Veggie Pancakes?

When I was staying with John and Chrystal last year, John's mom came to visit. She cooked some really great food. This dish was my attempt to recreate one of her dishes. I didn't even come close but this still tasted pretty good. I will get the real recipe and try again some day but these satisfied my itch for them for now. 

Scrumptious. Salty, savoury, soft and chewy, crispy, and fresh. This dish is a sensory overload.

When this dish was made for me it was done with shrimp.  It was so good but alas, no shrimp in my house at the moment so I went straight up vegetarian.  I'm sure you could put anything in these and they would be tasty but I wanted to keep it kind of simple.  I only used mushrooms, green onions, zucchini and bean sprouts.

Now, this is where I went awry. I could not remember what was in the batter except cornstarch so I basically altered my crepe recipe. One egg, milk, and flour.  I wanted a really loose batter so it would be thin and cook quickly.

Cornstarch gives a really good crisp crunch in batters so it was the star here. I ended up using about two Tbsp because that is what pouffed out of the container and into my bowl. It worked for me.

If I remember correctly these were served with fish sauce and soya sauce. I like heat so I set out chili flakes so I would remember to add them. The fish sauce portion of this dish might have been mixed with something else. I am really not sure. My memory is my weakness.

To test my batter I fried a bit in some hot oil. It was sure crispy. I thought it would do.

Time to get cracking. Add oil to your very hot wok, throw in your veggies. Cook stirring constantly until they start to soften.

Pour your batter right on top. Shake and tilt the wok so all the 'raw' batter from the middle goes to the edges to be cooked. It will form a big crepe looking pancake thing. Very technical.

Now the hard part, flip that whole thing before it burns without it falling apart. Cook the other side for a minute or so, checking often to be sure the bottom is not burning. Partially remove from the heat if your pancake is cooking too quickly.

Turn it out onto a plate and eat immediately. This was really fun to cook because I stopped to eat every one while it was hot. While it is still hot, splash soya sauce, fish sauce, and chilis on top then eat and enjoy. Add more sauce as required.

Because I was eating every pancake as I was cooking it, I experimented a bit to see if I could improve my technique. I tried batter in first and batter on top. Batter on top was definitely best. Plus, the veggies developed more flavour getting to cook a bit on their own first.

John's mom also made this really wicked curry soup and I still need to get the recipe. I love trying new foods, especially when they are this yummy!