I’m currently cooking my way through Mary Berry’s Complete Cook Book, which the Pragmatist gave/lent to me when I moved out for my first full-time job. I wanted to document the experience as a kind of cooking diary, and so “The English Student Cooks” was born. This will be an irregular feature, as I only cook when I’m home on my days off, which is Not That Often.
Basil and Goat’s Cheese Pancakes
Method: I made pancake batter – one beaten egg added to a well in 60g flour, mix up until smooth, add 4oml water and 40ml milk, as well as a bit of dried basil, and mix – and left it to rest for half an hour while I frantically tried to up my NaNo word count. (I am terrible at word counts.) Then I fried the batter up into mini pancakes, cooked over a lower heat than usual for two minutes on each side, and topped with goat’s cheese and sprinkles of paprika. (I honestly think paprika is one of my favourite things.)
Alterations/substitutions: I only used a third of Mary’s quantities because I did not want 20 mini pancakes. Also, I used dried basil instead of fresh because I have no chance of using fresh basil outside of a specific recipe.
Verdict: This is a huge faff and you should not try it at home. I couldn’t really taste the basil (although this is possibly because I didn’t use fresh) or, for that matter, the paprika. And I remain at a loss as to why you would serve pancakes as a canapé: they are greasy and impossible to eat sophisticatedly.
Excuse me, I have to go try to write a science fiction novel.
The English Student 