Ajooma

Yesterday (Feb 5 2008) was Shrove Tuesday, originally a religious celebration, which now in the UK means eating pancakes. According to some Catholic or Christian tradition this is the day before Lent, where you fast and pray for 40 days before Easter. After all that abstinence you can then gorge on hard boiled eggs and chocolate shapes animals. But, let’s not forget to indulge before all the fasting. In more boisterous nations (France, Germany, but mostly Brazil) it’s know as Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, the day people are allowed, nay encouraged to go crazy. So, rich foods like eggs, milk, and sugar should be done away with before Ash Wednesday, and what’s the best way to get rid of all those ingredients? The solution the Anglos came up with is pancakes. Hmmmm. I think I’m missing something here. Anyway, traditions are traditions because they are passed on, not because they make sense.

So, as I want to assimilate as much as possible into my chosen homeland, I duly ‘had a go’ of it. Making something simple as pancakes showed me once again how much difference there is between American/British culture & word usage. Of course I’m not American, but I grew up there first so I normally associate pancakes with stacks of thick fluffy golden brown layers topped with a pat of square butter, maple syrup, and Aunt Jemima. Imagine my surprise and disgust when my husband suggested Stilton and cress as toppings. Able & Cole, the organic box scheme we get deliveries from was already promoting a “Pancake Day package” that came with flour, milk, eggs, and also caster sugar and lemons. So I was aware of a sweet (& bitter) topping, but cheese? And what stinking cheese at that too. It was a far cry from greasy spoon diners, where pancakes are normally consumed with scrambled eggs and maybe a strip of crispy fried bacon or two (again not like English bacon which look more like ham steaks).

However with an open mind, we looked up some recipes online, and substituted milk for soy milk.

The recipe:
110g/4oz plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
50g/2oz butter

You sift the flour into a bowl, make a hole and drop in the eggs. Then whisk like the wind, while slowly adding the milk/water mixture. This is definitely a two person job. When all the liquid was poured in, the batter looked a bit runny to me. But we followed the direction, and how hard can it be to mess up pancakes?

Heat the pan with a bit of butter till it starts smoking, pour the batter, and swirl it around a bit. It all happens very fast, and you must be careful not to burn them. You want the pancakes to be slightly thicker than a crepe. Now comes the fun part, flipping. Wiggle the pancake in the pan to make sure the pancake isn’t stuck to the pan, then Alloop! up it goes. Toss and catch. Transfer to a plate, and sprinkle a bit of lemon juice, dust a coat of sugar and consume immediately. They are so thin, its advisable to fold them in half twice to make a triangle, or fold them over and over like a a baby in swaddling - minus the baby.

We had savory ones first, which had bits of Stilton sprinkled into the batter while it was cooking, and cress garnish on the plate. After a couple of those, we moved on to the sweet with the customary lemon and sugar, then a few banana slices to spice things up.

All in all, they were a pretty filling meal, and I probably ate most of them, as my husband was busy flipping. I think I should call them something else, as I can’t get my head around these flimsy flat sheets of fried flour + milk mixture as pancakes though. Maybe pansheets.