Parveen The Spice Queen: Perfect pancakes

These are trying times but we probably have many more weeks in lockdown. Anyway, I don’t want to get too melancholy plus I feel it’s my job to cheer you all up a little, and the way I am going to do that is of course - focus on food.

Pancake Day is coming up next week, so I thought I would share one of my favourite pancake recipes with you - my cinnamon oat pancakes. Keeping with my MO, I like to add a little spice…No, I don’t mean ‘spicy spice’ I mean flavoursome spice.

Many spices like turmeric, cumin, coriander seeds and cinnamon are used more for their flavour rather than heat. For example, I use cinnamon quite a lot, not only for sweet dishes but savoury too, I use it in my garam masala, pilau rice and some curries…Oops, I am digressing. So, let’s get back to this week’s recipe for pancakes. A basic pancake is just 4 ingredients, eggs, milk, flour and a little sugar. Once you have mastered a basic recipe, you can then get creative and add flavours that you enjoy. I sometimes add vanilla essence, it’s almost like eating a cake if close your eyes. It’s ‘naughty but nice’ and without all the calories.

OAT PANCAKES

Sometimes I blitz the oats to make an oat flour and other times I just add them in as they are. Also, I find as they are low GI, they keep me fuller for longer and I love the texture - they seem to have more umph!!...I serve mine with blueberries, sliced bananas, a little cream, drizzle of honey and dusted with extra cinnamon.

INGREDIENTS

1 egg

100ml milk

100g porridge oats

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp sugar

½ tsp cinnamon powder

½ tsp baking powder

2 tbsp vegetable oil to cook

TO SERVE

I banana

2 tbsp fresh blueberries

1 tbsp cream or some squirty cream

1 tsp runny honey or maple syrup

½ tsp cinnamon powder

METHOD

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and milk. Then add the oats, flour, cinnamon and baking powder. Mix together thoroughly and let the batter rest for 10 mins.

2. Use a good quality non-stick pan. Heat 1 tsp oil, swirl the oil round the pan. When the oil is nice and hot, pour in a couple of tablespoons of the pancake batter, using the back of the spoon, gently encourage the batter to take the shape of a circle.

3. Now turn the heat down to medium, allow the pancakes to cook for 1 min, then gently flip over and cook for a further 1–2 minutes.

4. Set aside and repeat with the rest of the mixture.

5. Serve while they are nice and hot.

Parveen’s top tips

 I don’t cook my blueberries in with the mixture as they can make the pancakes soggy…So, I just add a few in the pan to heat them through once my pancake is cooked.

 If you cannot get yours to come out round, then just use a small frying pan and make the pancakes to fit the pan.

 For normal flour pancakes, just use 100g flour instead of the oats. To make soft, fluffy American style pancakes, use self-raising flour and no need to add baking powder.