VANCAKE DAY

It’s Pancake Day, or rather Vancake Day!  And what a perfect meal they make while you’re on the road.  Tasty, simple and utterly delicious, our road trip recipes are inspired by flavours and ingredients we came across on our European tour.

First up is our Italian inspired duo.  A tasty savoury followed by a mouthwatering sweet!  Here are the ingredients for our Parma Ham and Parmesan Vancake inspired by our tastings of cured ham in Parma, Parmesan cheese in the Italian markets and beautiful fresh basil.  We finished off with a delicious drizzle of Balsamic vinegar which we discovered in a visit to Modena. The result is our cover star in the image above.

Italian Pancakes with Parma Ham and Parmesan

For pud it just had to feature Limoncello.  We are quite partial to this luscious lemon liqueur which just fills your mouth with zingy flavour.  A scattering of vibrant green pistachios, a dollop of mascarpone and you’re good to go.  We made a sticky syrup with 4tbsp Limoncello and 3tbsp icing sugar which creates a truly tasty topping.

Ricotta pancakes with Limoncello syrup, mascarpone and pistachios

Next up it’s a visit to Spain.  Memories of spicy chorizo sausages suspended from shop ceilings, giant red peppers in the fresh food markets, tangy slices of Manchego cheese with a slathering of tomato salsa … all adds up to one satisfying, pleasurable plateful.

Spanish pancakes with spicy chorizo, red peppers, tomato salsa, manchego cheese and a sprinkle of parsley.

When travelling around the Seville area, especially Cordoba, we were constantly surrounded by oranges. Bright and fragrant, clustered on small trees, their sweet smell wafting in the air.  And then there were the pretty pink almond trees in Antequera …  We’ve used a buttermilk pancake batter here with the addition of orange zest, chopped almonds and a spoonful of almond essence for a real flavour hit.  Oh, and we did add a bit of Cointreau to the caramel too. Yes it’s French but we’ll call it a hybrid!

Spanish orange marmalade, almond and caramel buttermilk pancakes.

In Avignon, France we ate our first ever Buckwheat pancakes with an egg on top.  We’ve made our own version of them here with Brie, porcini mushrooms and shallots.  If you can get fresh cep mushrooms, all the better.  Cooked in the pan and then popped under the grill to melt the cheese, they’re a lunchtime winner.

Soft and sweet, buckwheat pancakes with brie, porcini mushrooms, shallots and an egg.

For Germany we just had to go to the Black Forest for our inspiration!  We can’t resist the incredible combination of dark chocolate and cherries. So, so flavoursome.  We cooked our cherries in Cassis (actually French) which really highlights their flavour  but you could use Kirsch and then sweeten it a bit.  A dollop of whipped cream, yogurt or creme fraiche with another cheeky spoonful of cassis stirred in takes it to flavour heaven!

Deliciousness on a plate – Black Forest Gateau inspired vancakes.

We didn’t quite make it to Portugal with our pancakes.  There are only so many even we can eat!  Watch this space though.  They won’t be in time for pancake day but who says you can only eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. They’re so good and so easy we should be having them all year round!