A Slightly Skewed Version of Jamie Oliver’s Spinach Pancakes

(Mentioned in Episode 8 of “A Woman with a Very Large Knife,” which you can find in the podcast section.)

This is an adaptation of the Great Jamie’s crepe-like pancakes for the Doctor Jekyll in you. The original is on chowhound.com. I had to change a number of things, based on availability and dietary needs. I’ve left the original in place and put my adaptations in parenthesis. If you have a gluten thing, you could probably find a good sub for the wheat flour and still make this work for you. Ditto the cheese.

12 oz ripe mixed-color cherry tomatoes
3½ oz baby spinach
3 scallions (Note: raw scallions don’t agree with me. I used 1/2 yellow onion, sautéd in olive oil.)
½ a bunch of fresh cilantro (½ oz)
1 lime
Extra virgin olive oil
1 large egg
1 cup self-rising flour (If you don’t have self-rising flour, then use 1 cup all-purpose with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt.)
1 cup reduced-fat (2%) milk (I used whole. Gasp.)
Olive oil
10 oz cottage cheese (I don’t really like cottage cheese, so used feta. But you could sub in ricotta too.)
Hot chili sauce (Used Crybaby Sauce, it was great.)

INSTRUCTIONS
Halve, pit, peel and finely slice the avocado and quarter the tomatoes, then place in a salad bowl with a quarter of the spinach. Trim, finely slice and add the scallions and pick in the cilantro leaves, then squeeze over the lime juice. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper, toss to coat and put aside.
Crack the egg into a blender, add the (self-rising) flour (or substitute of flour, baking powder and salt), milk, remaining spinach and a pinch of pepper, then blitz until smooth. Place a large non-stick frying pan on a medium heat, rub the pan with a little olive oil, then pour in a thin layer of batter, swirling it up and around the edges. Cook on one side only for 2 minutes, or until lightly golden, then stack up on a serving plate and repeat.
Top each pancake with dollops of cottage (or feta) cheese, the avocado salad, and a few good shakes of chili sauce. Really nice served with extra lime wedges for squeezing over, and a fried egg on top, if you fancy. (Yes, we fancied. But I can’t seem to fry an egg without messing it up, so we did scrambled. It was grand.)
Instead of spinach you could use a mixture of soft herbs, such as parsley, mint, basil or tarragon – whatever you like!