Okay, so maybe KOi fusion inspired me, but last week for dinner I combined a traditional western European breakfast food with non-traditional stir-fry and it worked. It worked well enough that I will write it down.
I knew I was taking a risk smashing them together, but it paid off in that now I have one more totally unique dinner in my repertoire. Even better: like the best recipes I know, it’s a “whatever you have will work” thing. I used half a leftover zucchini, yellow squash, a small head of cauliflower and a bunch of green beans for the stir-fry. Add a little sunflower oil, garlic and a smidge (seriously, not more than about a tablespoon, and the pan was full o’ veggies) of soy sauce and served it in a Dutch baby.
Now about Dutch baby (Dutch…baby?). I once asked my mom if in Holland, they just call it a baby, which seemed like it could get awkward. You might know it as a German pancake. My personal theory is that Dutch came from a mistranslation of Deutche. This is all beside the point.
Basically, this Dutch/German/baby/pancake is a ratio of 1 egg to ¼ cup milk and ¼ cup flour blended together and poured in a flat Corningware pan with some melted butter in the bottom. I suppose you could make it in a standard square Pyrex, but the little blue flower design of Corningware is etched onto my image of the thing. It just works better than anything else. Chez moi and my hubby, I double the above ratio (using half whole wheat flour) and use a 6 inch square Corningware I picked up at Goodwill for a whopping $3.99.
Once the Dutch baby was in the oven; 425 for about 20 minutes; I whipped up my seasonal stir-fry and away we went. My mom used to say, “Dutch baby waits for no man,” so when it was for dinner, we didn’t dawdle getting to the table. She said that because after it’s out of the oven, you had better eat it quick because it cools and deflates from its puffy, fluffy glory. As soon as it’s out of the oven, slice it like a pie and fill it with stir-fry.
I’ll admit that until we sat down and ate, I had no idea if this was going to be a colossal swing and a miss. Even as I was putting it on the table, I wondered what I was thinking. But this out-there crazy combo worked. Aside from a small container of veggies, there were no leftovers, and we started with a lot of vegetables. I take this as further proof that being daring and unafraid, while no guarantee of success, occasionally hands you a gem. Score one for being super adventurous.