Pancakes

Pancakes anyone?

Today is Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Day, which is widely celebrated. Pancakes are known by various names throughout different countries and cultures, including pannekoek, lahoh, palacinky, blinchiki, pfannkuchen, chachapa, crepes, and dossa. They can be leavened or unleavened and made using a variety of flours such as wholewheat, plain, buckwheat, spelt, and rice. The Parsi pancakes, made with coconut milk, cardamom, saffron, and nuts, stand out from the rest. They're served in traditional ways. Or not. I recently created a cake with them that was featured in the BBC Good Food magazine for Pancake Day last year!
It is simple to prepare and popular with most children. Keep a package of measured dry ingredients in your pantry, and you'll always have a ready-to-make batch of fresh pancakes on hand.
It's definitely the best recipe to teach your kids how to cook.

The tale of Shrove Tuesday originated in the Middle Ages, when people celebrated a three-day feast beginning on Sunday and finishing on Tuesday night. This was done to avoid waste by consuming all perishables before the 40-day fast for Lent, which lasts until Easter.

Since the 20th century, several traditions have evolved, with Pancake Day now focusing solely on Shrove Tuesday. The French like to call it Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras!! I love the French and their penchant for keeping the "curves" in style. 

The recipe for chaapat, pronounced chaa-putt is in my cookbook The Art of Parsi Cooking; reviving an ancient cuisine) and the chaapta, marzipan pancake 'cake' with creme anglaise is in The Vegetarian Parsi, inspired by tradition, 

11/4 cup sifted all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
1 1/4 cup tepid warm milk
1 1/4 tbsp melted salted butter

Mix until smooth. Do not over beat.
Allow the batter to rest for 30 minutes.

Heat a skillet. Brush it with butter or oil. Take a large spoonful of the batter.
Hold it over the pan tilt it straight down and all the batter to drop in one large stream. It will automatically become round;(Perhaps not perfectly round). Allow the pancake to cook for 1 minute. 
Flip over. Cook for 30 seconds.
Remove in a plate. Serve warm with Maple Syrup, Golden Syrup, berries, butter, cream, honey, cream cheese and bananas, any combination you love.

Tips

This quantity will make about 12 pancakes.
I like to mix and store the dry ingredients in an airtight box in my pantry.
Take a large measuring cup and use that to mix it all in with a whisk. You can leave it in there ready to use or keep the left over covered for up to 3 days.

Do not try and change the shape of the pancake once it has been poured. It does not work!
Only a pancake maker will prepare perfectly circular pancakes.

Keep the flame on medium-high. The flame should not be larger than the base of your skillet. 
Bubbles will come up on the pancake which is time to flip it over.

For more on  crepes and a variety of recipes

My published cookbooks are available for sale through myself and on Amazon.

The World of Parsi Cooking: Food Across Borders is a 3 award winning book. It has been self published in July 2019 and will be going into its second print in 2022. 

The Vegetarian Parsi, inspired by tradition is an award winning cookbook. It was published by Spenta Multimedia India and is available on Amazon India and through email order at thevegetarianparsi@gmail.com.

The Art of Parsi Cooking; reviving an ancient cuisine was published in 2016 by Austin Macauley and continues to be available through amazon book depot book depository and from the publishers.

click Niloufer's Kitchen: French Bistro
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J2KMB4C

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