Pancake Tuesday

Not being very clued in with dates, the first notice I received of the annual pancake flipping day was a display of bottles of squeezy lemon and pancake batter mixes at Morton’s in Ranelagh. Pancakes really are one of the easiest things to make so don’t bother with the mix – it’s normally nothing but flour anyway – buy a real lemon and whip up your own pancakes in minutes with some of the recipes on Greatfood.ie – try sweet pancakes, crêpes, savoury French Galettes or even some fluffy American Buttermilk Pancakes from Bakingsheet.

With a few friends coming round for pancakes and hot chocolate (maybe some Mexican Hot Chocolate?) this evening, I’m using my old recipe for pancake batter (100g plain flour, a pinch of salt, 1 egg, 250ml milk and a dribble of melted butter all whisked together) to make a savoury Ricotta and Spinach Pancake Bake. Sweet pancakes will depend on the mood of the cook afterwards! And always remember, the first pancake invariably sticks and turns into a scrunched up mess. Don’t get discouraged – just toss it onto a plate, sprinkle with caster sugar, squeeze a half lemon over and eat it to sweeten your mood while you get stuck into the rest of the batch.

Non-stick frying pans have their fans but I wouldn’t be without my very heavy cast iron frying pan – no flipping for me, you’d have to have wrists of steel to manage to move this baby so fast – which does a great job every time. Enjoy your pancakes!