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PANCAKES WITH BACON AND CHILLI

Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, also called Pancake Day. Traditionally, many families, anticipating the upcoming fast, took Shrove Tuesday as their last opportunity to cook with lovely things like eggs and sugar and butter. Although my family didn’t fast, my mom always made these crêpe-like pancakes come Shrove Tuesday. They’re quite thin and crisp at the edges. You’ve got to flip them delicately, with a deft flick of your wrist. My mom once tossed one so high that it stuck to the ceiling.

The pancakes take some time at the stove, but the process is satisfying – you’ll find yourself getting better at flipping with each one. By the end, you’ll have quite a stack. My mom used to serve them sprinkled with sugar and Jif lemon juice from a squeezy bottle shaped like the fruit. I prefer to eat mine drizzled with maple syrup (especially the bourbony kind) and sprinkled with crumbled chilli, with some salty, floppy bacon on the side. I love to stack them up and cut them into wedges to serve them, so you are eating twenty-four layers in each bite.

serves 4 (makes 24 pancakes)

FOR THE BATTER

225g plain flour

Sea salt

4 large eggs

400ml whole milk

50g unsalted butter, melted

FOR THE PAN CAKES

100g unsalted butter, melted, plus a knob of butter for finishing

Extra virgin olive oil

12 slices bacon

Maple syrup

Dried pequin chillies or red pepper flakes

Make the batter: Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in 2 pinches of salt. Make a well in the centre of the flour and crack the eggs into it, then slowly but steadily whisk in the milk and 150ml water (start whisking from the centre, and you won’t get lumps) until you have a smooth, liquidy batter. Whisk in the 50g of melted butter.

Make the pancakes: Heat a 20cm non-stick pan over high heat for 2 minutes, so it gets nice and hot. Take the pan off the heat and spoon in a little melted butter, a little less than a teaspoon, swirling it around the pan. Then, still off the heat, pour in just enough batter to coat the pan in a thin, almost translucent layer – a generous 2 tablespoons – quickly swirling to disperse the batter evenly (a few bare spots are okay). Return the pan to the heat and cook the pancake, without messing with it, just until the edges begin to brown and lift away from the pan, about 30 seconds. Firmly but carefully shake the pan and, with a deft flick of your wrist, flip the pancake. (You can also use a spatula to lift an edge of the pancake and flip it with your fingers.) Cook it on the second side for 30 seconds, or until both sides are splotched with light golden brown. Transfer it to a plate. Continue cooking the pancakes, stirring the batter and adding a scant teaspoon of the melted butter to the pan between each one, and stacking the pancakes on the plate as you go. They’ll keep each other warm until you finish, though it helps to keep the plate in a warm oven.

Pour a few glugs of olive oil into a large pan and set it over high heat. Once the oil begins to smoke, add 4 slices of the bacon. After a minute or so, add the rest (or work in batches to avoid crowding the pan). Cook until the slices are slightly crispy and brown at the edges but still a bit floppy, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain.

Drizzle the pancake stack with maple syrup, top with a knob of butter, broken up into little pieces, and crumble on as many chillies as you’d like. Serve cut into wedges, with the bacon on the side.