Monk's Pan

The pan where East meets West
(The following is taken from an article written by Marlene Parrish, Post-Gazette Staff Writer in Pittsburgh, PA.)

Let me tell you about a cast-iron pan with dual citizenship. It looks like the offspring of a marriage between a muffin tin and a cast-iron skillet.

Small pans for use in the home have seven deep, round depressions, and large commercial ones can have up to 36. The pancake-dumplings made in the pan may be served either sweet or savory.

In Scandinavian countries both the pan and its pancakes are called aebleskiver. There, a sweet pancake batter made from flour, eggs, butter and milk is poured into the depressions and partially cooked. The semi-baked cakes are rolled and rotated until the batter is baked uniformly and the balls are crisp and brown. The round little cakes are the size of inflated golf balls, fun to see and fun to make.

Across the world in Thailand, the identical pan is used in markets to make a grab-and-go savory breakfast food called kanom krok. As snacks, they are also popular in food booths at festivals. In Thailand, the batter is made from rice flour and coconut milk and is usually topped with shrimp, chilies, caramelized peanuts, corn and scallions. A serving-to-go is two kanom krok dropped into a folded banana leaf and wrapped in a piece of newspaper, English fish-and-chips-style.

In Thailand, little girls play with toy versions of the baking pans, rather like American girls who play with Easy-Bake Ovens.

So how do you suppose both Denmark and Thailand lay claim to the skillet-pan?
One theory is this: Back in the 1600s, European Christian missionaries in Siam became overzealous in their efforts to convert the population from Buddhism to Christianity, so the government kicked them all out. This much is true.

I’m guessing, then, that some Dane, accustomed to eating what had become his favorite snack, crammed a kanom krok pan into his duffel bag before going up the gangplank.
Once back in Denmark, the missionary tried to make the snacks for his pals, and failed. The flavors of coconut milk, chilies and rice flour were too foreign, not to mention unavailable. The inventive fellow then converted the recipe to pancake batter and got rave reviews. He christened his result aebleskiver, and the rest is gastronomic history. Scandinavian immigrants brought the pans with them to America.

Want to try making them yourself? The batter is easy, but the technique is a bit tricky. It may take a few trials and errors before you find the right temperature on your range and get the knack of rotating the balls. Remember to grease the depressions (cups) with a bland oil or unsalted butter before baking the batters. Salt makes the cakes stick. Most cooks use a wooden skewer to turn the cakes, but some say they like to use a knitting needle.

Wouldn’t plain old pancakes be easier to make? Of course. But then you wouldn’t have this fun story to tell.

Khanom Krok

(Coconut-Rice Pancakes)

3 (14 ounce) cans coconut milk, or 1 3/4 cups coconut cream with 3 1/2 cups lighter coconut milk
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 tablespoon tapioca or arrowroot flour
3 tablespoon uncooked white rice
1/3 cup finely shredded fresh coconut, or 1/4 cup dried, unsweetened shredded coconut
2 cups rice flour
2 teaspoon sea salt
2 to 3 tablespoon peanut or corn oil
Optional filling ingredients:
1/4 cup green onions, cut in thin rounds
1/4 cup fresh corn kernels
2 tablespoon cilantro leaves
If using canned coconut milk, spoon into a small saucepan 1 3/4 cup of the creamiest part from the top of three cans of coconut milk.

Heat just enough to melt and smooth out the lumps.
Add sugar and stir to dissolve.
Allow to cool before mixing in 2 1/2 tablespoon of tapioca or arrowroot flour.
Stir until smooth. Set aside.

Combine the remaining coconut milk from the cans and stir until smooth, heating if necessary to melt the coagulated parts. Allow to cool.
Grind the uncooked white rice in a food mill or clean coffee grinder as finely as possible.
Do the same with the shredded coconut.

Combine the two with the rice flour, salt and coconut milk.
Stir and mix until well blended and smooth.
Heat a well-seasoned kanom krok griddle (or substitute with an Aebleskiver pancake griddle) on the stove, in a hot oven or over a small round barbecue kettle with medium-hot charcoals.

When the griddle is hot, brush the surface indentations with peanut or corn oil.
Wait a few seconds before spooning the salty rice mixture into each indentation to about two-thirds full.
The batter should sizzle when it hits the hot metal. (If you have a teakettle with a spout, you may find it helpful as a container from which to pour the rice batter onto the griddle.)
Before the batter sets, add a dab of the sweet coconut cream mixture over the top to fill and sprinkle the center of each cake with a little bit of one of the toppings, or leave plain.
Cover with a round lid and allow to cook for a few minutes, or until the pancakes are firm and crispy brown on the bottom.

Remove gently with a rounded spoon.
Re-grease the griddle before making the next batch. Because rice flour tends to settle, stir the coconut mixture well before pouring onto the griddle.
Serve hot.

Aebleskiver

3 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2 T. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. lemon extract or 1/4 ground cardamom Oil for greasing pan
Powdered sugar and jelly or jam for serving
Separate eggs. Beat egg yolks. Stir in buttermilk.

Sift flour, baking powder, soda, salt and sugar together and add to buttermilk mixture. Beat only enough to blend. Add vanilla, lemon extract or cardamom. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into batter.

Heat Aebleskiver pan. Put a small amount of cooking oil in each round well (bacon grease is preferred). Fill 3/4 full of batter. When bubbles begin to firm, turn — the traditional turning tool is a metal knitting needle — about 1/4 of the way up. Turn each ball several times. Following the sequence around the pan that you used in pouring in the batter. If pan is too hot, pancake balls will be dark on the outside, raw on the inside. To serve, sprinkle aebleskiver with powdered sugar and serve with jelly, jam or sugar as a snack with coffee, dessert or as a breakfast course. Makes 28 pancake balls. Print this post