Pine 'n' Coconut Pancake Rolls

I'd been manipulating lots of coconuts lately; coconut milk, grated coconut, curries, coconut oil, c-o-c-o-n-ut-s! It's a coincidence that I saw Toni Fiore of Totally Vegetarian shared a recipe of Korova Cookies in Delicious TV. In this episode, she used Coconut oil for the cookies instead of butter. I bet the cookies smelled coconuty... that is very fragrant! I used coconut because of it's abundance locally in my hometown and when you used it in cooking, it gives unique taste and fragrance in your recipes especially in curries.

Did you know that you can make your own coconut oil? It's just like making Ghee or clarified butter. You need to cook the fat or cream over medium heat until the coconut cream separates into 2 layers; A layer of transparent oil and the residue. Then filtered the oil into clean bottles. What's left behind are fully extracted solids, residue or crumbs (?) that is delicious and very fragrant. Normally, this scraps are thrown away but I kind of like it to sprinkle on top some hot desserts like ice-cream, Green beans in Coconut milk or just eat it like it's some kind of crunchies. Beware the heat though. Let the coconut residues cooled down first to avoid burnt tongue.

That's for another entry... Now, back to the recipe I made few days ago. The tired part was the scraping/grating with a hand grater the coconut meat from the coconut. I don't mind doing all that if the results made these pancake rolls yummylicious... Let's Rock 'n' Roll! :)

Pine 'n' Coconut Pancake Rolls

Serves about 12 pcs 10-inch round pancakes

Filling:

300 g Pine Nuts

100 g Caster Sugar

1 whole Coconut ~ split into halves & grated or scraped coarsely

Pancake:

180 g Flour

250 ml Coconut Milk

150 ml Water

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Tbl Oil

1 Large Egg

Method:

1. Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan with medium heat until golden brown and fragrant. Stir the pine nuts regularly to avoid burnt and uneven browning. When it's done, remove the nuts from the heat. Pound coarsely (if you're using food processor, just 1-2 bursts are sufficient.)

2. Add in the sugar and mix well. Set aside.

3. For the pancake, mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl until smooth batter achieved. Drain through a sieve to remove any lumps. Rest the pancake mix for 10 minutes.

4. In a round 10 inch non-stick pan, heat up a little oil. When the pan is hot enough, pour in about 1/4 cup of batter and swirl into a thin pancake. Use the same method to finish all the batter.

5. To assemble: It's just like rolling up Asian version of Kuih Dadar, Kuih Ketayap or Pandan Pancake Rolls (cooked shredded coconut in palm sugar rolled up in thin layer of greenish Pandan/Screwpine pancake.)Put some pine nut mix, about 2-3 teaspoons on one part of the pancake that's closer towards you. Add about 2-3 teaspoon of grated coconut on top of the nut mix (you can mix all together if it's convenient for you.)

Roll up the bottom portion of the pancake over the filling. Tug in the filling so that it forms an oblong shape. Now, fold in the open ends, so that the filling doesn't spill out from the sides. Tug in a a bit more to maintain the shape and roll it until the end of the pancake.

Note: You can use other types of nuts like peanut, cashew nut, hazelnut, any favourite nuts you fancy as your fillings. Just remember to toast the nuts (to bring out the flavour) until fragrant before pounding it coarsely.

Enjoy!