Sweet potato pancakes
It's been exactly a month since I started quarantining. And today Cuomo announced there will be another month of NY PAUSE. My goal for March was to cook more often at home, but damn, be careful what you wish for. Jokes aside, I truly am grateful for my family and having a fully stocked fridge. These are all blessings!
Now we buy groceries that can last us a couple weeks at a time to minimize going out frequently. Because we're creating every meal at home, creativity and variety are important to keep things interesting. We had sweet potatoes left over, and my mom suggested making pancakes, pajeon style. But sweet potato to me would taste better in a chewier and sweet batter, so I decided to recreate Hunan style pumpkin pancakes with the sweet potatoes instead.
It was all an experiment. I called my grandma, who has been experimenting with the pumpkin pancakes the past few years. She gave me very few instructions: use room temperature water to knead the batter, and the batter is ready when it no longer sticks to your fingers.
From there I played around with the ratios and the textures until it met her description. In working with my elders, I realize there are no exact recipes. You just go by experience and with what you got. So here's a rough recipe based on my experience that lovely quarantine afternoon.
And because I developed so many more ways to virtually communicate in the past few weeks, I streamed the entire process on www.twitch.tv/lettucespoon_ and made a TikTok of my stream. Enjoy below and share with me how your pancakes turn out!
Sweet potato pancakes (makes 2-3 dz)
dough:
1 1/2 cup glutinous rice flour
1 med sweet potato, cooked and mashed (steamed or boiled, cooled to room temperature)
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
sesame seeds
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to fry:
oil
1. In a large bowl, fold 1 cup glutinous rice flour, sweet potato, sugar, and salt until flour is all incorporated. Add remaining flour or water until dough is smooth and no longer sticky
2. Continue to knead for 10-15 minutes by hand until dough is smooth and has a slight bounce
3. Pinch a piece of dough to roll individual ~1 in spheres, flatten into patties and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Do this with all remaining dough.
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4. Heat a pan with ~1 tsp of oil and fry both sides on medium heat until golden brown
