Pancake Day 2019 : Make It Low Carb !

David Hughes writes:

"Pancake Day, eagerly anticipated and hungrily celebrated on Shrove Tuesday every year, gives everyone the chance for one final blow-out before Lent begins. Here’s when it’s happening in 2019, and why a Christian observance has become so strongly associated with pancakes. 

When is Pancake Day 2019? 

In 2019, Pancake Day falls on 5 March, with pancake enthusiasts having to wait almost three weeks later than last year for their annual feast. The date changes because Shrove Tuesday, the Christian observance on which Pancake Day falls, is always 47 days before Easter Sunday. This year Easter is on 21 April, with its position calculated based on the first full moon that follows the spring equinox in March. 

Shrove Tuesday immediately precedes Ash Wednesday, which heralds the start of Lent. The season in the Christian calendar is supposed to replicate the Biblical story of Jesus Christ’s withdrawal into the desert for 40 days.

Shrove Tuesday has always been an occasion for feasting and frivolity

This is why Lent is traditionally a period of abstinence, with many non-Christians still getting into the spirit of the season by giving up a particular treat. With the bleak prospect of 40 days of discipline looming, it was perhaps inevitable that Shrove Tuesday would become an occasion to gorge oneself and cram in as much frivolity as possible. In French, the date became known as “Mardi Gras”, or “Fat Tuesday”, for this reason, and the label has been adopted in other nations too, most notably the USA.

Other traditions have developed around Shrove Tuesday beyond excessive eating, such as the unruly, village-wide football games in the UK which date as far back the 17th century. Although 19th-century law changes made them less commonplace, matches such as Ashbourne’s Royal Shrovetide Football still deliver mud, violence and general mayhem every year.

Why do we mark Shrove Tuesday with pancakes?

Pancakes became associated with Shrove Tuesday for a simple reason: their ingredients. Lent, particularly when it was adhered to more widely and strictly, marked a time to eat simpler food, and give up things like sweet, rich and dairy ingredients. The day before the season started was therefore the ideal time to make pancakes as a means to use up leftover eggs, milk and sugar. Pancake races supposedly originated back in 1445, when a woman in Buckinghamshire is said to have been caught out by the sound of church bells before she’d finished making a pancake.

The annual Parliamentary Pancake Race marks Shrove Tuesday every year

Her solution, the story goes, was to sprint from her home to her local church service still carrying her frying pan, flipping the pancake within to prevent it burning. Olney, the town where the tale is based, still holds a world-famous annual race, with female contestants battling it out over a 415-yard course, traditionally wearing an apron in honour of pancake racing’s founder. Although the date is associated with different foods around the globe, Christians in countries like Russia and Ukraine eat blinis, their own traditional pancakes."

Words and pictures above, plus other related links, can be seen at article here

Low Carb Crepes / Pancakes

These crepes/pancakes are virtually carb. free and are very easy to make - although you use ricotta cheese they do not taste of cheese.

Ingredients:
200 Grams of ricotta cheese
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
A splash of milk

Method:
Mix the cheese, eggs and cinnamon into a small mixing bowl - add a splash of milk if the mix is too thick to run freely.

Place a small knob of butter into a (frying) pan, I use a small omelette pan 8". Heat the butter and spoon in 3 table-spoons of mix.

Fry until firm then turn over and cook for one minute or until the crepe is starting to brown.

This mix makes between 6 and 8 crepes/pancakes.

Allow to cool and fill with cream cheese and finely chopped spring onions or smoked salmon and asparagus tips, whatever you like.

Roll up the crepe and enjoy.
Great at any time and very good for the lunch box or picnics.
Also great warmed up with some low carb berries and double cream.
Or why not serve with a slice of lemon - gently squeezed over the crepes.

Coconut Flour Blinis
Just Add Some Smoked Salmon

recipe and more details here

Dear reader, you will find a variety of articles and recipes within this blog. Please note, not all may be suitable for you. If you may have any food allergies, or underlying health issues these must always be taken into account. If you are a diabetic and not sure how certain foods may affect your blood sugars, test is best, i.e. use your meter.

happy pancake making, and please don't drop one while flipping!!! 

All the best Jan