{"id":4522,"date":"2011-05-12T20:15:54","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T03:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/?p=4522"},"modified":"2011-05-12T20:15:54","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T03:15:54","slug":"corn-cakes-for-camping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/corn-cakes-for-camping\/","title":{"rendered":"Corn cakes for camping"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As soon as we started planning the camping trip we took to Death Valley last month, I began thinking about flat breads.\u00a0 There aren’t many places to buy fresh supplies in the desert and I’m pretty picky about bread.<\/p>\n

I wanted to be able to make my own.\u00a0 But I wanted to keep it simple \u2013 no rising, no rolling, no oven.<\/p>\n

The more I looked for traditional flat bread recipes to cook in a skillet, though, the more frustrated I became.\u00a0 After all, we wanted to spend our time in Death Valley marveling at the incredible landscape and perhaps spotting a few wildflowers, not waiting around for bread to rise.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bad Water, at 282 feet below sea level, in Death Valley National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inspiration finally came from an old copy of “Joy of Cooking,” where I found a recipe for the Johnnycakes that travelers carried in their rucksacks as long ago as the mid-18th century.\u00a0 Also known as journey cakes and hoe cakes, these corny flat breads sounded a bit austere, though, and my eye was drawn to the corn flapjacks on the same page.<\/p>\n

Why couldn’t I dress the flapjacks up with some chiles, sun-dried tomatoes and green onions to create an Americanized version of the\u00a0 uttapam<\/em> made with a lentil and rice batter?\u00a0 The result was an extremely tasty cross between a Mexican tortilla and a spicy Indian street snack.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I tweaked the the flapjack recipe to use powdered buttermilk and mixed the dry ingredients together at home.\u00a0 In camp, I stirred in water, olive oil, and an egg. Then I poured a spoonful of batter into a hot skillet and sprinkled each cake with jalape\u00c3\u00b1os, sun-dried tomatoes and scallions while the first side cooked, before flipping it over to finish.<\/p>\n

The batter was thin and the cornmeal quickly settled to the bottom, so it had to be stirred before dropping each spoonful onto the hot skillet. But that was the extent of the special effort. \u00a0 The corn cakes were super simple to prepare and we had fresh, hot bread in no time.<\/p>\n

The cakes were great warm with a big bowl of chili.\u00a0 They were even nice a couple of hours later, after they had cooled.<\/p>\n

And we had plenty of time left to look for those elusive desert wildflowers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

SPICY CORN FLAPJACKS<\/strong>
\nMakes about 10 3\u00bd -inch cakes<\/em> <\/p>\n

\u00be cup cornmeal
\n2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
\n\u00bd teaspoon salt
\n\u00bc teaspoon baking powder
\n3 tablespoons powdered buttermilk
\n\u00be cup water
\n2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
\n1 egg
\n1 jalape\u00c3\u00b1o, thinly sliced
\nAbout \u00bc cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked briefly in hot water to soften
\n2 scallions, including green parts, thinly sliced<\/p>\n

Whisk cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder and powdered buttermilk together in a medium bowl.\u00a0 In a separate bowl, whisk together water, oil and egg.\u00a0\u00a0 Beat liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients.\u00a0 Since the cornmeal settles to the bottom of the batter, stir again before pouring a large spoonful of batter onto a hot, lightly oiled griddle.\u00a0 Make cakes small so they’re easier to turn.<\/p>\n

Sprinkle jalape\u00c3\u00b1os, tomatoes, and scallions over each cake.\u00a0 Watch for tiny bubbles to appear on the surface of the batter, then flip the cake over to cook the second side until lightly browned.\u00a0 Serve warm.<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0 The recipe is easily doubled.\u00a0 If you don’t have powdered buttermilk, you may substitute one cup fresh buttermilk for the powder and water.<\/p>\n

Inspired by “Crisp Corn Flapjacks” in “The Joy of Cooking” by Irma S. Rombauer and Marian Rombauer Becker (Bobbs-Merrill, 1975)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As soon as we started planning the camping trip we took to Death Valley last month, I began thinking about flat breads.\u00a0 There aren’t many places to buy fresh supplies in the desert and I’m pretty picky about bread. I wanted to be able to make my own.\u00a0 But I wanted to keep it simple … Continue reading Corn cakes for camping<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4522"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4570,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522\/revisions\/4570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}