Going Green with Jean-George Vongerichten

Vincent van Gough, 1853-1890
Oleander, 1888
Oil on Canvas, 23 3/4 x 29 inches
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dutch Post-Impressionist Master

I was reading through one of my old cookbooks, Simple Cuisine, by Jean-George Vongerichten the other day and came across a recipe for sweet pea pancakes. The name of the recipe alone was enough to keep my interest, but the thing that really grabbed my attention was the vibrant green color of the cakes. One of my favorite axioms about food is that if a dish cannot be eaten with the eyes then it shouldn’t be eaten at all, and these cakes were so simple in their beauty, I could feel my eyes begin to salivate. Then when I saw that the recipe called for browned butter, let’s just say the decision was made for me.

So I set out to make a gluten free version to share with everyone so you too can delight in these delicate little poppers.

Although Mr. Vongerichten serves his cakes with a tomato consomme, I decided to pair mine with mild kalamata tampanade, a touch of cream fraiche, and a few ribbons of preserved scotch peppers and chives. Served with a bright rose or a crisp sauvignon blanc, these sweet pea pancakes are ideal starters for your next dinner celebration.

Jean-George Vongerichten’s Sweet Pea Pancakes with Kalamata Tampanade, Crème Fraiche, Scotch Peppers and Chives

For the Cakes:

1 ½ cups organic sweet peas
1 ½ tablespoons glutinous rice flour
1 ½ tablespoons cassava flour (tapioca flour)
1 tablespoon gluten free oat flour
¼ teaspoon guar gum
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
scant ½ cup organic heavy cream or half and half
1 whole organic egg
1 organic egg yolk
5 tablespoons organic sweet butter
pepper to taste

¼ cup kalamata tampanade
¼ cup crème fraiche
2 preserved scotch peppers
1/3 cup organic chives
8 sage leaves

To begin, add the frozen organic peas to 2 ½ cups filtered water and ½ teaspoon of kosher salt. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain the peas and transfer them to a food processor with the blade attachment. Add the flours, guar gum, salt, heavy cream, egg and egg yolk and mix until smooth.

Brown 3 tablespoons of the butter and add it to the egg mixture. Process on high for about a minute. Season with salt and pepper and process again. Give the mixture one last taste and season accordingly, if necessary.

Melt the remaining butter in a medium sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter begins to foam, add tablespoon-sized drops of the batter and cook the cakes until golden brown around the edges, about two minutes per side. The trick with these cakes is to maintain the heat of the pan, so after you have cooked about half of the batter, reduce the heat slightly so the cakes don’t burn.

To Serve

First fan the pancakes in the center of your serving plate. Add a small amount of prepared kalamata tampanade, which is readily available at most specialty food stores, to the center of a pancake along with a dollop of crème fraiche. Finely dice 1/3 cup chives and chiffonade the scotch peppers. Garnish with one or two ribbons of scotch peppers followed by a light shower of chives. Place a couple of sage leaves in the middle of your fanned out cakes.

Serves 4

Joaquim Sunyar, 1874-1956
Pastoral, 1910-1911
Oil on Canvas
Generalitat de Catalunya, Department de Cultrua, Barcelona, Spain
Catalan Painter