The David Eyre Pancake

The David Eyre Pancake

Umami first ran across this recipe in a collection called "Aunty Marialani's Go Cook 'em," a huge .pdf file of recipes assembled by someone with a great deal of affection for local food and Rap Reiplinger:

The David Eyre pancake recipe came from a Honolulu Star-Bulletin article, "Chef makes entrance with luscious pancake," which in turn cribbed it from Craig Claiborne's 1966 article in the New York Times. 

Umami's been meaning to try it for some time and finally gave it a try one Sunday morning before the early football games.  The recipe is super simple:

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
Pinch of ground nutmeg (Umami didn't have nutmeg, so used cinnamon instead)
4 tablespoons butter (It's a lot of butter . . . can probably be cut down to 2 or 3 tbsp)
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Fig or blackberry jam, pear butter or any kind of marmalade, for serving (optional) (Umami says:  you won't need it).

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the flour, milk and nutmeg and lightly beat until blended but still slightly lumpy.

2. Melt the butter in a 12-inch skillet with a heatproof handle over medium-high heat.  (Umami used a 12-inch cast iron skillet.)  When very hot but not brown, pour in the batter. Bake in the oven until the pancake is billowing on the edges and golden brown, about 15 minutes.

3. Working quickly, remove the pan from the oven and, using a fine-meshed sieve, sprinkle with the sugar.  Return to the oven for 1 to 2 minutes more.  Sprinkle with lemon juice and serve (with jam if you want, but you really shouldn't, the lemon and sugar are awesome as is).

Serves 2 to 4, though Umami and Elle, armed with a fresh pot of coffee, finished it off with no problem whatsoever.  Very easy, even at 6:30 on a Sunday morning.  Highly recommended.