Pancake Day and Valentines Day

Pancake Day

Today is pancake day and I had a tasty cherry pancake for breakfast this morning that I had put in the freezer from the weekend.  Not quite the same heated in the microwaved rather than fresh off the skillet, but much faster and better that toast :)  

I make my vegan pancakes from this recipe by Parsley Soup but here is my Cherry Pancake version:

// Pancakes //

Ingredients

225g Self Raising Flour

pinch of salt
25g caster sugar
350ml soya milk

1/2 cup of jar or tinned cherries (I used left over filling from pies I was making)

Method

1. Put all dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse to mix.
2. Pour in milk with motor running until smooth.
3. Add cherries and pulse to combine, but not make too smooth
4. Transfer batter into a jug
5. Pour in small batches into a hot skillet
6. Wait until bubbles appear all over the surface of the pancakes, then flip them over and cook on the other side until browned. 

You can pop your oven on warm and then transfer the cooked pancakes into the oven while you continue making more.

This can make anywhere between 8 and 16 pancakes depending on how big you like them :)

Valentines Day

This is a super easy fun Valentines Day drink.  I actually found this idea years ago as a Christmas celebration drink.  The basic idea is that you freeze fruit juice and then add to champagne or fizzy wine.

I found these lovely heart shaped molds in IKEA and they are useful for ice cubes, melted chocolate etc.

Find a new fruit juice you like, dark coloured ones are more dramatic when they melt.  I went for pomegranate

// Valentines Drinks //

And now for my Valentines cookie fail!

With the leftover pasty from the cherry pies I made I cut them into hearts and added jam.  Well I should have made little wells in the pastry or something to contain the jam better because it spread in the heat of the oven and just went every where.  My hearts look more hallowe'en gruesome that valentines romantic!

// Massacre //

Happy Pancake Day & Valentines Day!

Recipe: Sweetcorn Egg Drop Soup

Here is my recipe for sweet corn egg drop soup.  It's quite easy and quick to make and fun to experiment with.  There are other recipes that add surimi or chicken but I used this recipe as a starting point and went from there.

Ingredients:

1 can (400g) sweet corn kernels
1 stock cube (I used Massels Vegetarian Chicken Flavour)
2 Eggs
Water as needed (about a litre)
3 heaped tsp Corn flour (corn starch)

Method:

Drain the corn, then take about half to 3/4 of the can (or all of it if you wish) and rough chop in a food processor.

Put about a litre of water in a pot, put on the heat, and then crumble in the stock cube and add the chopped and unchopped corn.  Bring to the boil.

Turn the heat down to a simmer and in a separate bowl, beat the two eggs.

Then stir in eggs into the pot so that they form strands.

In a cup, mix the corn flour with a little cold water to form a paste, bring the pot back to a boil and stir the paste in to the pot to thicken.  And now it's ready to serve.

Best enjoyed with warm prawn crackers.