Ingredients:
10 ounces fresh spinach, well washed, large stems removed, or 1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon sugar
1½ to 2 cups buttermilk or thin yogurt
2 eggs
2 tablespoons melted and cooled butter, plus unmelted butter for cooking
1 cup sour cream, optional
1 tablespoon minced lemon peel, optional
Put spinach in a covered saucepan over medium heat, with just the water that clings to its leaves after washing; or plunge it into a pot of salted boiling water. Either way, cook it until it wilts, just a couple of minutes. Drain, cool, squeeze dry and chop.
Heat large skillet over medium-low heat while you make batter. Heat oven to 200 degrees. In a bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Place 1½ cups buttermilk in another bowl. Beat eggs into it, then stir in the melted butter. Stir this into dry ingredients, adding a little more buttermilk if batter seems thick; stir in spinach.
Place a teaspoon or two of butter in pan. When butter foam subsides, ladle batter onto skillet, making any size pancakes you like. Adjust heat as necessary; first batch will require higher heat than subsequent batches. Add more butter to pan as necessary. Brown bottoms in 2 to 4 minutes. Flip only when pancakes are fully cooked on bottom; they won’t hold together well until they are ready.
Cook until second side is lightly browned; as pancakes are done, put them on an ovenproof plate in oven for up to 15 minutes. Mix sour cream and lemon peel together and place a small dollop on each pancake.
COOK’S NOTE: The spinach pancakes made in northern Europe (I first ate them in Sweden) nicely demonstrate what you can do when you have a wet main ingredient, like spinach, but want to wind up with a firm but moist savory pancake. If the batter looks or cooks too thin (that is, it spreads unappealingly over the pan), add a little flour, or some more spinach. If it is too thick, stir in some liquid — milk, water, stock, whatever — a spoonful at a time. The batter should be spoonable but not pourable.
— Adapted from dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com
