Home made pancakes are just too good to save for one Tuesday a year

Traditionally it was the time when you used up all the butter, eggs and milk before you started fasting on Ash Wednesday.

Cultures across the globe celebrate this day. In New Orleans the famous Mardi Gras, or literally Fat Tuesday, festival takes place and it’s replicated in Portugal, Southern American, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Italy, as well as many commonwealth countries.

In Northern Ireland we think of a pancake as a light, fluffy confection made on a griddle. Flour, baking soda, sugar, egg and buttermilk is whisked up.

The acid in the buttermilk reacts with the alkali in the soda to give carbon dioxide – or bubbles to give you airy pancakes. When I was young these treats would have been wheeked off the pan as quick as they were made, doused with butter, a sprinkling of sugar and devoured. This would have been repeated ad finitum. They were a Saturday morning tradition in our house and one that seems to live on. The fact is they’re just too good to save for one Tuesday a year.

The recipe here is a savoury version where sweetcorn is added to the batter and they’re topped with a creamy chicken and crispy parma ham mixture.

Crepes, as the name suggests, are French in origin and the pancake that would be tossed on this feast day. They should be lacy and paper thin.

You can buy a low sided special crepe pan that makes it easy to flip them over or just use a non-stick or well seasoned pan. They’re usually served hot with a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkle and rolled up before being eaten. You could fill them with the creamy chicken and parma ham mixture used to top the corn pancakes.

Alternatively fill them with savoury mince and top with cheese before grilling. They’re a great vehicle for a myriad of fillings.

For something sweet the recipe here is for a chocolate caramel crepe cake. A caramel cream is made with condensed milk caramel. You used to have to boil a tin of condensed milk for about two hours to achieve this but you can now buy them ready boiled. This is handy and cuts out the risk of the pan boiling dry and the tin exploding.

Layer the crepes with cream with the caramel folded through and top with a rich chocolate sauce.

Whatever pancake you choose, happy tossing!