Pancake Madness Party

In the previous English Pancake post I mentioned my friend letting me know about the Shorve Tuesday and she wanted have a pancake party and we organized it through twitter! Oh how i love the power of online social media platforms. So when I came back from work to home i found out another friend of us was at home too, which was a really nice surprise. We had arguably the most amazing pancake party, and later on we realized the role of food is so important, it brings people together. Take the example of BBQ parties, why people enjoy the BBQ parties the most? Because you get to engage in activities like cooking at the outdoors, eating outside, and you might even play some games... So there is something primeval about it but it really satisfies the soul and the following day you are ready to go to work, plus you will be more efficient on what you are doing. Also cooking and eating together is so much fun, as a member of small family, I grew up with no siblings, I can not describe the joy i have when we have big eating parties. 

Last night two of my friends took these pictures Emine and Esma I would like to thank them for this beautiful pictures and also special thanks for cooking the English pancakes for us. Last night I wanted to try something different so i decided to go for North American style pancakes. However instead of using eggs i used ripe and finely mashed bananas.  The smell and taste was heavenly but we had some problems during the cooking process. I tried to cook them in high heat and messed up couple of them but then i managed to cook fairly properly couple of them. Next time i will cook them in low heat. I won't give you the recipes in this post but will sneak out some lovely food pictures. We really enjoyed our pancake party, have you ever had a pancake party before? If so what kind of pancakes/toppings did you use? Comment below or send us some pictures to publish in Your Experience section.  

English Pancakes

English Pancakes

Egg - free North American style pancakes with banana, strawberry, and cream-cookie 

ice-cream toppping

English Pancakes for Pancake Day

This morning my friend tweeted me about the pancake day and i wasn't aware of it until she explained what pancake day is. So to the best of my knowledge, today is the Shrove Tuesday, also called in French Mardi Gras meaning fat Tuesday. According to Catholic belief (or tradition i am not very knowledgeable in this matter) tomorrow is the first day of Lent, where forty days of cleaning begins. I assume it is the month of fasting, restraining from some things so the eve of lent is somewhat the last chance for some to eat flour, sugar, eggs, and butter since those foods are restricted during Lent. 

In this post we are going to present English Pancakes which differ from North American ones and looks more like the French crepes. The North American ones are puffier and this is done by using baking powder/soda and just like in muffins lightly mixing the liquid and dry ingredients until the flour disappears. English Pancakes  are thin and before it is cooked the mixture is very well mixed and more liquid. 

I have one problem with pancakes/crepes the fact that they smell like eggs, otherwise they are fun and easy to make  and the toppings are to die for. Therefore, I always try to prevent this egg smell i try to use best quality eggs, and i always add citrus zest to to the eggs and beat it heavily. If you have any other recommendations for preventing the egg smell on pancakes/cakes please comment below, i would love your suggestions:) 

Today i was talking about the pancake day with my British colleague and it turns out it is popular here in UK to have them with lemon and sugar topping where as in North America Maple syrup is more popular. Personally I try to be more creative about it, i tried nutella, lemon curd, cheese,  and several different types of jams before. It is up to you savory or sweet be creative with the topping. 

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups milk/yogurt
• Zest of 2 lemons 
• 2 cups of flour 
• 1/2 tbs salt
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 eggs

1. Zest 2 lemons in a bowl and add the eggs keep beating
2. Add the butter and milk
3. Combine the salt and flour in another bowl and  add the liquid mixture while whisking at this point you might want to use an electric mixer since you don't want and lumps in your mixture, then put the mixture to the fridge and eave it there for 1-2 hours. 
4. Heat the non-stick pan and start pouring liquid in thin layers and  flip it one the other side is cooked. 
5. Then use your favorite toppings and enjoy your pancakes/crepes.