Spring Onion Pancakes

Historically Pancakes and I, were not close friends. Growing up when Pancake Day came around I was always eating something else, not being quite able to bear eating them. This is despite quite happily making their thicker cousins the drop scone and enjoying them too. This saga carried on till at least around aged 25. Then I got a bit older, learned to cook, felt brave one evening in early 2010 and then nearly abandoned it all after my first disastrous attempt!

Time passed..

And passed..

Then I plucked up courage in the summer of 2011, and with friend L's help we successfully made Tuna and Olive filled pancakes. I have since made them several times, though replacing the tuna with ham makes a wonderful substitution! However this is a once in a blue moon dish, not sure why but it just doesn't make a regular appearance. Though I did buy some tuna earlier so perhaps this week...

Nowadays I am feeling more confident with batter, and a couple of weeks back made a delicious king prawn stir-fry, and the marinade needs only egg white, leaving an egg yolk going spare...

By chance a few nights prior to Friday, my dad was over and we were discussing something he had seen about about how people tend to think the Chinese don't eat potatoes, which made me rummage through the cookery books until according to one called 'World Food - China' and yes in fact they do. Maybe not a huge amount but there are indeed recipes! Apparently the humble potato we English worship was introduced to China by the French. And according to wiki China is the worlds largest Potato producing coutnry. Blimey. That was unexpected!

Anyway, back to the recipe. Whilst going through said book, I spotted these spring onion pancakes, and by sheer luck the recipe uses 1 egg yolk! And so they were made, very succesfully. They produce a softish pancake, I added black pepper as thought needed a little boost. The recipe suggests them as a snack or to fill with crispy meats. We just dipped ours in sweet chilli sauce.

N.b. I have adjusted the original recipe quantities to suit us.

Makes 8

Ingredients

2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 heaped tbsp finely sliced spring onion
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
100g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
8 twists black pepper
200ml milk
100ml water

1) Soften the spring onion in 1/2 tbsp of from oil total until lightly cooked - it will only take 2-3 minutes, using a flat non-stick frying pan

2) Clean the pan using kitchen paper. Make the batter by sifting the flour and salt together and gently combine in the eggs. Slowly stir in the milk and water, and remaining oil to form a creamy smooth batter.

3) Heat the pan to a moderate heat, add enough batter working fast to tilt the mixture to form a thin pancake. When the batter has set, and its lightly browned underneath, gently using a fork and serving spatula (or similar!) gently fold up and place on kitchen paper. Repeat with remaining mixture. If you are using as wrappers - don't fold them, use greaseproof paper or similar to seperate.