It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged so I thought let’s start with some good old pancakes (pancakes, broccoli and mashed potatoes are my favourite foods – though not together!)
I love pancakes, with lots of different fillings, my favourite is melted chocolate and banana, with a splash of lemon. Pancakes are actually so easy to make, you just need a decent frying pan, I use a frying pan/wok type thing. It’s quite big, I prefer bigger pancakes as you can put more stuff into them and they look great when you roll them up.
Fillings:
Lots of different things dependent on what you like to eat. Here are my favourites, vegan of course, though you can add anything really as long as it will roll with the pancake : )
Lemon, chocolate and banana
Ratatouille, rice and beans
Tofu, steamed veggies, buckwheat and pesto
Ice cream, raspberries and some agave syrup (messy but wonderful)
Frozen berries (warmed up so they are a pulpy goo)
Cream cheese and herbs, tofu, leek and mushroom
First you need some batter, get a ladle, a flat spatula and a big bowl (see picture) pyrex is good as you can see what you are doing and it bounces well, if you drop it. (Making pancakes can be a tad messy.) I’m usually covered in flour, batter or filling after it, I get into a right disarray when I cook but I love it.
banana and choco pancakes 1 batter
Ingredients for batter mix (from Vegan Society)
Pancakes recipe
4 oz (115g) Wholemeal flour /Spelt flour/ Buckwheat flour (use varying amounts for different flavoured pancakes)  or if Coeliac use gluten free flour
2 oz (55g) soya flour
13 fl oz (375 ml) soya milk
2 tsp vegetable oil (or vegan marg slid round the frying pan)
1. Sieve the flours into a bowl. Gradually whisk in the soya milk to make a smooth sauce. Add the oil. Place in fridge for 30 minutes. (not too much whisking as stirs up the gluten)
2. Drop 1-3 tbsp of the mixture in to a frying pan containing hot oil. (I actually ladle the mixture into the frying pan as I have a big pan)
3. When one side is cooked, flip over and cook the other side. ( the bubbles are important and make sure the oil is bloody hot – though not quite smoking) If you flip too soon – it will fall apart!!
banana and choco pancakes 3
3. After you’ve flipped it over it should roughly look like this. Look at all those holes!
banana and choco pancakes 2
4. Put the pancakes in the oven in foil (about 200C/390F to keep them warm, while you melt the chocolate (I like vegan mint chocolate – use the bain-marie method for melting the chocolate (boil some water in a biggish pan and put a pyrex bowl inside the pan (be careful so not to push the water out – do this with cold water first to get the correct amount) or use the two pan method.
5. Melt the chocolate slowly over a low heat. Be careful not to get any water in the chocolate.Then once melted carefully take out of water. (Use oven gloves or a tea towel) Spoon melted chocolate into the pancakes, with some lemon juice and chopped or mashed bananas.
800px-Bain-mariebanana and choco pancakes 4
6. Roll the pancakes and serve immediately as they cool quickly. They taste lovely hot or cold. I don’t make dainty little pancakes. I’ll leave that up to others.
banana and choco pancakes
Music Listened to while writing this post:
Tchaikovsky Ballet Suites – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The Best of Chet Baker Sings by Chet Baker