Kids Make Swedish Split Pea Soup and Pancakes

Sour cream of lingonberry jam on your pancake?

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

If it's Thursday, it must be split pea soup and pancakes with lingonberry jam. At least that's the custom in Sweden where our food appreciation classes happen to be visiting on their virtual world culinary tour.

Concidentally, this was happening at the same time D.C. Public Schools were celebrating Nordic day, with traditional foods being supplied by the embassies of Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

The split pea soup I remember from childhood was thick as mud and full of little bits of gelatinous fat from the ham bone that was cooked in it. The soup we made is over-the-top delicious. Still, it's not especially pretty, except for the bits of carrot (not fat) swimming around in it, and getting the kids to eat it takes a bit of cajoling. But once they find out how good it tastes, they come back for more. And it's such an inexpensive way to make a family meal, even if you just serve bread on the side instead of the pancakes.

Why pancakes with split pea soup? Frankly, I don't know. I guess you'd have to ask the Swedes. It's a bit like dessert--especially if your stuff your pancake with jam. The pancakes are bit more like eggy crepes than the thick, floury pancakes we're used to here. Personally, I like the combination of sour cream and lingonberry jam on mine.

The Swedes are especially proud of their berries, which thrive during the long, northerly days in summer. Lingonberries are a bit tart, like cranberries, which makes for an interesting jam. I was surprised to find it at our local Harris Teeter's. But then my wife brought some home from a shopping trip to Ikea, the Swedish furnishings store, and it was $2 cheaper. It's rather a long way to drive for jam, though.

Make the soup a day ahead so the flavors have a chance to develop. Start by place 1 pound dried yellow peas (we got ours from the bulk section at Whole Foods), 2 onions peeled and finely chopped and 2 carrots peeled and finely chopped in a stock pot and cover with 8 cups water. Add 1 onion studded with two cloves and 2 ham hocks. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and cook slowly for 3 hours. Remove the onion with cloves and the ham hocks. If there's any meat on the hocks, you can chop it up and add it to the soup if you like. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

About 30 minutes before serving, bring the soup back to a simmer and stir in 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves and 1 teaspoon ground ginger.

The pancakes can also be made ahead and held warm in the oven. This recipe makes about 2 dozen, each about 4 inches across. You can make the batter in a blender or a food processor, but we don't use electric gadgets in our classes. We simply whisked it together by hand. I think the kids get a better feel for the ingredients and the food preparation process working this way.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk until frothy three eggs. Mix in 1 1/2 cups milk, then add 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and finally 3 tablespoons melted butter. Continue whisking vigorously until the batter is perfectly smooth, without and lumps.

Over moderate heat, melt some butter in a small, well-cured or non-stick skillet. Pour in some pancake batter. You can make the pancakes as small or as large as you like. When the underside has lightly browned and the top is nearly dry, use an inverted spatula to flip the pancake onto the other side. Cook for about 30 seconds and remove. Repeat this process until all of the batter has been used.

Serve with sour cream and lingonberry jam.

What's for Breakfast: Waffles? Pancakes?

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

Kids got a choice of waffles or pancakes on this particular morning. In fact, unless my eyes deceived, it looked like there were two varieties of pancakes on display: whole wheat and regular.

These are prepared convenience foods that arrive at the school frozen and are then warmed in a steamer. The waffles typically are a little too crunchy for my taste.


The schools used to serve pancakes and waffles with high-fructose corn syrup masquerading as maple syrup. Now they get a pool of yogurt on their waffle--or to dip their pancake in, as the case might be.

Notice the plain milk. D.C. public schools no longer serve flavored milk.

What's for Breakfast

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

Breakfast at my daughter's elementary school yesterday was whole wheat pancakes with milk and orange juice.

Whole wheat sounds good. Meal items such as this typically are pre-cooked in a food factory and shipped to the school in bags, frozen. They are quickly reheated in a commercial steamer or in the kitchen's convection oven. (There currently is no stove for making pancakes fresh).

Good thing these pancakes are so convenient, because there were only two women working in the kitchen this morning to feed about 150 kids. Breakfast was delayed at least 15 minutes while kids lined up outside the door to the steam table.

The pancakes come with "breakfast syrup" from Heinz. There's a picture of a maple leaf on the container, but of course it's not real maple syrup. Here are the ingredients.

"Corn syrup, water, sugar, potassium sorbate as a preservative, caramel color, salt, citric acid, propylene glycol, natural and artificial flavors."

If you were wondering about the propylene glycol, it is a common ingredient in modern anti-freeze and de-icing agents. In the food industry, it's used to keep things moist.

Daughter Makes Peanut Butter Pancakes

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

With refined flour, sugar and grape jelly, these pancakes wouldn't appear at the top of my list of healthful foods I would wish for my daughter. But she made them herself, so I count this as a win. Anything that disabuses kids of processed factory foods is a good thing, in my book. Plus, this recipe does include protein-rich peanut butter. And making these pancakes from scratch means you know they're not like the processed food currently being served in D.C. schools, with all the chemical additives and preservatives.

You could even make them a little healthier by replacing some of the refined flour with whole wheat.

These pancakes come from a book called Gadgetology, by Pam Abrams, that bills itself as "kitchen fun with your kids, using 35 cooking gadgets for simple recipes,crafts, games and experiments." The gadget for this particular recipe is the old mechanical rotary beater. We had one when I was growing up. It's the same mechanism as an electric mixer, except you crank it by hand. When you're not using it to beat eggs, it's a fun thing to chase your sisters with. (Try to avoid getting the beaters caught in their hair.)

Around our house, we whisk things by hand. But as my daughter learned, when making pancakes with peanut butter in the batter it's best to use a big, loose whisk rather than a smaller, tighter one. With a tight whisk, the peanut butter tends to get caught in the wires and turn into a clump. In fact, I would advise starting your mixing with a spatula before applying the whisk (or rotary beater).

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine 1 cup all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder. In a separate bowl, beat together 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter and 2 large eggs. (You might want to start this process with a spatula to incorporate the peanut butter.) When the mixture is smooth, add 1 1/4 cups milk and 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted. Beat until well blended. Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Pour the batter onto a moderately hot griddle to make pancakes the size you desire. They are ready to flip when bubbles form on the top and then break. This recipe will make 6 to 8 regular-size pancakes, or more than a dozen smaller ones.

To serve, lay one pancake flat on a plate, spread your favorite fruit jelly over it, then top with a second pancake, forming a sandwich. Dig in.