Pancake Day!
Oggi prepariamo i pancakes! Perché?! It’s Pancake Day!
Mentre in Italia si festeggia Martedì Grasso con chiacchiere, castagnole e zeppole, nel mondo anglosassone per tradizione Shrove Tuesday è il giorno in cui si preparano i pancakes, il piatto ideale per dare fondo alle scorte di cibi “ricchi” in dispensa prima dell’inizio della Quaresima.
In rete si trovano ricette per tutti i gusti: pancakes dolci, salati, al gelato, alla frutta, con lo sciroppo d’acero, ecc. Questo video dell’organizzazione English Heritage ci presenta una ricetta semplice ma gustosa che risale addirittura all’epoca vittoriana.
Per realizzarla occorrono:
a mixing bowl = una terrina
a whisk = una frusta
a pan = una padella
Ed ecco gli ingredienti:
3 tbs (tablespoons) of flour = 3 cucchiai farina
a quarter pint of milk = 142 ml latte
3 eggs = 3 uova
butter = burro
sugar = zucchero
jam = marmellata
lemon = limone
Ma prima di passare al procedimento, vediamo un po’ di storia.
Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, is commonly known as Pancake Day, because traditionally this was when people in the UK made pancakes to use up their stock of rich foods before Lent began. The British have been celebrating Pancake Day for centuries.
An important part of the Pancake Day celebrations are pancake races. In fact, on Shrove Tuesday pancake races take part all across the UK, with lots of people, normally in fancy dress, racing down streets while carrying a frying pan, flipping a pancake without dropping it and trying to get to the finish line first. The most famous race is in Buckinghamshire in Olney. Contestants, housewives wearing aprons, a hat or scarf, have to toss their pancakes three times during the race. The first woman to get to the church, complete the course, serve the pancake to the bellringer and kiss him is the winner.
Enough talking. Time to start making some traditional, simple and delicious pancakes.
The recipe shown in the video by English Heritage is taken from a Victorian cookery book, that of Mrs Avis Crocombe who, back in the 1880s, worked in the kitchens at Audley End, a beautiful Jacobean mansion house in Essex.
Here are Mrs Avis Crocombe’s instructions.
Break the eggs into the mixing bowl and whisk. If you have one in your kitchen, copper mixing bowls are very good for whisking eggs: eggs whisk much quicker and in a much firmer way in a copper bowl.
Pour the milk into the bowl and then add the flour gradually, one tablespoon at a time.
Whisk, making sure you don’t get any lumps in your batter.
Put the pan onto a medium heat and grease it with a little butter.
And now it’s time to pour the batter into the pan.
If you don’t feel confident in flipping your pancake, pour in just a little batter so that your pancake is thin and then you won’t have to turn it over.
But flipping the pancake is part of the fun!
Pancakes are very easy to make and can be served with whatever topping and filling you wish.
Mrs Avis Crocombe topped the pancakes for Lord and Lady Braybrooke with a layer of apricot jam, a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkling of sugar and served them with some clotted cream. Yummy!
Pronti con le padelle? Happy Pancake Day! j
