Taking on Martha and The Four Seasons
| • | Food trends for 2008 |
By Elaine Magee
Q. I found this recipe for Four Seasons' Lemon-Ricotta Poppy Seed Pancakes on Marthstew art.com (it's courtesy of Joan Nathan's "The New American Cooking"). It looks too rich for my wife and me; can you "doctor" it for us?
A. It would be my pleasure — I hope I do The Four Seasons, Joan Nathan and Martha proud.
First, I am using 6 egg whites, 3 yolks and some egg substitute (for volume with less cholesterol), instead of 6 large eggs. I switched to a part-skim or low-fat ricotta cheese and whole-wheat flour instead of white flour. In place of a half stick of melted butter, I added lite pancake syrup and reduced the powdered sugar by a couple of tablespoons. And instead of coating the griddle with vegetable oil, I used some canola cooking spray, which worked fine.
Serve these pancakes with a dusting of powdered sugar topped with fresh or frozen berries.
Original recipe contains 312 calories, 21 g fat, 11.5 g saturated fat, and 265 mg cholesterol per serving.
LIGHT LEMON-RICOTTA POPPY SEED PANCAKES
In large mixing bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer until firm glossy peaks form. Scoop them out into a medium size bowl and set aside.
In same large mixing bowl (now emptied of egg whites) beat together ricotta cheese, pancake syrup, egg yolks, egg substitute, and vanilla extract. In medium bowl, combine whole wheat flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, lemon zest and poppy seeds by hand with whisk.
Stir the flour mixture into the ricotta mixture that's in the large mixing bowl using a rubber spatula. Now fold in a fourth of the whipped egg whites and continue folding until all the egg white has been incorporated.
Start heating a nonstick griddle or large skillet over high heat. When nice and hot, reduce heat to medium and coat with canola cooking spray. Using 1/4-cup of batter per pancake, place batter on griddle with plenty of space between them (they should be around 3 1/2-inches in diameter). When top begins to bubble and bottom is golden, gently flip pancakes over to cook the other side (about 2-minutes per side).
Continue with remaining batter (coating pan with canola cooking spray before each batch) until all the pancakes are made.
Makes 6 servings, 3 pancakes each.
Elaine Magee is a registered dietitian. Learn more about her, her book, "Food Synergy," and her Recipe Doctor Club at www.recipedoctor.com.
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