We’re self-isolating during this Coronavirus panic-alypse and I keep fantasizing about great restaurant meals I can’t have. This is ridiculous, considering I live in a place with few choices on restaurants anyway. I was rummaging through my pantry and thinking about how to use some of the stuff that’s been in there a long time and my eye rested on an old package of pancake mix.

But I wasn’t in the mood for anything sweet. So I Googled: What to make with pancake mix and found all kinds of nifty suggestions. What caught my attention was an idea for Japanese scallion pancakes and that led my brain to recalling the roti pancakes I would have years and years ago for breakfast in Muslim cafes when I live in Malaysia for a short time. Man, were they good. The closest I came to finding them here was at the Straits Cafe in San Francisco on Geary Street, which sadly closed some years ago.

I thought: What if I add onions and curry seasoning to pancake mix and then serve it up with a curry sauce. So I dug into my freezer and found one container left of some pumpkin curry I had made. Winter squash and pumpkins make great bases for curry.

I chopped up a garlic clove, set it aside (having learned that you can double the nutritional value if you let diced garlic sit for 10 minutes before cooking), chopped up an onion and tossed it into my fry pan in olive oil. Then I added the garlic, let it cook a little longer and threw all that into my cuisinart to get a littler finer. Back into the pan, with my thawed out pumpkin curry. I diced up some shitake mushrooms and through that in. I added a generous amount of a curry spice blend I have, some cumin and coriander and salt.

I added some marmite for extra umami and some minced ginger from a jar. I also some cashew butter because it needed to be used. I let all that simmer in the pan while I went to work on the pancakes.

I followed the recipe on the back. You might be surprised I had pancake mix at all. But pancakes are one of those things I don’t really like to make so if we are going to make them I just want to open the bag and follow the directions. Plus, I buy the mix in the hopes that my daughter will make them herself when she has sleepovers.

I added one cup of the mix and a cup of unsweetened coconut milk. Tossed in the rest of the onion that I hadn’t used for the curry. I quickly steamed in the microwave two leaves of mustard greens that were in my fridge and chopped them up and through it into the pancake mix. I tossed in some more of the curry spice blend. I through in some egg white I had left over from making cupcake frosting last night. I coated my cast iron pan with ghee and poured in the pancake mix.

Now, maybe its time to recoat my cast iron or maybe ghee isn’t great for pancake flipping, but the pancakes stuck to the pan. They still turned out all right and were great with the curry sauce. With the left over curry, I’m going to turn it into mulligatawny soup by adding water. That’s for another meal.

Ingredients for the pancakes:

• 1 cup of Pancake mix. Any will do.
• 1 cup of coconut milk, but you can use water.
• Some egg whites (not really necessary. I just had it on hand.)
• Onions (scallions would be better, but I didn’t have them.)
• Curry spice.
• Butter for the pan (I used ghee but I don’t think I would use it again.)

Ingredients to make a curry (I had leftover curry but you can make it from scratch)

• Winter squash or pumpkin roasted or from a can
• Coconut milk
• Cashew butter or peanut butter
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Garlic
• Curry spice
• Red pepper
• Black pepper
• Marmite or other forms of umami flavor (miso works, Worcestershire will work, anchovy paste)
• Tablespoonish of ghee.

You can add anything you want to a curry. It’s great for clearing out your fridge: Carrots, potatoes, any greens, peppers, fennel, beans, peas. I like to puree it all in the Cuisinart after it simmers awhile.