Oh flip! Can it really already be Pancake Tuesday time of the year?
When I was a student in Belfast, many moons ago, there was a restaurant in Bradbury Place called Frogities.
It was styled on a Parisienne brasserie with wooden tables, lined with a paper menu, candles on the table, prints of the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks from the French capital, and of course very Gallic waiting staff.
The food was good and very economical, making a regular haunt for impoverished students. As well as the usual things you’d expect on the menu like baguette and pate, steak au poivre and tarte tatin, they had an extensive range of crepes.
My particular favourites were one filled with beef mince, topped with cheese sauce and grilled and a sweet one with bananas and chocolate sauce.
A few years later, on a trip to Italy, I had a similar dish to the savoury crepe in Frogities, but it was covered with cheese sauce, more cheese and then baked to golden bubbling delciousness.
The recipe here is for crespelle but with a nod to the lovely memory of the pancakes I had in Belfast in the eighties and perfect to celebrate Pancake Tuesday next week.
For something sweet we’re right back home with a recipe for treacle pancakes.
This is a basic pancake, also known as Scotch pancake, mix making for a fluffy variety rather than the thin French style crepe. Some treacle is added to the mix before cooking.
The pancakes are topped with pears that have been poached in a cider liquor (substitute apple juice for a non alcoholic version). When the pears are ready the liquor is boiled to a thick syrup.
Serve them on top of the treacle pancakes with a dollop of cinnamon cream.
Happy Pancake flipping day for next week.