The Perfect Pancake

Glorious, soft and silky blankets. Sweet or savoury. American-style with maple syrup and bacon (never quite got that one), fancy French crêpes or earthy, buckwheat galettes, we certainly have no shortage of pancake varieties.

In Thailand, street vendors sell chewy, crispy soooo good banana pancakes fried in a mixture of ghee and coconut oil covered in condensed milk for that extra-healthy snack, very similar to Indian roti.

Southern India has the dosa, wafer-thin and often stuffed with spiced vegetables or paneer, accompanied by the most incredible coconut and mint chutney and a bowl of quite thin, intensely flavoured curry sauce called Sambar; Sambar, in turn, is served with roti in many of the predominantly Indian areas in Malaysia). It holds a well-deserved spot in the food Hall of Fame. A little closer to home and you hit a classic tea-time favourite, the drop-scone, wonderfully simple to cook at home and absolutely delicious spread with butter and jam.

Traditionally, Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day as it's become known, was a last opportunity to use up all the rich and unhealthy foods before the forty days of Lent. A few rumours abound about this - mostly suggesting that it was primarily for practical reasons - stocks of food saved from the Autumn were running low, or ran the risk of spoiling.

Obviously we don't have these restrictions on what and when we eat, but it is important to keep tradition alive, especially when it tastes this good. Odd, isn't it, that the traditions that persevere most are those focused on feasting. I'm sure we're all intending to give up lots of things this year, so you may notice most of my recipes involve either chocolate, biscuits, ice cream or sugar. Which, of course, you won't be eating again for forty days. Honest.

All nice and easy no faff recipes you can prepare in a jiffy.

Pancake Batter
Makes 8-10
180g plain flour
3 eggs
300ml milk
135ml water
2 tbs butter, melted
pinch of salt

Sieve the flour and salt together.