Pancake

Two revelations on pancake day. One, I don't own a whisk. I really don't. Everytime my hand holds a fork, my brain makes a mental note to pick up a whisk the next time I go shopping (it has become an auto reflex of sorts) to be duly forgotten. Two, my photographic skills sucks, sucks big time. I belonged to the majority which did not know about PD until I read about it in the newspapers. The younger troops consider pancakes as special treats. The truth is I make pancakes when I run out of idli and dosai batter or to inject some fruit into the troop's systems. Today happened to be one such day and I can't let Pancake Day pass without savoring it. So here goes the recipe which is incredibly simple.

• Self raising flour - 5 Tbsp
• Egg - 1
• Milk - 1 cup
• butter/oil as required

Beat the egg in a bowl and add the milk to it and mix it. Sift the flour into the egg-milk mixture. Whisk it up with the butter or oil (I prefer olive oil to butter), till the flour is well combined and forms a batter of single cream consistency. Add more milk if necessary. I prefer to add flour to the liquid as the batter ends up smooth without lumps. Take one ladle of batter (apprx about 3 Tbsps) and pour on a greased pan. Rotate the pan in a circular fashion to spread the batter evenly. It takes about a minute to brown on one side. With a flat spoon flip the pancake over. If you want some fun try flipping it the Chefy way. I have never been one for any kind of physical action. I put it down to a lack of hand-eye coordination. S had tried to get me into badminton and table tennis and now knows better. I use a flat spoon to flip my pancakes. The other side requires less than a minute (apprx 40 secs) to cook. Stack the pancakes to keep warm. Serve it with syrup of your choice.
I prefer to serve it with jaggery syrup. It sounds weird, but it is my idea of a perfect match. Plus the iron in the jaggery would not hurt much.

Variations: To the pancake batter, add some mashed banana to make banana pancakes – camouflaging fruits for fussy eaters.