Whether you call it Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, it's the timeof the year when, traditionally, cupboards are cleared of all temptation ahead of Lent, and everything is piled into a pancake. I'm not great at abstaining from food at the best of times, and I don't practise any sort of religious self-denial, but if I were to, it wouldn't be the more conventional targets of the Lent hitlist – alcohol, cheese and carbs – that would do for me, but lemons. So I've squeezed as much asIcan into today's recipes.
Basic pancake batter is made from varying proportions of flour, eggs and milk, though if you're giving up alcohol, you might want to add a cup of dark beer instead of some of the milk. As well as adding moisture and malty richness, the beer makes the batter much lighter. The classic crêpes suzette is another way to sneak in some booze, while a glug of brandy over a duck bound for a Chinese pancake also works wonders, and helps to crisp up the meat.
If you're giving cheese a miss for Lent, ricotta gives pancakes a lovely, light texture (take care not to over-mix the batter, though). You can also leaven pancakes by separating the eggs, whisking the whites and folding in. Buttermilk does a similar trick because, since it is thicker than milk, you need less flour.
As for cheesy fillings, there are endless possibilities: a combination of cheeses (grated mozzarella and parmesan with a little ricotta, say) plus something leafy and green (spinach, chard, savoy cabbage, chopped herbs) is generally a winner.
Carb-crunchers, meanwhile, mightwant to pile all their potatoes into a thick and fortifying pancake. One such dish, popular in eastern France, is matefaim (literally, "kill hunger"); Ireland's boxty and the Jewish latke are other pancakes that make good use of cooked mashed or raw grated potato.
Whatever you pile into your batter, you can make it in advance and keep it chilled for up to a day. Just bring it to room temperature before cooking: your pancakes will be much lighter and thinner as a result.
Cheese crepes with honey, orange and pistachio
These can be made well in advance up to the oven stage, and then baked 40 minutes before serving. Makes 12crepes, to serve four to six.
130g plain flour
Salt
2 eggs
150ml whole milk
80ml water
60g unsalted butter
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp lemon juice
25g pistachios, ground to a powder
For the filling
250g mascarpone
250g ricotta
40g icing sugar
1 egg
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
2½ tsp orange blossom water
Put all the ingredients for the filling in a large bowl and stir until smooth; don't use a whisk, though, because the cream will go too runny. Keep inthe fridge until ready to use.
Sift the flour into a large bowl with a quarter-teaspoon of salt. Make a well in the centre and break in the eggs. Begin whisking the eggs into the flour while at the same time slowly pouring in the milk and water. Once the batter is smooth andlump-free, put a 17cm nonstick frying pan on medium heat and add5g of butter. When the butter starts to sizzle, add about three tablespoons of the batter and spreadit around the pan to form a crepe. Fry for a minute, flip it over and fry for another minute, until both sides are golden-brown. Set aside while you repeat with the remaining batter, adding more butter with each.
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Spoon about 50g of the filling down the centre of each crepe, keeping it 3cm clear on both sides. Pull the left side tightly over the cream, fold in the top and bottom towards the centre, then rollup firmly to the right, to seal thefilling inside – you should end up with a cigar-shaped crepe. Set aside and repeat with the remainingcrepes.
Brush a 24cm x 24cm baking dish with half the olive oil. Put in the folded crepes seam side down in snug rows, and brush with the remaining oil. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the pancakes are crispand the filling baked.
A couple of minutes before they are done, put the honey in a small saucepan and warm through for just a minute on a medium heat. Take the pot off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and pour or brush the mixture over the warm crepes. Sprinkle with the pistachios and serve at once.
Turmeric crepes with spiced sugar and lemon
My friend Maria made me a spicy hot toddy the other day, to help clearmy head and nose, and the spices she used inspired this crepe. A dram of whisky alongside wouldn't go amiss. Makes 16 crepes, to serve four.
170g plain flour
¾ tsp ground turmeric
Salt
3 eggs
190ml whole milk
110ml water
35g caster sugar
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
⅓ tsp ground cardamom
80g unsalted butter, for frying
3 tbsp lemon juice
Sift the flour and turmeric into a large bowl with an eighth of a teaspoon of salt. Make a well in the centre and break in the eggs. Begin whisking the eggs into the flour while at the same time slowly pouring in the milk and water. When all the liquid has been added and the batter is smooth and lump-free, pour it into a jug and keep in the fridge.
Put the sugar and ground spices ina small bowl, mix and set aside.
Put a 20cm nonstick frying pan on medium heat and add 5g of butter. When it starts to sizzle, add about three tablespoons' worth of the batter, spreading it out with a palette knife to form a thin crepe. Fry for a minute, flip over and fry for another minute, until golden-brown on both sides. Keep warm while you repeat with the remaining batter, adding more butter before each crepe.
Put a crepe on each plate, sprinkle over a quarter-teaspoon of the sugar mix and half a teaspoon of lemon juice. Fold the crepe in half, then in half again, and top with a pinch of sugar. You'll have enough batter for four crepes each, so keep going until your stomach tells you to stop.
Kale and cheese pikelets
Pikelet, drop scone, Scots pancake: the name depends on who's cooking them. In any event, they're soft, fluffy and reheat very well. Serves four.
170g self-raising flour
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Salt
1 egg yolk
150ml whole milk
50g kale, thinly sliced, blanched for a minute, drained and squeezed dry
80g unsalted butter, melted
150g cottage cheese
50g stilton, broken into 1cm chunks
15g dill, roughly chopped
2 egg whites, whisked to soft peaks
For the sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp chilli flakes
100g sour cream
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. For the sauce, put the oil in a small saucepan with the chilli. Cook on a medium-high heat for a minute (take care not to burn the chilli), then set aside to cool. Tip into a small bowl, stir in the sour cream and an eighth of a teaspoon ofsalt, and refrigerate.
For the batter, put the flour and lemon zest in a bowl with a third of ateaspoon of salt. Make a well in the centre and add the egg yolk and milk. Combine the mixture with a wooden spoon, starting from the centre and working your way out towards the edge, until you have a thick, almost dough-like batter. Add the kale, halfthe butter (yes, really), cottage cheese, stilton and dill. Mix again, then gently fold in the egg whites.
Heat 20g butter in a large nonstick saute pan on a medium heat. When it starts to foam, ladle in four round pikelets of batter, each about 9cm indiameter and 1.5cm thick (this will use up about half the batter). Fry for five minutes on low heat, turning once, until golden-brown. Transfer to a large baking tray and repeat with the remaining butter and batter.
Bake for 15 minutes, until cooked through. Puttwo pikelets on each plate and serve warm with a generous spoonful of the sauce on top or to the side.
Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.
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