Fat Tuesday, with a shout from Westminster and the Dollivers

So today being Shrove Tuesday, as well as Day Two of Westminster, the dog show, that is, there was quite a mob in the kitchen, the Dollivers all crowding in to take part in the Making of the Apple Pancakes, 

and the purebreds of the Dolliver Kennels being restrained by wrangler NameMe, from diving into the batter and helping. The dogs are plaintive about not getting their due lately, so we let them in here.

The recipe is from the Durham Cathedral Library collection of manuscripts, and is comparatively recent as these things go, from the eighteenth century.  So, since Durham Cathedral is part of my home territory, it seemed good to celebrate that as well as the day.

The tradition dates from the custom of fasting during Lent, which starts tomorrow, and required that you use up all your eggs and butter ahead of time. Pancakes are the result.  Mine will go with honey, not with the traditional lemon and sugar, though, except maybe I'll do one with lemon and sugar, just to be friendly. 

This uses apple slices, and since I seem to be on an apple thing these days, I made the apple frittery type pancakes.  They were pretty edible, but not pretty enough for prime time.  I'm currently baking the rest of the batter and the apples as a clafoutis.

Also reseasoning the two bigger cast iron pans which have developed a couple of hotspots.  This accounts for the less than pretty pancakes, and requires scrubbing with kosher salt, rinsing, baking dry in the oven, then oiling.  Then hoping the seasoning will hold up.  I don't use the two bigger ones as often as the baking dish and the little egg pan, and they do like to be used a lot, so that's probably what's up.

So they're baking along with the clafoutis.  This is getting perilously close to those hairbrained ideas about poaching salmon in the dishwasher, or sizzling steak on the hot engine of your car..

Clafouti, now that's what I call a winter dessert

So I finally got to the store where I can get the frozen berries, the weather having been a real bar lately to doing a lot of things,  and, aside from this berry mix being good eating with a bit of honey, and wildly nutritious in the winter, I suddenly thought this might be a great way to use up the rest of the pancake batter I made yesterday.

Last night's supper and today's lunch were  a giant veggie pancake, consisting of freezer scallions, green beans and zucchini slices, sauteed very well, then  pancake batter poured over, made into a very sturdy pancake on top of the stove.  In the cast iron pan.  Of course.  It was very good but not photogenic, so no pix.

Then I thought, ah, clafouti!  great old Julia Child recipe I made many times in the distant past. Usually this is done in cherry season in France, early June, because of a large quantity of cherries to deal with, but you can use any fruit, really. 

I hauled out my early sixties' copy of JC, complete with inscription from Handsome Partner which I won't quote because it was an in-joke, mainly to find out the oven temp needed. Which turned out to be 350F. 

Seemed like a good time, too, to test the cast iron pan's utility  as a cake pan.  You scarcely need a recipe for this. Make a skim of the batter on the bottom of the pan, let it cook a minute or two (this is to keep the fruit from sticking to the pan) and while that's happening,  thaw and drain about half a cup of berries, put them in the pan, then pour the rest of the pancake batter over and bake.  

I did this at 350F for a bit over half an hour, since it was a small one, a bigger one should probably go longer.  You can see how it's starting to release from the edge of the pan, showing a  browned underside. This tells you it's about done.Nice warm dessert for these cold winter days.

You sprinkle a bit of sugar over after it's baked, looks nice, and I served it with a couple of scoops of  plain nonfat yogurt. If your household goes for icecream, this would be great, the hot dessert and a scoop of good vanilla, yes I can see that.

and the pan released the clafouti very nicely.  

At this rate I may freecycle all my other pans!  so far every experiment I've made with the cast iron has worked out.

Oat flour pancake, the all purpose food

This morning's breakfast, since I was low on eggs, was an oatmeal flour pancake, with a honey drawing on the plate.

Then this evening, I diluted the same old pancake mix -- oat flour keeps developing and thickening as it goes -- and added it to a stirfry of red bell peppers, onions and little celery chunks, with a curry leaf and a big knob of homemade pesto, sorry don't know which, frozen hands couldn't get far enough in to see the label, and there was a cascade of frozen food falling all over me at the time.

Anyway, made the stirfry, which smelled wonderful, and added in a pancake's worth of batter to continue cooking, ending with a nice supper, remembering to remove the curry leaf before serving -- they work like bay leaves, give flavor, you remove them before eating since they're a bit tough.

 
Here with my ancient Lenox wineglass, all ready to go. My food stylist failed to report to work today, so this is Food Adequate, Tastes Good, Just Eat It.  It's a crepe aux veggies.  Serving for One. Avec vin tres ordinaire.

 And I'm starting to wonder what other uses this all-purpose pancake mix can turn to.  Clafouti, yes, I can see this appearing several times.  And there are lovely granny smith apple chunks and other apple stuff in the freezer, too, for an apple clafouti.

Gosh, they could send it to Mars with astronauts, they'd never run out, just dilute it when it gets low,  guys, it's good and it's gluten free! I can imagine how that would cheer them when they're trying to repair the extra terrestrial walkabout thing..