Bell pepper pancake (or does it look more like a patty?)

My heart sank when I lifted my bell pepper pancakes from the wok.  (It was not that I didn't learn my lesson about using traditional woks to make pancakes.  I couldn't find a decent pan in my kitchen, oops.)  My first thought flashed across my mind, "Walau, is this a pancake or PATTY?!?!"

I think the picture showed what was the obvious.  This was supposed to be a blog propagating semi-raw veganism, not encouraging fake meat production!  Admittedly, the taste of these (erm) patties was decent.  I wouldn't say they were fantastic though the spirit of adventure in the kitchen was commendable.  To meat-lovers, they may not like the crunch of vegetables in their patties.  For me, however, I was ecstatic that I was able to savour the juice bursting from bell peppers when I took my first bite.  Seeing green in my patties was another redeeming factor.  At least my grated zucchinis weren't burnt!

Ingredients

• Half a zucchini, grated
• Half a red bell pepper
• Half a yellow bell pepper
• Minced garlic cloves
• Buckwheat flour
• 1 egg replacer
• Water

Mix the last three ingredients together to form a batter, before adding the vegetables in.  Better take my instruction with a pinch of salt.  It is better that you play around with the ingredients of your own pancake batter though, since my culinary experiment was a semi-failure!

Sweet Potato Prata

I must confess that these sweet potato prata weren't meant to be prata.  I had wanted to create sweet potato pancakes which were supposed to look light and fluffy.  However, my pancakes looked slightly charred, creating an unwanted image of being oily.  They weren't!  Despite their less than ideal appearance, they tasted awesome.  The sweet potato provided nutritional and atomical density that filled me up fast.


Lessons learnt

1. Never use a traditional wok to make pancakes.  It produces charring on the surfaces of the pancakes.  Should use a non-stick large pan.  That is why pancakes are called pancakes.
2. Be diligent in flipping your pancakes.  They turn brown pretty fast!

Ingredients

• 1 sweet potato, steamed for 15-20 minutes and then mashed up
• About 3/4 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin coconut oil
• 1 egg replacer (1 tbsp ground flaxseed meal to 3 tbsp water)
• Water

Mix all the ingredients together, adding water until the batter has a smooth consistency.  However, if you like, you can use less water to retain the texture of mashed potato.  Slightly oil and heat up your pan before pouring your batter over it.  Makes 3 medium-sized pancakes...oops, prata, I mean!