Pancake Day

Pancakes. Absolutely delicious and they come in different forms. British pancakes are crepe like and are superb with a dash of sugar and squeeze of lemon. You can't get more classic than that. American pancakes are larger and fluffier. They are, all things considered, probably a more substantial meal.

Pancake:

So...surprise surprise. I do not follow any recipe. Mostly because I have not found one that actually works a 100%. In general, learn to cook by smell, taste, sound, sight, and touch. In this case, the consistency of your batter should be thick. Very thick. Well, here is what I do at least:

Ingredients:

1 Egg

1 tbsp of baking powder

1 tbsp of oil

Pinch of sugar and salt

Flour

Warm water

1) I start by pouring a random amount of flour with 1 tbsp of baking powder and a pinch of sugar and salt. I then add a little warm water and start mixing. In general, it is easier to start mixing and dissolve your flour when you begin with just a little water. Counter intuitive maybe but starting out with too much water will make it hard to get rid of lumps in your mixture.

2) Once the batter has become smooth and almost paste-like, crack your egg in, pour in approximately 1 tbsp of oil, add a little more water and mix. What you should end up with is a thick batter, just about the consistency of cake to a brownie batter, or of lightly whipped heavy cream. If you like thinner pancakes, make your batter more watery. If you, like me, enjoy height in your pancake, then a thick batter will ensure it does not spread too far when you put it in your pan. You can always adjust with more water or flour to make your batter thinner or thicker. Once done, leave it to rest for at least 30 minutes. This allows air bubbles to start forming because of a chemical reaction caused by the baking powder, and further leavening because of the egg.

3) There is nothing left but to cook it. Add a little butter to a pan and heat it to a medium-high heat and cook! It should take approximately 2 minutes on each side. Again, the time depends on how strong YOUR flame is since your medium-high will be different from mine. You want the bottom of your pancake to develop a nice browning. You will know it is time to flip the pancake when you see that the pancake starts to become opaque on the sides and air bubbles pop on the uncooked top. Happy pancaking!

Condiments:

Berry Mix:

This is the easiest. When serving berries as a condiment, I always macerate them. All this involves is squeezing any citric juice over it and sprinkling a spoonful (or two) of sugar over. This process draws out the natural juices and sugars from the fruit, intensifying its flavour exponentially. Today I used blood orange juice because I had two oranges left.

Blood orange whipped-cream:

Start with some heavy/double cream if you have. Otherwise whipping cream works fine. Add a pinch of sugar and start whisking your cream. The sugar helps to stabalise your cream as it whips. Once you get a good soft peak and you can flip the bowl without the cream running out, stop. Squeeze in however much blood-orange juice you desire, grate in some orange rind, the whip again till you reach that same consistency that you had before, then STOP. If you keep whipping, you will begin to (eventually) churn your cream into butter.

Cinnamon custard:

Custard. A British delight. It works great with fruits or with brownies/cake.

1) Start with 2 egg yolks. In a large bowl with 3 tbsp of sugar, whisk your egg yolks till you begin to see it thicken slightly.

2) At the same time, slowly heat 1 cup of heavy cream with 1.5 cup of milk till it reaches a simmer (starts bubbling). Add some vanilla extract and cinnamon (however much you want but 1 teaspoon of each usually suffices).

3) Pour just a touch of the hot cream mixture into the bowl with the beaten eggs. Stir to combine the two. If you pour in all the hot cream at once, you will scramble your eggs instead which is not what you want. Once well mixed, continue pouring your cream mixture in slowly while mixing.

4) When thoroughly combined, pour the mixture back in the pot and again bring it up to a simmer. We are now going to thicken the custard by cooking it out. As the mixture reduces, the egg helps to thicken your custard. You can quicken the process by whisking in a sprinkling of corn flour. Reduce your custard till it reaches the consistency of heavy cream. Chill it if you want or serve it hot! Up to you.

Again, focus on the technique. Does it feel and look right? (Does your batter or custard feel or look too watery) Does it smell and taste right? (Do you need to add more salt to your batter or sugar/vanilla/cinnamon/orange to your condiment) Does it sound right? (Your pan is not hot enough if your batter does not sizzle a little when it is cooking) If it does not, tweak it! Trust your instinct. Trust that you will get it right, even if it is eventually.