 c. flour, 1/2 T. salt, and 1 T. sugar in a bowl with a fork. Add 1 c. boiling water to the bowl, stir until combined, and let rest for about 10 minutes while the cornmeal absorbs the water and softens. Preheat griddle to medium heat with oil or butter/margarine. Slowly add soymilk to the cornmeal mixture until it is thinned to batter consistancy. Stir until batter is smooth and soymilk is mixed in. Add to the hot griddle as you would a pancake, and cook on each side until firm and golden brown. Makes 7-8 four-inch cakes.

1 comment:

Gary Wood said...

That looks good! I'm hungry.