Pancake Day!

Pancake Day Today! At least that is what the British call Mardis Gras, and it sure seems a lot more relaxing than going out to face the masses celebrating in Hillcrest tonight.

Not being a big fan of sweet food, I prefer savory pancakes. I like stuffing the pancakes with cheese and vegetables, and came up with this recipe.

Pancakes: 2 eggs (beaten)

7 fl oz milk

3 fl oz water

2 oz butter

A pinch of salt

Filling: 1 Tbsp olive oil

1 small onion (chopped roughly)

2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)

3 leeks (sliced 1cm thick)

1 red bell pepper (chopped roughly)

8 oz button mushrooms (quartered)

½ eggplant (cubed into ½ inch cubes)

1 oz butter

1 tbsp white flour

1 pint milk

5 oz grated cheddar cheese

Dash of cayenne

Method

1, Combine pancake ingredients in a food processor, blend until smooth, set aside.

2, Heat the olive oil in a wok or small pan. Add the onion garlic and cook for 5 mins. Add the pepper and leeks, and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the button mushrooms and eggplant and cook until all vegetables are soft.

3, In a small saucepan melt the butter. Add the flour and quickly blend together. Add a very small amount of milk, and whisk together, when fully combined add more milk, keep adding milk in this way until it is all combined. Keep whisking the sauce until it becomes thick. Then remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. Now stir in the vegetables. Cook this mixture on a low heat. Add a dash of cayenne pepper.

4, Meanwhile make the pancakes in a large frying pan make the pancakes. Grease the pan well, get it very hot and make tin pancakes. Once these are made spoon a ladleful of the vegetable mixture onto half of each pancake. Fold the pancake over to cover the side, and serve.