Welsh Tapas - Crempogau - Tortitos
Photo © Rob Jones
There’s a Welsh playground rhyme that goes (in English)
Auntie Elin Enog
Please may I have a pancake?
You can have tea and brown sugar
And your apron full of pudding
Auntie Elin Enog
My mouth is parched for pancakes
My mum is too poor to buy flour
And Sian is too lazy to get the treacle
And my father's too sick to work
Please may I have a pancake?
It sounds no better in Welsh.
Anyway - I tend to follow my urges and cook according to what my body tells me it wants. Anne-Marie will tell you this often leads to unmitigated disaster.
So, all day yesterday I was fantasising about pancakes. The weather was miserable and drizzly and very Autumnal. I whipped up some pancake mix and placed it in the fridge to settle with the full intention of cooking them for tea!
But then I got busy. And now, today it’s a mini heatwave. But I was already committed. So here we are on the mountain in our swimming costumes, eating pancakes.
These are pancakes for savoury toppings, but I did try one with bacon and maple syrup and it was lovely.
You need to mix together
150g of Spelt Flour
150g of Plain White Flour
A teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda
2 Large Eggs
100ml of Full Milk
100ml of Buttermilk
Mix together - it needs to be a dropping consistency so you might need to add a little more milk.
Leave it to calm down in the fridge for an hour or so.
Get a griddle or a flat based pan, heat it quite hot, and then spoon dollops of the mixture into the pan, and shape it into a circle with the back of a spoon. They cook quite quickly, flip them over to cook the other side, then over again for good measure. They need to look nicely brown without being burnt.
I made a Cheese and Leek sauce to go with it.
Fry off some onions and a leek, both finely chopped, in a pan with a little butter. Add a tablespoon of flour and mix well. Add a cup of milk, a little single cream, and a handful of Caerphilly cheese and a little Parmesan.
I built a little stack.. pancake, then sauce, pancake, then sauce, pancake, topped with sauce. A little more cheese drizzled on top, and a sprig of parsley just to look fancy.
Apply sun lotion to your body while eating it in the warm Welsh sunshine.
RJ
