The family have had a love affair with pancakes, since I can’t remember when. Himself is the pancake King. He made them at weekends for our own kids, where mostly the youngest and the middle child had competitions as to how many they could eat. Nowadays he makes them for grandchildren, in two groups, the big kids and the little kids, but whenever they come to stay, it is expected that he makes pancakes for breakfast.

A few years ago, my daughters and I, were in Chicago for the marathon, above said middle child has run many marathons and so we were there as the support team. There were always two items that were a MUST for marathon running, the best Hamburger afterwards and pancakes the following morning. We had an Excellent Air BnB right next to a Ralph Lauren restaurant which made the most amazing hamburgers. And true to form we found the best Pancake house in Chicago! We had to wait for maybe an hour but when needs must !

As I am sure you are aware,there are many many forms of Pancakes, the word pancake being a generic word ( for us anglophones) which covers a myriad of different types of pancakes. In the UK it generates at least 450,000 monthly searches for a recipe, and not only that there are at least Seven pages of recipes on the BBC website for pancakes.

So as you can imagine there are numerous types and recipes. Here is a brief synopsis. English pancakes, flat thin, usually eaten with lemon juice and sugar, but can be eaten with almost anything ranging from yogurt to Nutella, to bacon and scrambled egg. American, thick and stacked and definitely with additions, bacon, sausage, egg, maple syrup, fruit, cream yogurt and more. The Scotts have Drop Scones, and the Welsh have Pikelets, whereas Eastern Europe have Blini, which should be made with Buckwheat flour ( Sarrasin). The French have Crêpe which they flatten out in their pan with a rateau en bois and they have Crêpes Salée, or in Brittany it is a Galette, a savoury pancake made again with Buckwheat flour! You don’t have to have a Crêpe pan, but it really does make a difference. It is best not to wash your crepe pan, at best wipe it our with paper towel straight away after using, at worse whilst still very hot just water and wiped dry immediately.

We were away recently, just for a few days, so once again, being of the school of “Waste Not, Want Not” I wondered how to use up the odds of food that were in the refrigerator. I decided to make Galettes Soubises which are pancakes made with Buckwheat or Sarrasin flour ( which by the way is Gluten free ). The recipe I found used a combined plain flour and Sarrasin, which I found to be an odd choice. However, I do happen to have a box of Sarrasin flour ( from France) and there is no mention of mixing it with plain flour.

Ingredients :-

• 330 grams of Buckwheat flour
• A pinch of salt
• 75 CL of ice cold water

Put the flour and salt in a bowl, and carefully pour in the ice cold water, stirring constantly, to make a smooth mixture.

Leave the batter to stand for 2-3 hours. Heat the Crêpe pan until very hot, grease with either a spray or with butter. Pour in some of the batter, but remember Galette are thin. If the mixture is too thick carefully add some extra water. When the edges of the pancake begin to brown, using a spatula flip the pancake over. ( if you are confident, you can try flipping. Quickly cook side two, remove with a spatula and place on a plate. Repeat until all the mixture has been used. They can be staked and stored until ready to use.

For the filling, well savoury, something as simple as cheese and ham, ( using grated Emmental) sautéed mushrooms, or as I did a mixture of sautéed onions, bacon bits ( lardons), garlic, parsley, and then topped with grated Emmental cheese and fried eggs! A meal in itself, or maybe add a green salad!