For most of my life I’d been dead set against instant just-add-water pancake mix. My wife and son Max had me see the light, after all who wants to store part of an egg when you need to make only one pancake. So I started to do what I usually do, see what I could use a new ingredient to do and stretch its possibilities.

In the late summer we now make fried green tomatoes with pancake batter and cornmeal, which is so much more easy and fun. But it’s spring, with none in sight, so I dug around in my fridge until I found…sauerkraut. I was surprised by how good they were, and came up with the perfect condiment using a stellar verde hot sauce from our friends at Primo’s Peppers.

Southern culture is very stealth German (chicken fried steak is schnitzel for example), so it ended up being a great fit in more ways than one.

Cajun Kraut Cakes

Christian Leue

Servings/Yield

Makes 10 to 12 5-inch cakes

Category

Snack

Cajun Kraut Cakes

Ingredients

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    • 1 cup complete pancake mix (the just-add-water kind)

    • 3/4 cup cornmeal

    • 1 1/2 cups sauerkraut (the best will have just cabbage and salt as ingredients, and will be in the refrigerated section)

    • 1 Tbsp Bluegrass N12

    • Oil for frying (I prefer high heat sunflower or safflower)

    • Optional: 1 teaspoon ground fennel

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    • 1 cup full fat greek yogurt, labneh, or sour cream (if sour cream choose one without additives)

    • 2 Tbsp mayonnaise

    • 2 tsp lemon juice

    • Primonition hot sauce to taste

    • Optionally, top with a bit of Shabazi, and/or add some chopped capers, some horseradish, mustard, etc.

    Directions

    1. Mix together the ingredients for the sauce and refrigerate.

    2. In a skillet heat 1/4" of oil over medium high heat.

    3. Mix the dry ingredients together with the sauerkraut, adding water if necessary to obtain a thick batter

    4. Portion out heaping 1/4 cup portions of the batter, and flatten into cakes in the skillet, frying each side until crisp, 3-4 minutes. Add oil as necessary to keep 1/4" in the pan. Drain on paper towels on a wire rack, and serve while still hot.

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