Flipping Marvellous!

Week 7

Phew, Valentines is over for another year. It's a quick blog this week as I'm actually away and all things permitting, the magic of technology will publish this automatically in my absence!

So as Cupid wings his merry way back to his cloud, Shrove Tuesday arrives! Yes it's PANCAKE DAY tomorrow!!! Time for the annual gorging and flipping that we spend the other 364 days waiting for

So no prizes for guessing that this week's Food of the Week is...

Pancakes

So everyone has their special dish for pancake day. In Italy they eat bugie (lies of fried sweet pastry) which are quite nice; in Finland they eat pea and ham soup and in Scotland they eat a festy cock apparently. Each to their own but I'll stick with the good old pancake!

Now some people are scared of pancakes and resort to premixed packs of batter. Please don't. Really they are very easy to make and much nicer and more fun.

All you need for about 8 slightly thick pancakes is 100g plain flour, 200ml milk and 2 eggs. Skoosh in a liquidiser or whisk with a hand mixer until it's all frothy and everything is mixed in.
That's it - you've done it!

Then put a knob of butter into a frying pan and melt. Pour in a decent quantity of batter to cover the frying pan base and cook until it's brown on the bottom. Then start flipping which is always a disaster the first time and then you get the hang of it. But that's part of the fun!

The first pancake will taste of whatever was last in the frying pan. Don't know why and it doesn't matter how much you wash it. It's just one of those things that we have to live with. Cover with copious amounts of lemon and sugar and you won't notice.

The second pancake will have been brilliantly flipped and will taste delicious. I'm very loyal to lemon and sugar but you can add Nutella or ham and cheese or creamy mushrooms to your pancakes. Have a laugh - you've got 40 days of abstinence coming up!!!

Price: cheap as chips

Restaurant of the Week

Tough one this week.

I looked at all the pancake shops in London and thought long and hard. But they're just not that great and I'm very sorry, but the best place for pancakes isn't actually in London - you have to go round to my Mum's house where you will find the legendary pancake maker and flipper. Mum's is always the best!