Rainy Winter Morning Whole Grain Wild Blueberry Pancakes.
Rainy winter mornings after long hikes in the San Diego desert make me want pancakes. Good, solid, whole grain ones. The kind that make you feel like you ate food, not syrupy junk.
At Trader Joe’s the other day they had Wild Blueberries from Canada, frozen. I don’t generally recommend frozen stuff, but I think berries hold up pretty well to the freezing process for winter use. Having said that I would not really eat them in winter unless they are cooked somehow, like in pancakes or as a sauce. Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine are totally against smoothies, especially in cold weather/winter.
One of my favorite ways to make home-made pancakes is to use yogurt, instead of milk. How can I put it; it gives the pancakes “body”; it makes them thicker and more substantial, more like food.
So this morning I ground in my “spice grinder” (a.k.a coffee grinder)
Ingredients
2 tbsp brown basmati rice
1 tbsp white basmati rice
2 tbsp steel cut oats
1 tbsp quinoa
1 tbsp buckwheat kasha
1 tsp flax seed
to which I added
1 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp Pavel’s brand plain yogurt
2 tbsp water or more to make a batter.
2-3 tbsp blueberries, to be added at the stove.
That’s it. No salt or sweetener or oil needed. When you grind whole grains in the spice grinder you won’t get flour, its more like a sandy texture, which works fine for cereal or pancakes. Like cream of rice cereal, for example. The batter looks like Indian dosai batter
What I like about pancakes made with basmati rice is they are easy to digest and have a lovely aroma. Plus I like the texture. But rice alone has no gluten so alone it won’t stick together, but the oats and wheat flour give it what it needs.. I love sourdough, and I love South Indian dosai, so I like the ever-so-slightly sour taste the yogurt imparts to the mixture.
Recipe
Add the water and yogurt to all the dry ingredients and stir gently with a spoon. Let it sit for 5 minutes while your cast iron skillet heats up.
When it does, ladle the desired amount onto the pan, let it cook until ready to turn, add the blueberries onto the pancakes, flip, and let it cook a minute or two till done.
Pancakes are delicious with some jam or date syrup, but its easy to over do and end up with a whole bunch of unneeded carbs. Moreover, pancakes are heavy, no escaping that fact. One way to balance the heaviness of the cake is with some kind of spice that stimulates Agni/digestive fire. Sometimes I put ginger or cardamom in. Today, I had this chutney from Kerala, India in the fridge. I thought, why not? We use this kind of chutney with dosai (rice and lentil pancake eaten at breakfast or dinner in India). It was really excellent!
Ayurveda
Pacifies Vatta and Pitta. Ok for Kapha in small amounts, as follows:
Late autumn and early winter are dominated by Vatta, with cold and dry weather predominating. Today it rained, which made the climate more Kaphic, but as of late our bodies in San Diego have been affected by Vatta raising conditions. In either case warming food is desired.
These pancakes are fundamentally warming, moistening, heavy, sweet, and ever so slightly sour, all qualities perfect for Vatta which is cold, arid, rough, light, dry. I coated my pan with sesame oil which pacifies Vatta, too.
The quinoa and flax seed are slightly bitter, which helps Pitta and Kapha. Oats, rice, and quinoa are excellent for Pitta. These cakes are heavy, but not oily, in fact they have no oil except what’s on the pan and in the flax seeds, which makes them more suitable for Pitta and Kapha. Even for Kapha, these are low fat and full of fiber, and berries are a low sugar fruit. So a balanced Kapha can have small amounts of something like this, and might want to add ginger or even black pepper to her version.
I served my cakes with both the hot tomato chutney (pacifies Kapha, stimulates Agni) and a little yogurt (pacifies Vatta)drizzled with Date Syrup, a wonderful natural sweetner I get at the Arabian market.
Copyright Eyton J. Shalom, M.S., L.Ac. San Diego, CA All Rights Reserved, Use With PermissionAyurveda, Acupuncture, and Chinese Medicine in San Diegohttps://www.bodymindwellnesscenter.com
