Zucchini Pancakes- No Maple Syrup Needed!

A perfect crispy zucchini pancake

I bought some exotic "Roman" zucchini at the farmer's market on Sunday, and last night I whipped up some zucchini pancake batter based on a Mark Bittman recipe in How To Cook Everything Vegetarian. It was one of his variations listed under "Vegetable Pancakes." I haven't been a big fan of his recipes in the past, but these were pretty yummy. Dr. Hal refused anything that might be goopy and veggie, so I just made 3/4 of a recipe with two zucchini, and had batter left for two more meals.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you only add enough milk to make the batter spoonable, so you can use the whole egg used for a whole recipe and just add less milk. (I hate having to beat up an egg and try to divide in half or worse, as in this case, 3/4ths!) Last night I cooked the pancakes on medium heat and they were still a little damp inside, so today for lunch I cooked them on a lower heat for longer. I also hand grated the vegetables which helped  preserve their structure. My onion grating experiences usually result in a mess of onion juice and slop, but the onion I used last night grated up into nice little slivers.

Zucchini Pancakes a la Mark Bittman
Makes about twelve 3-1/2" pancakes
1 lb. zucchini
1/2 onion, grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup flour
salt and pepper
Milk, as needed
2 Tb olive oil
1/2-3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Butter or olive oil for the pan

Grate the vegetables by hand into a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the onion, cheese, and flour, andthen the egg. Season with salt and pepper. (You can go easy on the salt because the Parmesan is salty.) Add just enough milk so that the mixture drops easily from a large spoon. Stir in the 2 Tb of olive oil.

Melt a small pat of butter in a large skillet over medium low heat. When the butter is melted and bubbly, drop in spoonfuls of the batter, flattening slightly with your spoon. Cook, turning once, until brown and crispy on both sides, which will take about 15 minutes total.

Partially cooked- it's hard to wait!

You can scarf these up plain, like I did, or serve them with a soupcon of yogurt, sour cream, tomato sauce or pesto. If everyone wants to eat at the same time, you can keep the pancakes warm in a 275 degree oven.

So the $64,000 question is would the Picky Eater eat one?