Rumor has it this week the Norse God, Ullr, and Mother Nature got together over a simple supper of salad, farçous and grog to decide if it was finally time to usher Springtime into the Rockies. In Norse mythology Ullr (pronounced ooul-er), the handsome stepson of Thor of thunder fame, was the god of snowshoes, hunting, the bow and the shield. Swift on his skis, it was his mission each winter to cover the earth’s landscape to protect it from harm. Americans being Americans, we have enthusiastically adopted Ullr as our personal Snow God…… not such a stretch. Plus, it’s fun.
ULLR, a mythical Norse god
drawing by npaganism.org
Last Monday, Winter’s last gasp brought heavy snows, continuing avalanche danger and record cold temperatures to the West. While this round after round of late-season snow has been frustrating, it’s tamped down the wild fire danger considerably. We need the moisture.
But the buds of spring are peeking through the soil, the ski mountains are weary from their winters work and the bears have had enough of this hibernating mumbo-jumbo. Yesterday, I shared Independence Pass road with a humongous (but harmless) black bear. If the bears are back, it’s a sign that Ullr and Mother Nature came to terms. Whoopee and Hooray.
Big-leafed Red Swiss Chard
It’s ironic, isn’t it, that this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe of choice also is farçous, the same dinner dish chosen by MN and Ullr. (To answer your question, neither had I.) Dorie explains that this is a staple throughout Southwest France, their version of a crepe or galette. What makes this unique is that it’s made from a batter loaded with greens, in particular, swiss chard. (Keep reading, it’s delicious.) In her Around My French Table Cookbook she calls them Swiss Chard Pancakes.
You will find the recipe here. Since I made pancakes of the silver dollar size, it was prudent to halve the ingredients. Although these freeze well, there are just so many pancakes one can eat, whether large or small.
The batter is made entirely in the food processor with the swiss chard being added last, bit by bit. If you are making the full recipe you might need to do this process twice. Pour your batter into a hot skillet of grapeseed oil. About 1/3 cup of batter for the silver-dollar size and 3/4 cup batter for a full-sized pancake. I cooked my little guys for 4 minutes before flipping them over for another 3 minutes. After transferring them to a paper-lined plate and patting-off the excess oil, I placed them on a foil-lined cookie sheet in the oven. In my opinion, they are only delicious when served warm.
You can embellish these pancakes with a topping of your choice and then garnish that topping for a pretty finish. I chose sour cream because that’s what I had on hand but crème fraîche would have been better. Notice that I didn’t garnish my topping with minced chives or another herb because the flavors in my accompanying salad were major.
Baby Spinach Salad with Dates & Almonds from Ottolenghi & Tamini’s cookbook “Jerusalem”
I paired these pancakes with a Baby Spinach Salad with Dates & Almonds, a recipe from Ottolenghi and Tamimi’s brilliant new cookbook, Jerusalem. Eileen, whose blog is cookbookimmmersionproject, raved about it in a recent post. It is absolutely delicious albeit totally different from any salad I’ve made. When serving it to dinner guests this week-end I plan to reduce the two teaspoons of the spice, sumac, to just one. Middle Eastern spices seem to “bite back” and I need to develop my taste buds a bit more (as will my guests.)
Again this week, the pancakes are more delicious than photogenic.
To see how my other FFWD colleagues flipped their yummy pancakes this week, go to our link. And, please, Think Spring.
Sounds yummy! How about a bit of red caviar on top?
Sounds delicious to me. DIdn’t these remind you of Blinis, Elaine?
They reminded me of Blinis, and they were so good! Yours look perfect and that salad looks delicious!!
The pancakes sound healthy and very good Mary—-
The salad also sounds very good—I like the dates and almonds with the greens. Will try that !!!
Glad Winter has worn itself out—-Carrie and Dan began digging yesterday—finally after the long long rainy Spring!!
Yes, the Midwest was moisture in the way of rain and floods. We had snow. Glad they are on their way.
Yes these reminded me of blinis – loved them. Yours are GREEN!
Yeah, I went overboard on the swiss chard. Did you SEE how big those leaves were?
I used rainbow chard, so the green was a little toned down in mine – yours are Dr. Seuss green! I love the sound of the salad you served with it, too.
Your salad looks delicious, pancakes too. I am so relieved to walk out the door and not see snow. Although, last weekend when we were putting some swiss chard seeds in the garden a few flakes came down. Hope you see signs of spring soon.
To see the first buds of spring, that´s always a happy moment. I enjoyed these pancakes a lot, and just love the salad you added! We had two or three days of absolute summer here. It sounds good but I´m ready for full fall and winter, which here is very mild. Have a great weekend Mary!
I made a half recipe too! You got a beautiful green color on yours! And the salad looks great too! 🙂
Hooray for bear sightings! Gorgeous photos, Mom!
I did not know about this legend! One more data point downloaded to my brain.
Meanwhile, I think I would like these for breakfast with some greek yogurt on top.
Love to get more green stuff in the morning.
My children are part Danish and are going to love to hear your story about the snow god… big Norse god fans in my family. The serendipity of the farçous is so neat… I love when life is like fiction. Great salad you served the pancakes with… I’ve been looking at the Jerusalem cookbook and haven’t bought it yet… it seems that a lot of people are enjoying the recipes.
Great job on the pancakes Mary. I like the sound of your Middle Eastern salad – if it contains dates, it must be good!
Hear, here! Although I’ve been in L.A. the last couple of weeks (enjoying mostly warm sunny-ish weather), Phil filled me in on the three snow storms that you all have had. And while it’s beautifully Spring here, I can’t wait to get back to less than tropical temperatures. As far as chard pancakes, I see that even pancakes can be tweaked into a health food! 😉
Sounds like a delightful dinner Mary, do you have room for one more? 🙂 I love that salad, it was the first recipe I made from Jerusalem, so delicious!
My main course was your pork tenderloin and braised French lentils, Chris. My guests really, really enjoyed the meal. I was so pleased.
Hope spring decides to stay in the Rockies soon. It’s almost May, for goodness sakes. These were unfortunately not my favorite dish, and I made a full batch. I’m still working eating on them. That salad looks delicious.
Mary, your Swiss chard pancakes look wonderful, of course, but I also really like the sound and look of that Baby Spinach Salad with Dates and Almonds. Ottolenghis cookbook is just utterly amazing and it is such a fantastic source for vegetarian recipes. I have tried a few of the recipes and even if I tweak some of them somewhat, I always try to stay as close to the original recipe as possible. And I am always quite envious of ruby chard even when it is in season, it is really hard to find around here – not enough demand, I guess.
Thank you also for all your loving and lovely comments, they always, always make me happy!
Have a great Monday!
Mary, your comment on my post cracked me up. You’re right, Dorie is absolutely tiny! If I’m honest, I don’t think this is the first time I’ve thought her portion sizes were too small. I definitely should have known better. Funny, I was going to make the same salad from Jerusalem tonight (after also reading Eileen’s post). I’m glad to hear that you liked it. Reading your (and everyone else’s) post has inspired me. I think I’ll give these another try when we have chard in the garden…Hope you’re finally starting to feel spring weather!