Pancake to benefit Japan earthquake survivors

Pancake breakfast for Japan Earthquake relief March,2011

Although my Japanese family lives in Hiroshima and was not affected by 9.0 earthquake, I was born and raised in Japan and wanted to help people affected by Earthquake.
Around Seattle, there are many fund raising events involve food.
Bake sale, Auction dinner, Cake walk and pancake breakfast are good examples. I am not rich enough to give away fancy dinner but can host fund raiser Pancake breakfast at Prune Kitchen. Our friend, Lyle, often invites many friends to his pancake breakfast at his apartment. I asked him if he can help me pancake breakfast at Prune Kitchen to help Japan earthquake survivors. He agreed to be one of hosts and cook breakfast. He brought two large industrial size coffee makers with fresh coffee, two hot plates, and pancake ingredients. I bought sausages, potatoes, bacon and fruits.
I wanted to have breakfast menu include carbohydrate, protein, and fruits.
Menu of the breakfast
Lyle’s Pancake with Syrup or homemade berry sauce
Pork sausage
Pan fried Potatoes with onion and bacon
Fruits (Slices of Apples and Oranges)
And Coffee, tea or orange juice.

We raised $5062.41 total for American Red Cross, Peace Winds America and World Vision.

Here are recipes of pan fried potatoes and potato pancake from the left over potatoes.
Fumiko’s Pan fried Pototoes with bacon recipe:
4-5 servings:
3~4 medium sized Red or yellow potatoes boiled and cool the day before the breakfast
3 slices of bacon
3tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic

1. Peel cold cooked potatoes and cut about ½ inch cube.
2. Cut bacon to small pieces
3. Fry the bacon until outside edges turned to brown.
4. Drain about a half of bacon fat from bacon
5. Add onion and garlic to the cooked bacon and cook over medium heat until onion turns transparent
6. Add potatoes and fry together with bacon and onion.
7. Turn the potato over when the bottom is brown and crispy.
8. Cook the potatoes until light brown.

Potato pancake from the left over fried potatoes with Bacon or mashed potatoes

Left over cooked potatoes with bacon or mashed potatoes
Unbleached all purpose flour as needed
1 egg
1TBSP cooking oil

1. Mash the left over potatoes and bacon. (If you use leftover mashed potatoes, skip this process.)
2. Add an egg and flour in the potatoes.
3. Mix well and the potato mix is too soft add more flour. I like small amount of flour to have crispy potato taste while my family like more flour added to have stiff but well formed pancake.
4. Make the ball and press to make hamburger shape.
5. Heat the frying pan and add oil
6. Cook potato pancake in the pan.
7. Cook both side of the potato pancake to light crispy brown.
8. Serve it warm

Garfield high school Auction dinner

I attended another auction on 12th of April.

The head chefs of the dinner were the same as WMS’s auction dinner, John P at St. Clouds(1) and Thierry of the chef in the hat of Rover's (2).

I volunteered precooking chickens at St. Clouds restaurant the day before the auction. I got to St. Clouds at 2:30pm. There were still some customers for the brunch. John P showed me to the hot grill which I would be grilling chicken.
Shortly later two parents of a Garfield student came to join us. John P pointed 4 large pots full of chicken breasts marinated and ready to be grilled. I think he told us they were 350 chicken breasts. Chicken was grilled diagonally and turned 90 degree on the same side then turn over do the same to make the nice brown lattice. Two of us, women, took in charge each half of the large grill. We grilled 10 chicken breasts on a half of the grill and 40 total at once. It was very hot standing by the barbecue grill without doing anything. We had to be closer to put the chicken breasts on the grill, move and turn them with the tong. My previous task for WMS auction dinner to prepare bread pudding was easy and cushy compared with this task. My hands were greasy and slippery from moving the meat from the pan to the grill. The Chicken breast was large and heavy. It was a hard work to turn using the tong. My hands and arms were burning hot being close to the grill to do the job. I was very sweaty. We cooked all of the 350 chicken breasts in 2 hours. The husband of my grilling partner moved the grilled chicken to the tray to the cooling room for 10 minutes and he stacked the cooled chickens to several layers into the deep pan. Finally he wrapped the deep pan with plastic wrap several times and they were ready to store in the fridge for the final bake the next day. His task required muscle because the deep pan of chicken was very heavy. We completed our tasks and left St.Cloud about 5:00pm. Three of us will appreciate to the grilling cook for his hard labor when we order grilled meats at the restaurant in the future.
The day of the auction, I was nervous to find out thefinal results of the chicken. The dinner started with greens with goat cheese. Main course came next. Barbecued chicken breasts with rosemary sauce looked good. It had nice smoky taste matched well with the special sauce and the meat inside chicken was moist as expected. Our hard work to pre-grill the chicken paid-off. The side dish was delicious too. It was sweet and white potato gratin. I like this better than the bread pudding at WMS auction dinner. It was a great idea to precook chicken half way on the grill first then cook it in the oven. It prevents juice of chicken coming out and the resulted chicken is moist inside and nice brown barbecued looks outside. When I have a big barbecue party at home, I will use this method to serve delicious chicken.
I realize that this method allows the host to spend time with guests instead of barbecuing meat during the party. What's a great way to cook and serve great chicken barbecue!

I bought Girls' night out ticket at this auction. I will write about it after the party is over.

Website references:

(1) St.Clouds website: http://www.stclouds.com/

(2) Rover's website: http://www.rovers-seattle.com/