Pan-global: Yotam Ottolenghi’s pancake recipes | Food (2024)

Coconut and turmeric omelettes (pictured above)

Prep 30 min
Cook 35 min
Makes 8

For the dipping sauce
1-2 pink grapefruits, juiced to get 80ml, plus 40g pulp
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1½ tbsp mirin
1 tbsp lime juice
2 red chillies, finely chopped (deseeded if you don’t like heat)

For the salad
3 spring onions, finely sliced into 5cm strips
10g mint leaves
10g coriander, picked leaves with some stem attached
70g beansprouts
60g breakfast radishes, finely sliced

Heat two tablespoons of oil in a large, nonstick frying pan for which you have a lid, on a medium-high heat. Add the garlic, chillies, shallots, ginger and half a teaspoon of salt, and fry for eight to 10 minutes, stirring often, until soft and golden. Leave to cool for a few minutes.

Mix together all the ingredients for the sauce, including the pulp, with an eighth of a teaspoon of salt, then toss all the salad ingredients together.

Wipe the pan clean and return it to a high heat. Once very hot, add one and a half teaspoons of oil. Pour in about 100g of batter and swirl to coat most of the pan. Fry for a minute and a half, until the bottom is golden brown, then cover with the lid and continue to cook for another 20-30 seconds, or until the top is set. Transfer to a tray lined with baking paper and keep warm. Continue with the remaining oil and batter in the same way until you have eight omelettes.

Carefully arrange the omelettes on a large platter, browned side up – they may fold naturally. Serve hot with the salad, dipping sauce and lime wedges alongside.

Prawn and kimchi okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki are a savoury Japanese pancake made with cabbage and various other add-ins, and topped with sweet and savoury sauce. You can find ready-made okonomiyaki sauce in most Asian supermarkets, or you can make your own as suggested below. The sauce is quite sweet, so feel free to reduce the amount of honey the recipe calls for.

For the pancakes
110g plain flour
25g tapioca flour
¼ tsp baking powder
Salt
3 large eggs
90ml dashi, fridge-cold
¼ head white cabbage, core discarded, thinly shredded and cut into 1½cm pieces (180g)
10g ginger, peeled and finely grated
15g coriander, roughly chopped
½ small sweet potato, skin-on and roughly grated (100g)
180g extra-large, sustainably-sourced raw king prawns, peeled, deveined and roughly chopped
100g good-quality kimchi (store-bought), roughly chopped, plus extra to serve
6 spring onions, thinly sliced (90g)
60ml sunflower oil

To serve
1½ tbsp mayonnaise (or Japanese mayonnaise)
2 tsp nori sprinkle, or 1 sheet of nori finely blitzed in a food processor to get 2 tsp

Put all the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan on a medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and simmer for a minute, stirring continuously, then set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together both flours, the baking powder and a quarter teaspoon of salt. Add the eggs and dashi, and whisk until you have a smooth batter. Add the cabbage, ginger, coriander, sweet potato, prawns, kimchi and three quarters of the spring onions, and mix to combine.

Put two medium frying pans on a medium heat, adding a tablespoon of oil to each. Once hot, add a quarter of the pancake mixture (about 250g) to each pan and spread into a circle with a spatula to cover the base of the pan (about 18cm), pushing down to flatten. Cook for 10 minutes, or until golden on one side. Carefully flip over and cook for another six minutes, or until golden on the other side and cooked through the centre. Repeat with the remaining oil and batter, making four pancakes in total, and divide between four plates.

Brush the tops with the sauce, then drizzle with the mayonnaise in a zig-zag motion (a squeezy bottle is best for this). Sprinkle with the remaining spring onion and the nori, and serve with some extra kimchi alongside.

Lamb broth with pancake “noodles”

The southern German flaedlesuppe (or frittatensuppe in Austria) is the inspiration for this dish, where strips of crepes are served inside a clear broth, softening and expanding as they soak up the liquid. Thanks to Christiane MacKenzie for handing over the real-deal pancake recipe (minus the coriander). Any good-quality broth, meat- or vegetable-based, can be used here, but I urge you try this deliciously lemony broth, which can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge for up to three days.

For the soup
1.5 kg bone-in lamb neck pieces
Salt and black pepper
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced (150g)
3 cinnamon sticks
2 whole star anise
8 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1-2 dried red chillies (the finger-length variety)
500g carrots, peeled and cut at an angle into 3cm chunks
75ml lemon juice
20g coriander, roughly chopped, plus extra to serve

Pat the lamb dry, then season all over with three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large, cast-iron saucepan for which you have a lid, on a medium-high heat. When hot, fry half the lamb for about six to seven minutes, until browned all over. Transfer to a tray and repeat with the remaining lamb.

Add the carrots, replace the lid and cook for 30 minutes more, until the carrots are soft and the lamb is almost falling off the bone. Use a slotted spoon to remove the lamb and, when cool enough to handle, pull the meat apart into bite-sized chunks, discarding the bones. Return the meat to the saucepan, add the lemon juice and coriander, and keep warm, discarding the whole spices.

Towards the last half hour of cooking, start making the pancakes. Add the flour and half a teaspoon of salt to a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Add the eggs, milk, sparkling water and coriander and whisk until smooth with no lumps.

Roll up each pancake and cut into ¼cm-wide strips. Unravel the strips and divide them between six bowls. Ladle over the lamb soup and serve right away, with an extra sprinkle of coriander.