Bean Pancakes and a Recipe Blog Hop

I'm joining in on a recipe blog hop over at Trying Your Best. If you click on the logo above, you'll be taken to the post where you can link up with one of your own, or just check out what other people are having for dinner.

As for my own recipe, it's all about the beans. Because meat is so expensive here, so expensive that we typically buy it in Florida and bring it back on the plane every couple of months, we eat a lot of vegetarian meals. This means beans, which we like, but have found it difficult to find recipes that aren't totally Mexican in nature. You can only eat so many Mexican dishes when you often don't have tomatoes or lettuce available. So, I was happy to have discovered this one in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything". (Which is, by the way, my favorite cookbook ever.  I hope to pick up his vegetarian one soon. I suspect we will make very good use of it.) Oh, and these cook up very fast. The hardest part is making sure I have beans on hand that aren't in either the freezer or uncooked.

The picture I used shows a dollop of sour cream and salsa, which is my favorite way to eat these, but my boys insist on maple syrup (yuck!), and Oliver gets creative with hot sauce and ranch. Really, you can do a lot of things with this. Pesto anyone?

Without further ado, I present:

Bean Pancakes

2 cups cooked or canned beans, drained (we typically use dried beans, but have used canned before. You can also experiment with different kinds of beans - the pic above was made using a combination of pinto and red beans. I've also done them with black)
1 cup half-and-half or whole milk, plus more as needed (I imagine you can use something with less fat, but what fun would that be?

1 egg

2 tablespoons butter, olive oil, or other neutral oil

1 cup flour (the original recipe calls for all-purpose, but we prefer it with wheat - really, any flour you like the taste of will work)

salt and freshly ground pepper

 Heat a skillet over medium-high heat (we use cast iron). Mash the beans roughly with a fork. Use the fork to stir in the milk, egg, and 2 tblsp. melted butter or oil. Stir until the mixture is thoroughly combined.

Add the flour and sprinkle with the salt and pepper (this is where you decide how much or little you like it seasoned - you can vary this and add whatever you think will taste good. Fresh garlic is great!). Stir with the fork just enough to fold in the flour, adding more milk as necessary to produce the consistency of thick pancake batter.

Start cooking when a drop of water dances on the surface of your skillet or griddle. Working in batches, use a little more butter or oil to grease the cooking surface. Spoon on the batter to 3 or 4 inch pancakes. Cook until bubbles form on the surface, then turn and cook the other side until golden, about 4 minutes per side. Keep finished pancakes in a warm oven if you like while you finish the others. Serve hot or at room temperature.