Monday 14 June 2010

Pancake Weather

(Eye spy with my little eye something beginning with P)

It's pouring with rain outside. Jacques is the working nightshift at the hospital. And I'm missing him. He was in such a rush to leave that he forget to take his snacks and dinner with him, and I worry that he'll be hungry as well as tired tonight. I also wished we'd had time to talk before he left, our conversations seem rushed these days. I mourn the loss of what we had when he worked at sea and I travelled with him. We always knew that idyllic freedom and constant companionship couldn't last - we needed to return to the real world... But still it's an adjustment. And so we feverishly grasp at the things we missed while at sea. The chance to see friends and family for Sunday lunches. The pleasure of fresh hot buttery toast whenever we feel like it. Baking pancakes on rainy days...
So while our time may have been rushed this afternoon, we did make pancakes. Because it was raining cats and dogs, and because Jacques calls this type of weather 'pannekoek en owerspel weer' - 'pancake and adultery weather'.
About a year ago, I wrote about pancakes, and a blogger Potjie wrote some lovely things about my column on his blogspot Wat Eet Ons (http://ironpot-potjie.blogspot.com ) It was really nice knowing that what I had written had touched another person. In it I admitted that my pancakes were not always a huge success. He confessed that his weren't that great either. But he did place a pancake recipe on his blog, and it was the one that we tried this afternoon.

And it wasn't half bad. Still not the pancake of the ubiquitous Church Bazaar, or of the man selling pancakes from his caravan at the Milnerton market. I think we made ours a bit too thick - next time I'll add a bit more water... But other than it was pretty darn good. We ate them with cinnamon sugar and freshly squeezed lemon juice from the lemons growing on our own tree... Out newly planted trees have anchored their roots in the soil and are bearing fruit... We're doing the same. The pancakes we ate this afternoon reminded me of that.


Potjie's Pancake Recipe

Ingredients:
5 cups cold water
1/4 cup oil
3 tablespoons of vinegar
6 eggs
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:
1. Whisk all the liquid ingredients together.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together and add to the liquid bit by bit.
3. Beat together well.
4. Bake the first pancake in a well oiled pan. *
5. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar


* My notes: Throw this pancake away, it's far too oily, but by then the pancake pan is just right - has enough of an oil coating to bake pancakes perfectly. Add only more oil when the pancake batter starts sticking miserably to the pan.


2 comments:

  1. Hi Sam, hier in Dordogne het ons tans ook koue weer met baie reen....ons gee onsself oor aan Crepe Nutella! maar eg suid afrikaanse pannekoek met kaneelsuiker heuning en suurlemoensap bly tops! groete Colette

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