PANCAKE DAY

Isn’t it strange that you can mix flour and water together and get glue, and yet if you mix flour and eggs and milk together you will obtain something that will get me jumping out of bed of a morning and racing for the kitchen hob.

I am relatively ashamed to say that I am not in the habit of giving anything up for Lent. On the contrary, I tend to take any chance of a gastronomic celebration at face value and use it as an excuse to double my shopping bill with special jams, foreign-looking jellies, organic dairy products and meats cured from what must be famous cows, given the price per kilo.

And Shrove Tuesday is no exception. Delia Smith is my absolute heroine as far as pancake recipes are concerned. http://urlz.fr/6wR8

There is something very pure and yet at the same time very naughty about Delia’s recipe. Maybe it is the excess of butter that makes the pancakes just slide down one after the other, dripping in confiture de groseilles épépinées à la plume d’oie from Maison Bar-le-Duc. (I wish!)

And of course, what my French compatriots might not know, is that, if you take this same, lovely batter and put it in a steaming hot oven for 20 minutes, you get Yorkshire Pudding, yet another gastronomic delight from my home region, although probably best not served with 1 € a pop redcurrants! http://urlz.fr/6wRa

For those of you who will be fasting during Lent, I salute you. You have my utmost respect. I will see you on Easter Sunday for Delia’s baked leg of lamb with rosemary, redcurrant (again!) and mint sauce. Yummy!