Shrove Tuesday

Today is Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Pancake Day in England. You can bet that this evening most of Louisville's English Sister City residents in Leeds will be forfeiting dinner for pancakes. The tradition of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday comes from using up ingredients restricted during the ritual fasting associated with lent, such as sugar, fat and eggs. These pancakes are more like French crepes with the filling drizzled on and rolled up into a tube. The most traditional filling is a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar which is still the way i make them - it instantly takes me back to my own childhood in the UK. The days leading up to Pancake Day are full of TV adverts for lemons and those handy plastic squeezy lemons. If you would like to have a go at making them yourself and celebrating along with Leeds, a recipe is below. You can also read more information about Shrove Tuesday Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday

The ingredients:

2 cups plain flour (about 230g)
2 eggs
2 cups Milk
Pinch of salt
Butter for frying

Sieve the flour into a bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flour and crack the egg into this. Begin to slowly add the milk to the bowl as you whisk. Finally add a pinsh of salt.

Place a frying pan over a reasonable heat and add a knob of butter or oil if preferred. Make sure that the fat has melted and is hot before you add the pancake mixture. If there is too much fat drain away the excess.

ladle some of the pancake mixture into the pan. As you are doing this swirl the pan around. This ensures that the pancakes are thin but that the pan is evenly covered.

It will only take a minute or two to brown and then you will need to flip, toss or turn your pancake over until that side is also brown.

Pancakes are best served straight away and hot. Add your filling - lemon and sugar or you can be creative - jam, nutella etc.

Enjoy!