A proper introduction ...

... and how to make the most of Pancake Day, from breakfast all the way through to dinner

“... a lot of our vocabulary, especially when it comes to baked goods, is very much like berries, vanilla, chocolate, nuts, caramel, and that kind of sums it all up. All of those things are amazing, but there’s also all these other amazing things.” Rose Wilde 

There have been quite a few new subscribers (thank you!) since the start of the year so I thought I would take a moment to introduce myself properly and explain what you can expect from my newsletter (and what not to expect). Since this week is one of my favourite food-themed holidays of the year (aka Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday!) I’ll also share some ideas for how to enjoy Pancake Tuesday to the max - from breakfast all the way through to dinner and dessert! 

A few words about myself and my background: I started writing about food and developing recipes in some form or another over 10 years ago. Back then I was a stressed and overworked junior competition lawyer in an international law firm in London desperate for a creative outlet. After a good decade in the UK and some stints in Austria, Belgium and Italy, I now find myself back in Brussels. And while I still work as a competition lawyer, I have exchanged my suits and high heels for jeans and trainers as I now work in-house for a large tech company. What hasn’t changed over the years is my passion for food and all things food-related (my cookbook and food writing library is as big if not bigger than the rest of my library), so writing about food and publishing recipes online was an obvious choice. 

My recipes and photos have appeared online and in print in various spaces, including the Guardian, the Telegraph, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Food52, the Huffington Post and Buzzfeed. And together with my friend Kaja Hengstenberg (of Krümel, Stockholm fame), I used to host the Two Kitchen Brussels Supperclubs and cooking classes (and take on the odd catering job) here in Brussels. 

You can expect to receive a new edition of this newsletter in your inboxes once a week, generally on a Sunday. There will be a mix (about 50/50) of recipes and my general musings about all things food - single ingredient love letters (like my love letter to Miso), newsletters exploring variations on a theme (like this old blog post about different types of whipped cream and flavouring options), recipe round-ups etc. The recipes will mostly be for desserts, cakes and other baked goods and will typically feature unusual  (in my part of the world) ingredients like last week’s Hojicha Madeleines; flavour combinations that I think deserve more time in the spotlight, or recipes that use ingredients we already know but that are used in an unusual way (like this Prune and Chinese Five Spice Sticky Toffee Pudding with Miso Butterscotch Sauce). And while I will try my best to demystify lesser known ingredients or techniques, this is not the type of newsletter that will go through 10(+) rounds of testing different brownie recipes to come up with the allegedly definitive brownie recipe - I think there are others who do this much better than I ever could, like Nicola Lamb’s Kitchen Projects for example. My hope for this newsletter is that you will look at your pantry and spice cupboard in a new way and see even more possibilities to create delicious cakes, baked goods and desserts! And if you try one of my recipes I would love to hear about it!

I hope you enjoy reading along!

But let’s talk about Pancakes. Pancake Tuesday does not exist in Germany but as a lover of all manners of pancakes I quickly embraced this tradition when I moved to the UK for boarding school as a teenager. As much as I love a regular pancake, Pancake Tuesday is the perfect day to try out something a little different, and ideally eat pancakes all day long, from breakfast through to dinner (and even dessert!).

Breakfast: I had a huge craving for American style pancakes during pregnancy so tried lots of different recipes. The ones I keep on returning to time and time again are (1) Smitten Kitchen’s Tall, Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes and (2) Bill Granger’s Ricotta Hotcakes (via Top With Cinnamon) - both typically served with some Greek yoghurt, almond butter and fresh fruit on the side, or Maple Syrup and extra butter if I’m feeling fancy. This year I’m planning to try my hand at Baghrir - Moroccan semolina pancakes pockmarked with lots and lots of holes, all the better for soaking up lots of butter and honey! 

Lunch: Since Pancake Tuesday is a regular working day for most of us, a pancake option suitable for a short lunchbreak should be both low effort and quick to prepare but also deliver in terms of nutrition. Korean Kimchi Pancakes (or Kimchi Jeon) and Japanese Okonomiyaki deliver on all fronts. 

Dinner: Hopefully you’ll be less rushed at dinner time and can take your time preparing a more elaborate pancake feast to ring out Pancake Day. While I have a raging sweet tooth, I am a big fan of savoury pancakes as well, be it the sturdy German style pancakes cooked around fried onions and bacon (and possibly cheese-filled) of my childhood, buckwheat galettes of summers spent in Brittany or more recent arrivals in my cooking repertoire such as Chinese scallion pancakes, Italian chickpea flour based farinata, or Vietnamese Ban Xeo - I love them all. Or maybe you want to try your hands at a savoury version of a Dutch pancake for dinner. And if you haven’t had your fill of sweet pancakes by the time dinner rolls aorund, you cannot go wrong with making Kaiserschmarrn or whipping up a batch of Blintzes.

Kaiserschmarrn (a masa marina version is pictured above) refers to a type of pancake common in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. They are unusual in that they have a very low ratio of flour to eggs and milk – resulting in a very eggy pancake. Plus, the eggs are separated and the whites beaten until stiff and then carefully folded back into the batter. So you end up with a beautifully light and fluffy pancake. But don’t be fooled – Kaiserschmarrn itself is far from a light affair – because once each pancake is ready, it gets torn into smaller pieces which are then re-fried in butter before the whole thing is dusted with icing sugar and served with jam, fruit compote or apple sauce. And did I mention that the batter typically also includes rum-soaked raisins? While commonly eaten after a day on the slopes, there is no reason not to make them after another long day in the office. Here is my recipe for Kaiserschmarrn.

Similar to Kaiserschmarrn, Blintzes are double-friend pancakes. But that is where the similarities end. Because Blintzes are actually fairly delicate and thin pancakes that are wrapped around a fresh curd cheese filling before being fried a second time and then served either just like that or with some fruit compote or jam on the side. 

Dessert: If having enjoyed pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner isn’t enough, then you could do worse than whip up a batch of cream filled and pistachio-dipped semolina pancakes Qatayef Asafiri. 

Lastly, a few things I have been enjoying lately:

Reading: Eleanor Ford’s A Whisper of Cardamom - in between taking care of a feverish toddler this past week I have been stealing moments here and there to flick through the pages of this triumph of a book. Beautiful and whimsical in design, Eleanor’s book is full of helpful information and charts about a huge variety of different spices, how to use them in your desserts and baked goods, what to pair them with and possible substitutions. 

Baking: The first recipe I made from Eleanor Ford’s book was the Garam Masala Chocolate Chip Cookies and they are extremely addictive, so much so a third of the batch of cookies had disappeared in less than 24 hours! 

Cooking / eating: With a young child at home my weekly challenge is to come up with delicious dinner ideas that are quick to prepare, nutritious and can be enjoyed by the whole family. And Smitten Kitchen’s Punjabi Style Black Lentils delivered on all fronts.