YUMMMM. Someone came into the shop today selling strawberries… snaffled a pack for tonight’s dessert.
Hulled them, sliced them up, sprinkled them with caster sugar. Went out and bought a miniature of Cointreau and sprinkled them with that. Left them in the fridge for the rest of the day, stirring now and then. By 7ish they’ll be UNBELIEVABLE. Am tempted to make pancakes and fill them with ice cream and said strawberries; that will get me Many Points with the Bear…
Pancakes? Yummy fluffy ones? Mix up 150g SR flour, 60g caster sugar (or ordinary sugar will do if you don’t run to the fancy stuff), a quarter-teaspoon of bicarb soda, 1 egg and about 370ml milk- add it a bit at a time, making sure there are no lumps, until you have a pretty runny batter, then STOP ADDING MILK. If the batter doesn’t spread enough when you make the first one you can add some more milk to it then- but once it’s TOO runny, you’re history.
Let it stand for, oh, 15 minutes or so, while you heat up a goodly knob of butter or marg in a small FLAT frypan. (If it’s got a bump in the middle you will have a HELL of a time- be warned.)
When the butter’s smoking hot but not burnt, add a gloop of the batter and tip the pan to spread it as far as you can into a circle before it sets. Experience will teach you the right size of gloop for your pan; this is a recipe to practise on the nearest and dearest before trying to impress anyone.
When you see little bubbles coming through the batter and it looks as though the centre has changed from liquid to sort-of-solidish, gently lift all around the pancake with a THIN hello I said THIN eggflip. Those clunky nylon ones suck for this. Move the eggflip gently into the centre to loosen the pancake, shake the pan to make sure the pancake moves, put the eggflip back under it all the way to the centre then hold your breath and turn it over in ONE CONVINCING MOVEMENT. Do not hesitate! Do not worry mid-flip! JUST DO IT!
It went everywhere? Never mind. The next one will be better. The first one is always a failure.
It folded itself in half and stuck together? You lost your nerve mid-flip. I warned you.
The second side doesn’t take long. You might need to add a bit more butter. Turn the heat down a bit for the rest of the procedure, or the butter will burn too fast (as will the pancakes). When the edges look sort of brown and crunchy-delicious, it’s done. Turn out onto a plate and keep warm in a low low low oven while you repeat the process.
If in doubt, add more butter… and keep the pan hot but not burning.
You can freeze these if you separate them with plastic wrap first and keep them nice and flat.
And if you really couldn’t be buggered, the Greens instant pancake mix works just fine- but it won’t be fluffy.
To serve, spread a nice spoonful of Cointreaued strawberries in a line along the middle of the pancake, add some small scoops of ice cream in the same line and fold both edges in. You can hold it together with a toothpick if you’re serving the Queen of Sheba. Enjoy before the ice cream melts…