We all know that Tuesday is the worst day of the week (given its proximity to Monday and distance from Friday) but, thanks to some dude who rocked a lot of sandals back in the day, tomorrow will be the best Tuesday of the lunar year. I will once more be indulging in what is known as gastro-selective Christianity; I’m religious when there’s food and wine a-flowing but you know I’ll be citing my papa’s Judaist roots on Weds as I do not roll with this whole Lent sacrifice shindig. Anyway, I digress...YES, it is PANCAKE DAY tomorrow!
This is a festival not celebrated in most other English speaking cultures, mainly because these wonderful fried batter discs are regularly consumed and do not need a special day to indulge. However, I have long been labouring under a misapprehension, as it seems, have the English populace at large.
Back in January I went on a day’s Dutch cookery course with (two) Michelin starred chef, Dennis Van Golberdinge. On the menu, amongst other things, were chocolate ganache filled crêpes. Whilst mixing up the batter he said something that blew my mind, “you don’t separate the eggs like you do for pancakes.” Hold up – what? – wait a second! My classmates and I exchanged looks and one brave woman piped up and admitted she didn’t know what he meant.
Lesson 1: A pancake is a pancake and a crêpe is a crêpe
He proceeded to whip up a batch of pancake mix alongside the crêpe mix, the difference being for crêpes the egg went in whole and in pancakes the whites were separated, whisked until fluffy, THEN combined with the batter.
The result was the crêpe was flat, thin and roll-able (akin to the lemon / sugar combo of every ‘pancake’ day memory) and the pancake was a thick but airy and light disc worthy of any Denny’s short stack, suited to supporting generous toppings but not fillable in the least.
Incidentally, you probably know that what should now be referred to as crêpe batter makes a Yorkshire pud but handy hint from Chef Dennis is that if you pop several small teaspoons of pancake batter into the pan you can make little blinis perfect for glam hostessing (pass the caviar, Jeeves).
Lesson 2: Butter me up
Now if you’re anything like me you try and make your sinful cooking less sinful by using oil instead of butter in cooking and you’ve wondered why your cocoons of deliciousness look a bit beige.
NEWSFLASH – it’s batter – you’ve lost the battle already and the calorie difference is negligible at this point. It's also known as Fat Tuesday. Have a salad tomorrow and you’ll be fine. It's what Jesus would've wanted.
Melt a little butter in the pan, not too much as you don’t want it to go greasy, and fry - that way you’ll get the lovely ‘tiger stripe’ browned effect AND it’ll be easier to flip. Why? Because oil creates a glue for the eggy mixture (incidentally I’ve been cooking my omelettes in butter since this class and they’ve not stuck once).
Pour in a small amount of batter and then swirl it for the crêpe to thin it out, pancakes are less viscous so just smooth into the appropriate size and thickness but try to keep it away from the edges for easy flipping.
Lesson 3: Catch you on the flipside
Ah, the aforementioned flip: nemesis of the weak-wristed and uncoordinated (me).
Where: Another handy hint from No 7. Catering School is to perform the flip over a clean work surface – that way if you fail it won’t fall to the flames or the floor where it will be rendered useless (or be pounced on by the pooch).
When: Flip timing is key, but like most things is actually quite simple. You should wait until the top of your crêpe or pancake is dry. This shouldn’t take too long / burn if you cook over a medium heat. Give the pan a jiggle and it should loosen, if not run round the edges with a sharp knife and jiggle again (if it doesn’t jiggle then it needs a little longer).
We’ve covered where and when, now the how: Top tip is, after loosening with the jiggle, to give a slight forward and medium up thrust and follow the crêpe up with the pan so once it’s turned you catch it immediately. Alternatively just use the spatula, but this is way less cool and I know all my readers got game. It should just need 30 seconds over the heat to firm up and then transfer to the plate.
Now all that remains to ask is: how will you fill and / or top yours?
TGOC x
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