Low Carb Salmon and Cream Cheese Pancake

Low Carb Salmon and Cream Cheese Pancake
Home Cooking

Towards the end of last week, I had an excess of eggs that needed to be used up. Sure, there are tonnes of low carb egg recipes (e.g. quiche or frittata) but many of these also needed other ingredients that I didn't have at home. I could have cooked the eggs au naturale but one thing I have learnt from going low carb is that there IS such a thing as too much scrambled/fried eggs. After a while, even omelets seem too eggy.

I started this dish as a salmon and cream cheese omelet (without much enthusiasm). What inspired me to switch it up was remembering how delicious those Korean/Japanese-style savory pancakes are. I'm talking about okonomiyaki or Korean seafood pancakes. They're delicious and incorporate lots of vegetables but they require flour in the batter. Having just baked the paleo muffins with nothing but almond meal, I flirted with the idea of forming a batter with almond meal instead of flour.

The recipe below is completely flour-free. It worked out surprisingly well and I was relieved that the end product tasted more like a pancake than an omelet. I'll be applying the same concept to making other flourless pancakey products so stay tuned!

Low Carb Salmon and Cream Cheese Pancake
2 serves

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp almond meal
• 2 tsp baking powder
• zest of 1/2 a lemon (optional)
• 100g smoked salmon, torn into pieces
• 40g cream cheese, cut into cubes

Procedure:

1. Mix together the eggs, almond meal, lemon zest and baking powder in a bowl.

2. In a small, non-stick frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil or coconut oil at high heat.
3. Pour in the egg mixture and tilt the pancake so the batter covers the frying pan evenly.

4. Once the pancake has started to cook on the bottom, scatter on the salmon and cream cheese evenly. Turn down the heat to medium and let it cook for about 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the grill setting on your oven to high and perch a rack right near the top of the oven.

5. To finish the pancake off, take the frying pan from the stovetop and place on the top rack in the oven. Let it grill until the top is set.

6. To serve, place a plate on top of the frying pan and invert quickly. If you want the topping side to be up, you need to invert again.

7. Slice into wedges and serve with a leafy garden salad.

I cut my pancake into 6 small wedges and found 2-3 slices to be sufficient for a serve. It's very filling for something so small, which isn't surprising considering the good fats that go into it (great for feeling satisfied). I had some hot, straight out of the oven and it was nice because the cream cheese cubes were slightly melty. I didn't add any salt to the batter because smoked salmon is salty enough to carry through. The lemon zest was a nice addition to cut the oiliness and fishiness of the salmon.

What was great was that I refrigerated the remaining pieces and had some for lunch the next day, cold straight out of the fridge. The pancake was really tasty cold too! In fact, I might even prefer it cold, which means it's a great, easy weekday lunch option. I'm also excited about extending this concept to other pancake-style recipes.