Whole Wheat Gingerbread Pancakes

March 2020. The lockdown enters its second week and I have entered a cooking phase I can only describe as feral. The constraints of the pandemic — limited groceries, no restaurants, no takeout confidence — have pushed me into the deepest Korean cooking I have ever done. This week I made: anchovy stock from scratch (the base of everything), kimchi from the previous batch (now four weeks aged, perfect), doenjang jjigae (twice), budae jjigae (once, using pantry Spam and ramyeon), and a new experiment: kimchi pancakes made from overly-soured kimchi that had gone past its jjigae stage. Nothing wasted. Every ingredient used. Korean cooking as zero-waste cuisine.

The zero-waste aspect of Korean cooking is new to me — or rather, newly visible. Korean cuisine was designed for scarcity: kimchi preserves cabbage for months. Doenjang preserves soybeans for years. Dried anchovies preserve protein indefinitely. Namul preserves vegetables through seasoning. The entire Korean food system is a preservation system, built by a culture that experienced famine, war, and scarcity, and the system works in a pandemic the way it worked in a famine: by stretching, preserving, making much from little.

James is learning Korean cooking by proximity. He watches me make jjigae and absorbs technique. He tasted my stock-making process (anchovy + kelp, simmer 20 minutes, strain) and said, "This is the same principle as Chinese master stock — build the foundation, everything else follows." Yes. The foundation. The stock is the foundation. The rice is the foundation. The kimchi is the foundation. The foundations are strong. The pandemic tests them. They hold.

Saturday Zoom: Karen made her beef stew. I made kimchi jjigae. The screen held our faces and behind the faces the kitchens held the food and behind the food the lives held the love and the love held everything. Two months since I have hugged my mother. The count starts.

The kimchi pancakes I made that week — born from soured kimchi that had outlived its jjigae window — reminded me that pancakes are the original zero-waste food: you take what is aging, what is leftover, what is almost past, and you fold it into batter and make something new. When I wanted to bring that same spirit to a morning that didn’t involve kimchi, I kept coming back to these whole wheat gingerbread pancakes: warm spices, pantry staples, nothing wasted, nothing precious. James made them one Saturday while I prepped stock, and the kitchen smelled like proof that the foundations were, in fact, holding.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 4 (about 8 pancakes)

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
2 tbsp unsulfured molasses
1 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the pan

Instructions

Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg until evenly distributed.
Whisk wet ingredients. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, molasses, brown sugar, and melted butter until the molasses is fully incorporated and the mixture is uniform.
Make the batter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently with a spatula until just combined — a few lumps are fine. Do not overmix. Let the batter rest for 5 minutes while you heat the pan.
Heat the pan. Warm a cast iron skillet or nonstick griddle over medium heat. Add a small knob of butter and swirl to coat. The butter should foam but not brown; adjust heat as needed.
Cook the pancakes. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake onto the pan. Cook until bubbles form across the surface and the edges look set, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip and cook 1 to 2 minutes more, until cooked through. Repeat with remaining batter, adding butter to the pan between batches as needed.
Serve. Serve immediately with warm maple syrup, a pat of butter, or a spoonful of plain yogurt and a drizzle of honey.

Nutrition (per serving)

Whole Wheat Gingerbread Pancakes — The Feral Kitchen Finds Its Rhythm