Mardi Gras - Pancake's Day...

In the Catholic tradition, eggs are forbidden during the Lenten fast so eating pancakes became a way to prepare for the abstinence that lay ahead. In the English-speaking tradition, this happens on Shrove Tuesday, the last day before the start of Lent.


I already wrote about Fat Thursday - Eastern European way of celebrating the end of carnival. The Polish Carnival Season includes Fat Thursday, a day for eating p?czki (donuts) and ?ledzik (Shrove Tuesday) which is known as Herring Day. The Tuesday before the start of Lent is also often called Ostatki (literally "lasts"), meaning the last day to party before the Lenten season.
Mardi Gras - Pancake's Day - is the way the Irish (and whole English speaking world) celebrate this event. Irish don't have one specific recipe for today (and generally for pancakes). They will eat any kind of pancake with literally everything today - as long as it's sweet ;) We didn't have herrings today but I decided to celebrate it with pancakes (especially since I got a beautiful roses and a pack of strawberries from my Hubby for Val's Day, so strawberries are perfect accompaniment to pancakes). I took this particular recipe from on of my 'foodie guru' - Nigella :)


How to make it...
Ingredients:
- 225g plain flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 30g butter, melted and cooled
- 300ml milk
- butter for frying

The easiest way to make these is to put all the ingredients into a blender and blitz. It?s also much easier to pour the batter into the pan than to spoon it. Leave the batter for 20 minutes before using it and you may then want to add more milk to the mixture if you?re frying in the blini pan, so that it runs right to the edges. When you cook the pancakes, all you need to remember is that when the upper side of the pancake is blistering and bubbling it?s time to cook the second side, and this needs only about 1 minute, if that. Serve with whatever you have - jam, yogurt, honey, maple syrup, fresh fruits, cream etc. The choice is endless!
Bon appétit!