The next brunch item which the seniors made in the South Arm Cooking Club for seniors was Red Pepper Hot Cakes. Lorna and Christina worked on this recipe, one did the chopping and another work on the batter. They first tried to cook the hot cakes using the grill but the grill took a long to heat up. They then use a frying pan to cook up a batch while waiting for the grill to heat up. We find that the gas ovens in community kitchens (whether it’s South Arm or Gilmore Park Church) have similar problems. The oven takes a long time to heat up and they are usually not as hot as the temperature indicated on the gauge. We usually have to turn up the temperature more than the recipe requires. Well, it’s always handy to have an oven thermometer to make sure you have the right temperature.

This Red Pepper Hot Cakes recipe is adapted from Good Cooking by Jill Dupleix and this recipe serves 4. It’s a great recipe for kids who do not like vegetables but most kids will love pancake. This hot cakes will be excellent with some sweet chili sauce for Asian flavours or served with a dollop of sour cream.

Ingredients

• 1 large red bell pepper
• 1 thick slice ham, diced
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Batter:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 eggs, separated
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Instructions

Finely dice the red pepper, discarding core and seeds. Dice the ham. Chop the parsley.

To make the batter, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and cayenne into a bowl.

Mix the egg yolks and milk.

Slowly beat the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until smooth. He,he, we did it the other way i.e. slowly mix in the dry ingredients into the milk mixture.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. A few streaks should remain.

Add diced pepper, ham, chopped parsley, Parmesan and pepper into the batter, mixing lightly.

Heat half the oil in a non-stick frying pan. When hot, drop heaped tablespoons of batter into the pan, keeping them separate. Turn the heat to low. When holes appear on top of the batter, turn and cook on the other side for 3-4 minutes until golden. Remove and keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter.