Snack Time Pancakes: Spilled Milk #194

You can leave this delicious dish sliced up on the counter for people to nosh on as they pass by—or eat the whole thing yourself. No judgment!

✈️ LET’S TAKE THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME!  

Have you ever wanted to travel with me — I mean, really travel with me? How about you spend nine days and eight nights with me in one of my favorite places on earth? This October, you can join me on a trip to Sicily thanks to my friends at Modern Adventure. We’ll explore markets, dine at some amazing restaurants and cook together. Even better, the first four Spilled Milkers who book the trip using the code AZ500 will get $500 off. Hit this link, and I’ll see you in Sicily!

I was watching my friend Kenji López-Alt make a Spanish potato omelet on his IG the other day, and he said something that rang true to me that very few people do.  He said he likes to make things and leave them out for people to nibble all day as they pass by the kitchen. YES. I want people in my home, especially on weekends to have something on the counter to snack on. It’s an act of love for those of us that cook.

I did it with my banana bread over the weekend. He does it with his omelet.

And I do it very often with good cheese, or a dip, or these seafood pancakes that are SOOOOOO easy to make. These ones are made with shrimp, but you can use squid, cut-up fish filets, oysters or a combination. Years ago, I started devouring pancakes in Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and decided I needed to make one that worked for me, kind of a hybrid of techniques. The dipping sauce is my favorite for this because the nam jim pairs so well with seafood. I make a beef version of this pancake with thinly shaved ribeye or other similar cut and serve it with a bracingly strong Japanese mustard. Experimentation is what this is all about! And yes, I DON’T use all-purpose flour because it results in a dull and less crisp pancake.

Sometimes I just use rice flour on its own, but cake flour (which has cornstarch in it) works really well here. It has less gluten and lower protein so it’s a great binder and allows for the other starches to crisp up well.

So my ask of you isn’t to make this recipe per se but to cook as an act of love and put food you make in the kitchen out for others to graze on. Try it, you’ll like it.

Recipe: Seafood “Snack Time” Pancakes