Anything mashed and fried in oil...

I have a confession to make: I try to turn most leftovers into a pancake. If it can be mashed up and tossed into some bread crumbs, I will pan fry it and declare it an "Olde World" specialty. When I ate eggs, I would even take leftover noodles, pour egg on them, griddle them up and tell Lance that I was making chinese food.

So, we had a ton of that puree from the last post. The puree was really good, with fragrant celery root and spicy black pepper, but we were getting tired of eating it straight, as if we were two 30 year old babies eating our blended food. Bleh. Enough was enough.

So, I took some of the puree and started experimenting. I added in a bit of flour and wheat gluten and mixed it with a fork until it started pulling together, but I made sure not to put in so much flour that it turned into raw dough...yuck.

I probably could've just thrown them on the cast iron pan right then, but I thought a dusting of panko would add a good crisp. This turned out to be a superfluous step since I wasn't baking or deep frying these pancakes. Instead, the moisture in the pancake just absorbed the panko and I ended with a smooth cooked surface regardless.

But, yeah, a few tablespoons of melted Earth Balance and some cooking time later, we had nice little puree pancakes, with crispy outsides and warm, smooth insides. I topped mine with mango chutney from the fridge--total taste explosion! Lance opted to eat his plain, and enjoy the original flavors of celery root and fennel...he's such a purist. =)

So, am I the only one who makes pancakes out of leftovers? Anyone else? Anyone? ;)