Summer Vegetable Scallion Pancakes

Deep Run Roots

I REALLY enjoyed these. They were so good! There's a lot of chopping and prepping involved here, but you can do all of that in advance, then mix up the batter with just enough rest time before you plan to fry them; it doesn't all have to be done immediately before. None of the ingredients will suffer from an overnight in the fridge post-chop.

It seems like a great way to use up a small amount of vegetables you have on hand, maybe late in the season. You could probably swap out anything you really don't like with something else, but the okra is a must! It helps keep the batter together, and it doesn't get a ton of extra liquid in the bowl toward the end, like lots of other vegetable-based pancakes do.

I know these have summer in the name, but...I think you can make them any time of the year. Fresh okra is hard to come by in the winter, even in the south, but I am 99% sure you could defrost some frozen okra and chop it up with very little ill effect for the recipe, though you might have to drain a little excess water. The rest of the ingredients are available year-round -- you could certainly use your Hoarded Corn (https://cookwithheather.com/Deep-Run-Roots-Hoarded-Corn/) for this, or frozen (cut) corn from the grocery store. It may not be quite the same as fresh, in-season veggies, but it would still be delicious!

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with Heather today we're going to be
[00:08]: working once again from Vivian Howard's
[00:10]: Deep Run Roots cookbook
[00:13]: um and we're going to be making
[00:14]: something that is she calls a summer
[00:17]: vegetable scallion pancakes
[00:21]: um
[00:21]: which really are kind of like a
[00:23]: vegetable Fritter and uh
[00:26]: basically all the vegetables in them are
[00:29]: currently in season
[00:31]: uh it's got okra and corn and squash
[00:35]: summer squash
[00:37]: um in it and of course scallions and so
[00:41]: this is sort of a late summer dish
[00:43]: because that's when okra starts being
[00:47]: ready at least around here
[00:49]: so
[00:51]: um
[00:52]: this is supposed to be a medium Bowl
[00:56]: but this is what I have so pretty large
[01:00]: bowl everything else is like in use for
[01:03]: many different things including holding
[01:05]: some cherry tomatoes that I picked today
[01:07]: so
[01:09]: they're going crazy
[01:10]: and she does say she usually serves this
[01:12]: on top of stewed tomatoes which I don't
[01:14]: have
[01:15]: so I will be
[01:17]: serving them basically plain or the
[01:20]: adults might use some of the um
[01:24]: uh we made some
[01:27]: spicy mayo for dipping fried okra just
[01:30]: the other day and so we'll probably be
[01:33]: dipping it in that but we're going to go
[01:35]: ahead and start this because
[01:38]: the first part needs to sit for a little
[01:40]: bit and then after it's all together you
[01:43]: can you're supposed to let it sit for a
[01:44]: little bit so we're gonna go ahead and
[01:46]: get started I've already pre-prepped all
[01:49]: of my ingredients and let me go get a
[01:51]: spatula
[01:52]: I have pre-chopped everything and we're
[01:56]: starting with okra so this is minced up
[02:01]: and she actually says that uh or sorry I
[02:04]: chopped it just a few hours ago and put
[02:07]: it back in the refrigerator so
[02:08]: everything's already pre-measured
[02:11]: um so this okra she says you actually
[02:12]: want to use the mature pods so the
[02:15]: larger ones because they'll be have more
[02:19]: kind of the sliminess but that will help
[02:22]: hold the pancakes together so there's
[02:26]: that I have some fresh corn I cut this
[02:30]: off this is about about half an ear a
[02:33]: little bit more than half an ear of corn
[02:35]: cut off the cob fresh I'm sure if you
[02:40]: don't have fresh corn it would be fine
[02:42]: to use
[02:44]: um
[02:45]: thawed frozen or whatever you have we
[02:49]: put up some more corn we made some more
[02:51]: of the hoarded corn uh just recently so
[02:54]: I'll link that up there and I'm sure if
[02:57]: you had some of that blanched uh corn
[02:59]: that you cut off the cob it would work
[03:01]: fine
[03:03]: um
[03:04]: we have
[03:06]: just a little bit this was not even
[03:09]: a whole small one it was probably like
[03:12]: less than half of a small one I use
[03:14]: zucchini and it is grated on a box
[03:17]: grater or in a food processor I grated
[03:20]: it on you know a sort of a large grate
[03:23]: on um box grater or box grater type
[03:26]: thing
[03:27]: you can also use yellow squash for this
[03:31]: any any sort of summer squash that you
[03:33]: have but it's a very small amount
[03:36]: and now
[03:38]: these are scallions
[03:41]: um and they have been minced so
[03:44]: I sliced them up and then just sort of
[03:46]: milled them with my knife
[03:49]: and there we go
[03:52]: and so we're going to put some of the
[03:55]: salt
[03:57]: on here and we're going to let this sit
[03:59]: for I'm going to start up and we're
[04:01]: going to let it sit for three minutes
[04:02]: where she says the salt will pull the
[04:09]: uh liquid out of the squash because
[04:14]: zucchini summer squash has a lot of
[04:17]: water in it and then that will activate
[04:20]: the sliminess
[04:22]: of the okra and this is just sort of the
[04:26]: she says to cut off the tips and the
[04:28]: tops and use just sort of the midsection
[04:30]: just
[04:31]: just fly
[04:32]: she says that will sort of activate the
[04:34]: sliminess of the okra
[04:36]: so we're going to let it sit for about
[04:37]: three minutes and
[04:40]: um while we're while we're letting that
[04:42]: sit I'm going to clean up a little bit
[04:43]: and we will make the other part
[04:46]: of the pancakes
[04:49]: okay my timer has gone off and it's been
[04:53]: three minutes
[04:54]: um it's not super wet but okay
[04:58]: um whatever it's fine
[05:01]: um
[05:02]: and I didn't
[05:04]: go ahead and do the wet ingredient step
[05:07]: because I only have one clean spoon of
[05:12]: the size I need so we're gonna do the
[05:15]: dry stuff first
[05:17]: uh we're going to add some
[05:21]: cornmeal
[05:23]: getting it all over the place all right
[05:24]: we're going to add some cornmeal
[05:28]: to this I've just got yellow cornmeal
[05:31]: because that's what I generally have on
[05:33]: hand
[05:34]: [Music]
[05:38]: and we're going to add some plain
[05:40]: all-purpose flour to this
[05:53]: so there's not a lot of flour or
[05:56]: cornmeal in this but
[05:58]: just a little bit
[06:01]: the way so you can see you can see more
[06:03]: and we are going to mix this in
[06:08]: kind of coat the vegetables with the dry
[06:11]: ingredients
[06:17]: and so it's sort of a dry
[06:21]: these are the dry ingredients I guess
[06:23]: and now we're going to put together the
[06:25]: wet ingredients
[06:27]: um so we've got
[06:29]: egg
[06:32]: here
[06:35]: try to get
[06:38]: there we go
[06:41]: we need some buttermilk I have been
[06:43]: using a lot of Buttermilk lately so I
[06:45]: happen to have some on hand thankfully
[06:58]: okay we've measured in our buttermilk
[06:59]: and now we need just a little bit of hot
[07:02]: sauce
[07:06]: that's good
[07:08]: um I'm using Franks just because that's
[07:11]: what I have on hand right now
[07:14]: and we are going to uh whisk this all
[07:17]: together
[07:32]: okay I'm going to put the salt away
[07:34]: because the rest of the salt in the
[07:36]: recipe is just going to be on the
[07:38]: finished product so we don't need any
[07:40]: more of this right now
[07:41]: and I'm not going to measure that
[07:44]: so our dry dry uh what she what does she
[07:49]: call it she calls it a
[07:52]: um dry slimy Mass it's not super slimy
[07:56]: but
[07:57]: it is dry so now we're going to add the
[08:01]: wet ingredients to the dry ingredients
[08:07]: and
[08:08]: stir this up a few times
[08:10]: and then we need to let this sit for at
[08:14]: least three minutes and up to an hour so
[08:18]: this doesn't make a whole lot of
[08:20]: fruiters but it looks like it'll be
[08:21]: perfect for
[08:23]: a side dish for our dinner which is what
[08:25]: we are using this as
[08:28]: so uh when we are about ready to eat
[08:32]: which will be probably 30 minutes or so
[08:36]: um I'm just gonna leave this out and we
[08:39]: will come back and
[08:41]: show you how we cook these
[08:44]: all right so it's been
[08:47]: probably about an hour maybe even a
[08:49]: little bit more I'm heating up my oil
[08:51]: here
[08:53]: um I didn't measure it I just kind of
[08:56]: got a decent layer she says you could
[08:58]: use a
[08:60]: 10 inch or 12 inch cast iron skillet
[09:02]: I've got my 10 inch I'm going to be
[09:04]: making relatively small ones and I just
[09:06]: didn't want to have to deal with
[09:09]: too many at once especially while
[09:10]: filming so
[09:12]: um
[09:15]: medium Heat
[09:17]: I didn't start it heating up quite early
[09:19]: enough because cast iron takes a while
[09:21]: to heat
[09:23]: but so I turned it up a little bit above
[09:25]: that but now it's down to uh medium and
[09:30]: what I'm going to do I just did a little
[09:32]: stir and it's definitely more sort of
[09:34]: slimy and
[09:36]: um
[09:38]: a battery than it was before now she
[09:42]: says you can use
[09:43]: one or two tablespoonfuls
[09:47]: for a Fritter I'm gonna go with these
[09:49]: smaller ones
[09:51]: just because I think they'll be easier
[09:55]: handle as a side dish and then you want
[09:58]: so you want to drop them in and then
[10:00]: make them about you know flatten them
[10:02]: out to like pancake
[10:05]: shape size
[10:08]: so that is what I'm doing
[10:12]: and I think at medium heat I will
[10:14]: probably have time to fill this up
[10:16]: before I can do anything for me for sure
[10:26]: [Music]
[10:33]: but these small ones
[10:37]: looks like I'll be able to get at least
[10:40]: six or so
[10:42]: in the pan at once
[10:48]: foreign
[10:57]: planned a little better at the beginning
[10:59]: but so
[11:02]: I might make bigger ones next time we'll
[11:04]: see but uh
[11:08]: these fry just until they you want some
[11:12]: dark brown and some golden brown bits
[11:14]: and then you flip them over same thing
[11:17]: I've got my oven preheated to like warm
[11:21]: and hold just to keep them warm
[11:25]: um
[11:25]: she says 200 degrees so you know if you
[11:28]: don't have a warm and hold that's what I
[11:29]: usually use it which is somewhere north
[11:32]: of 180 maybe slightly below 200 but it's
[11:35]: good for for these kinds of things
[11:38]: um
[11:39]: so we're going to be frying these until
[11:41]: we're all done
[11:44]: I'll show you what they look like when
[11:45]: they get flipped over
[11:47]: all right I'm gonna flip the first one
[11:48]: over I don't know that it's done but
[11:55]: not brown yet it does stay together so
[11:58]: that's good but we're gonna let these
[12:01]: keep cooking before I flip the rest of
[12:03]: them
[12:05]: think this first one that cooked on the
[12:08]: second side is getting a little bit
[12:09]: closer where you see some are really
[12:11]: sort of dark Chestnut and the rest is
[12:14]: sort of golden brown I think that's what
[12:16]: we're going for
[12:21]: all right so I'm going to take
[12:23]: these
[12:24]: put them
[12:26]: put the ones that I think are done Brown
[12:29]: enough on both sides
[12:31]: on my
[12:33]: um
[12:35]: paper towels and
[12:39]: then we're going to hit them with just a
[12:41]: little bit
[12:42]: more salt just
[12:44]: for their seasoned well that's always a
[12:46]: good idea
[12:47]: for anything that you fry to season it
[12:50]: after it comes out of the pan
[12:56]: that's when it'll stick because it'll
[12:57]: stick to the orange
[12:59]: put these in the oven just to keep warm
[13:05]: get some more going
[13:07]: [Music]
[13:14]: on this episode of cooking the books
[13:16]: with Heather you watched me make summer
[13:18]: vegetables scallion pancakes from Vivian
[13:21]: Howard's Deep Run Roots cookbook
[13:23]: now
[13:24]: I've made
[13:26]: other sorts of vegetable pancakes
[13:27]: usually sort of potato pancakes before
[13:30]: and
[13:32]: one of the problems that I almost always
[13:34]: have is near the end it gets very
[13:37]: liquidy like when you're frying them up
[13:39]: the end they get very liquidy it doesn't
[13:42]: hold together very well did not have
[13:45]: that problem with these so she says that
[13:49]: the okra sort of the sliminess that that
[13:54]: mucousy texture that everybody hates
[13:57]: well almost everybody hates when it's
[13:60]: sort of boiled or just sort of by itself
[14:03]: usually that's why you serve it with
[14:05]: tomatoes that have a little bit of a
[14:07]: vinegar to cut it not vinegar but an
[14:10]: acidity to cut it so it's in gumbo where
[14:13]: you have that but by themselves
[14:18]: not a great texture but it works really
[14:21]: well here to keep those uh pancakes
[14:25]: together and to keep them from getting
[14:27]: super watery
[14:29]: so I really really like this recipe they
[14:33]: were absolutely delicious my kids said
[14:37]: it needed more corn because they just
[14:39]: love corn but this is a great recipe if
[14:41]: you have a little bit of because I could
[14:44]: use like maybe half a zucchini and like
[14:47]: maybe one ear of corn and a small amount
[14:51]: of okra so if you have a little bit of
[14:52]: stuff coming off your your actual Garden
[14:55]: or you have a little bit of stuff left
[14:57]: over you can make this very easily
[15:01]: um I personally would love to have a
[15:04]: double batch of these I think we could
[15:05]: have eaten a double batch
[15:07]: um
[15:09]: but
[15:10]: we had no problem eating all of these
[15:13]: so
[15:15]: uh I so we really liked them she does
[15:18]: say that she often serves them over
[15:21]: stewed tomatoes which he had we hadn't
[15:23]: made
[15:24]: when we did this when we made this
[15:26]: recipe but we have made it now and I
[15:28]: might want to make them
[15:30]: uh
[15:31]: again and and try that because it really
[15:35]: would be a good sort of sauce to have
[15:37]: with these I think my kids wanted
[15:39]: ketchup and which the stewed tomatoes
[15:42]: are a little bit like ketchup they're
[15:44]: they've got some acidity and and all of
[15:46]: that in it
[15:48]: and a tomato of course
[15:50]: very flavorful so
[15:53]: anyway I will definitely be making these
[15:55]: again uh
[15:57]: and I'm pretty sorry that I haven't made
[15:60]: them before I can't believe I hadn't
[16:02]: made these before because they were one
[16:04]: of our favorites from this book so
[16:07]: if you enjoy watching me make this
[16:08]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[16:10]: Subscribe button and come back and watch
[16:12]: me make something else next week
[16:13]: [Music]