I love Pancake Tuesday and would happily eat pancakes for each of my three meals today. I also love to cook and to share recipes. But you know what? I don't have a pancake recipe.
I put plenty of plain flour, a pinch of salt, an egg or two, a dash of sunflower oil and a lot of milk into a mixing bowl and whisk it with a fork until it has the right consistency and no lumps. Then ladleful by ladleful the pancakes get fried, tossed and served.
I am a pancake purist on Pancake Tuesday. Spread with butter, sugar and lemon juice (from a lemon, not a bottle) and rolled up is the way I love them. My boys will eat them like that too, but if there is Nutella or maple syrup in the house, that's what they prefer to spread on theirs.
Because they are half-German, you see. They don't have that Irish love of sugar and lemon on a pancake that I have. In fact they are a bit lacking in enthusiasm for Pancake Tuesday in general.
Every year I tell them Pancake Tuesday is coming but every year it gets usurped by Faschingsdienstag, the main day of German carnival, which also happens to be the day before Ash Wednesday.
Pancakes just can't compete with the parades, the dressing up, the traditional eating of jam donuts and with having the day off school.
But I will not give up. There will be at least one meal of pancakes today. At least.
