Pancakes - good or bad?

Happy Pancake Day!

I have to admit that I wasn't very smart when I did my menu plan for this week and on the table tonight is actually baked chicken Parmesan meatballs in tomato cream sauce - fancy! - instead of pancakes.

In Scotland we have Scotch pancakes instead of crepes on Shrove Tuesday. Of course, we just call them pancakes! I think the English call them dropped scones to differentiate them from pancakes aka crepes. Did I ever mention that all these nationalities that make up the British are properly weird!!?

I'll just have to hope that someone will bring in pancakes to work today so I don't have to go without on a day where you're allowed to treat yourself.

But that bothers me. Why am I "allowed" to treat myself on this day and not others? And for that matter, why do we label some foods as "good" and some as "bad"? Who's to decide which is which?

It's making me think of the ways in which we label our foods

I've noticed that there is so much pressure on people these days. As much as I love the internet, you see the lives of other people and assume that they are superwomen with high-powered jobs, clean houses, well-behaved kids and rocking bodies. Unlike me, you tell yourself.

Fear not - you can have all that, too, according to the media etc. All you have to do is undertake this diet, follow this plan, avoid these pitfalls, get up at 4am and have a positive attitude.

It's bloody exhausting.

And then I've got to create a perfect meal in just 15 minutes and am given this never ending list of  what's good and what's bad. Cheese is too high in fat, chocolate is high fat, dairy is, well, dairy, meat is evil, vegetables have too much sugar, potatoes have carbs - it's enough to drive you to drink. And yay, you can have a glass of wine because it's high in anti-oxidents. But don't have wine because you'll raise your risk of whatever disease you can think of!

Sigh! I'll just sit here and chew my piece of parsley, then.

In my own case, my Ulcerative Colitis means that I have extra problems with what I can eat. I can't tolerate seeds, nuts or grains - so wholemeal things are out the window. It's white bread all the way. The "bad" bread! Vegetables do things to me that I won't upset y'all by talking about (begins with p- and ends with -oop) and plenty of other "good" things leave me in agony.

So I've decided that the people who designate things as "good" or "bad" don't know what they're talking about as every single person is different.

But no-one should finish eating and feel such guilt over whether they have eaten enough of the "good" stuff. No-one should decide to skip meals because they think it's healthier than eating "bad" foods.

No-one should feel any guilt over food at all.

So my new motto is this:

If we take away the guilt over the foods we're told are "bad" and we stop telling ourselves that these foods are forbidden temptations - they lose their hold over us.

Have as much chocolate cake as you like.

Drink as much coffee as you want.

But...and here's the hard bit...remember that having a licence to do something doesn't mean you should do it all the time.

Just know that you're allowed to treat yourself to a piece of cake when you've been sweating your arse off (sorry for the swearing, mum!) or not eating snacks between meals for a week.

You're allowed to do whatever you want. Just listen to your body, learn to hear the signals of what it needs (rather than just wants) and food will stop becoming an obsession and start becoming a real pleasure.

So that's what' I'm giving up for Lent - labelling food as "good" or "bad" in order to stop my terrible obsession with food.

And now, since this has been a bit of a ranty post - I will leave you with the recipe of my favourite pancakes from Be-ro.

Ingredients

100g (4oz) Self Raising Flour
50g (2oz) salt
1 medium egg
4 x 15ml tbsp milk to mix
few drops lemon essence (optional)


Method

1	Mix flour, salt and sugar, add egg and gradually beat in enough milk to make a thick batter.
2	Add essence, if used.
3	Cook 2 or 3 at a time by dropping spoonfuls of the mixture on a moderately hot, well-greased griddle.
4	Cook until the underside is golden brown and the top is covered with bubbles, about 3 minutes.
5	Turn and brown on the other side. Serve buttered, hot or cold.
	N.B A baking griddle should be well-greased, then heated until a little water sprinkled on the surface skips about in balls, evaporating. A frying pan makes a good substitute

Enjoy!

Three Cheese and Roasted Tomato Tear & Share Bread

Being a sweet girl rather than savoury (in tastes if not in personality) - I am much more likely to reach for a slab of chocolate or cupcake rather than a piece of bread. I was going to add 'when I'm hungry' but who am I trying to kid?

Anyway, things change.

And this bread recipe definitely contributed to that.

Let me introduce to you... Three Cheese and Roasted Tomato Tear & Share Bread.

I'll pause a second while you digest the yumminess of that name.

And while you're waiting, I'll show you a picture of it to whet your appetite.

Ooooh.

Not only does this look good, it tastes rather fab, too. I've seen other tear and share bread recipes around the internet but putting your own little spin on something really makes it personal and makes it sure that it will be something you're sure to enjoy.

It was a good day for making bread yesterday. Although it was bitterly cold, the sun was shining in through the windows. Despite this, my old stone house didn't stand a chance of heating up so the heating was on full blast. So that's sunny and toasty conditions on the windowsill. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

So let's crack on with the show.

Three Cheese and Roasted Tomato Tear and Share Bread

What you need:

For the bread
8oz white bread flour
4oz plain flour
250ml (approx 8 1/2 fl oz) warm water
1/4 oz instant yeast
1 1/2 oz castor sugar
A generous pinch of salt (I used about 1/4 tsp)

For the filling
A good dash of herbs (either fresh or dried)
2 oz butter, melted
A decent handful of cheeses (I used edam and mature cheddar)
Some soft cheese (I used a garlic and herb variety)
3 tomatoes, roasted in the oven, skins removed and left to cool


Directions:

I'm not a baking puritan (except when it comes to using weights to measure out ingredients!) so I used my Kenwood to do all the hard graft. Feel free to do this by hand if you fancy - more power to you!

1. The first thing to do is roast your tomatoes. Pop them into the oven (at about 180 C) for approximately 20 minutes until the skin has puffed up. Take them out the oven and leave them to cool.

2. In your mixing bowl add the water, sugar and yeast. Using your 'K' beater (or general mixing paddle) gently add in the bread flour and mix on a slow speed. This is simply to stop your flour going everywhere except where you want it to be! This didn't work for me as my flour always has a mind of its own. I'm going to pretend it's all part of the experience!

3. Change onto your dough hook (which looks suspiciously like something Cpt. Hook donated) and add the plain flour until the dough forms. If you need to, add a little more water so that it comes together. Let the machine knead the dough for 10 minutes until it has come together nicely and isn't sticking to the sides of the bowl.

4. A little bit of kneading is required now but just a little. Pop the dough onto a floured surface and knead so that your ball of dough is lovely, smooth and round. Lightly oil a bowl (bigger than the size of your dough - it's going to get bigger!) and add your dough. Put cling film over the top of the bowl and leave it in a toasty place for a couple of hours until it's approximately doubled in size. It pains me to say that this break gives you an ideal chance to tidy up as you go along. Or, you could just watch Christmas movies like I did and leave the clearing up until much, much later!

 

5. Once it's puffed up (and your movie has finished) place the bread onto a floured unit and give it a pounding until it's a flat shape resembling a large rectangle approximately 1cm thick. I don't know why I don't have a picture of the bread once it's on the unit but here it is after rising!

6. Now it's time to melt your butter and grate your cheese. Drizzle the melted butter over the top of your dough rectangle. Generously sprinkle your grated cheese and herbs over the top so that it covers every piece of dough. Now put some blobs of soft cheese all over the dough so that it's evenly spaced but quite sparse.

 

7. Now get your tomatoes. They should easily be cool enough to handle and the skin should easily slip off. Pop a knife into each tomato and allow the majority of the juices to flow out. Chop (or just tear with your hands) so that the tomatoes are in bite sized chunks. Scatter these over the dough and cheese.

8. Find a standard bread tin for your loaf. Tip it onto its short side in preparation for receiving the dough. Check the size of your tin so that you can begin to cut your dough into the correct size pieces. You should be aiming for bits of dough that are roughly the size of the tin but this is a grabby time of bread - the more rustic it looks, the better!

9. Cut your dough into squares and pile them into your tin. Your filling will fall out - just pop it back in or sprinkle it over the top once you're done. All the dough should fit roughly into the tin.

10. More rising now - cling film your loaf tin again and put it back in its cosy home for about 40 minutes. More time for clearing up - sigh.

11. Pre-heat your oven to 180 C and bake your loaf for about 45 minutes until the top is golden brown. I used foil over the top of the loaf which ended up being a little bit of a mistake. It stuck to all the glorious, bubbling cheese! It did come off but perhaps I should have popped it in the oven naked!

12. It's ready! Unlike other breads, don't expect this one to sound hollow when you tap the bottom. I wouldn't recommend even looking at the bottom if you're used to making standard loaves - it looks a little soggy but I promise you, that's what it's supposed to look like!

13. Eat and be happy.

An interesting note about my experiment with this bread. Have you ever asked yourself - can I use yeast that's out of date? Well, based on this particular experience, I would say the answer is yes. My yeast was dated best before 6 months ago. I gave it a go, not really expecting anything to come of it, and it worked perfectly. Happy days.

This bread doesn't really need anything added to it to be enjoyed. Even the next day, cold, it tasted delicious and didn't need any additional flavours. I consider butter to be a flavour, by the way!

This is a really easy recipe so adapt it to make any tear and share bread that takes your fancy. How about chocolate and orange tear and share bread? Or apple and cinnamon? Cheese and bacon? Oh - bliss!