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Pancakes take a lemony Hawaiian twist

Recipe: Lemon-coconut corn cakes with coconut syrup

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED FEB 12, 2023

Garnish these Hawaiian-inspired pancakes with lemon and coconut. Debbie Arrington

A recent trip to Kauai inspired this twist on an old favorite – including the corn part.

While vacationing on the island’s south shore, we met a corn expert from Iowa. His company was working on new corn hybrids, developed on the island’s western slopes. Since most of the Hawaiian Islands never experience winter (as we mainlanders do), corn can grow year round – making it an ideal place to test new varieties.

Likely story, I thought when I heard his occupation while grilling at our beach-side resort. Who wouldn’t want to escape Midwest snow to monitor corn on Kauai? But when we ventured to the west side of the island past Hanapepe and Waimea, we discovered – sure enough – vast cornfields where sugar cane once grew, all part of ag-science research.

4 pancakes, 1 brown and done, other 3 with bubbles — Flip the pancakes when bubbles form.

That got me craving corn cakes, but with an island twist. I wanted something as sunny as those western slopes with a little taste of the tropics, too.

When I got home to Sacramento, the combination of lemon and coconut worked beautifully in these corn cakes, lightened with lemon yogurt. The result was similar to a lemon-polenta cake. Coconut syrup was the perfect topper. Who knew that corn cakes could be tropical, too?

Lemon-coconut corn cakes

Makes 10 to 12 corn cakes

Ingredients:

½ cup cornmeal

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ cup lemon yogurt

½ cup low-fat milk

1 egg

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted butter, cooled

½ cup flaked or shredded coconut plus more for garnish

Butter for griddle

Instructions:

6 pancakes on a griddle — Don't press on pancakes when they're cooking.

In a mixing bowl, sift together cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

In a smaller bowl, mix together yogurt and milk. Beat in egg. Add lemon juice, zest and baking soda.

Add yogurt-lemon mixture to dry ingredients. Stir until just combined. Add oil or melted butter. Fold in coconut.

Heat griddle and melt butter. Ladle batter onto griddle, spacing cakes apart; corn cakes will almost double in size. When bubbles form on top (about 2 or 3 minutes), flip cakes. Cook another 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from griddle and keep warm.

Serve with butter and coconut syrup. Top with shredded coconut, if desired.

Coconut syrup: In a small saucepan, combine ½ cup coconut milk and ½ cup sugar. Over medium heat, bring to boil, stirring often. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Store in refrigerator.

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Garden checklist for week of Feb. 8

Dodge those raindrops and get things done! Your garden needs you.

* Start your spring (and summer) garden. Transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.

* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots. Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).

* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.

* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions. Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.

* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.

* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.

* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.

* This is the last chance to spray fruit trees before they bloom. Treat peach and nectarine trees with copper-based fungicide. Spray apricot trees at bud swell to prevent brown rot. Apply horticultural oil to control scale, mites and aphids on fruit trees soon after a rain. But remember: Oils need at least 24 hours to dry to be effective. Don’t spray during foggy weather or when rain is forecast.

* Feed spring-blooming shrubs and fall-planted perennials with slow-release fertilizer. Feed mature trees and shrubs after spring growth starts.

* Remove aphids from blooming bulbs with a strong spray of water or insecticidal soap.

* Fertilize strawberries and asparagus.

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