buckwheat pancakes
These pancakes, made with buckwheat flour, were our favourite thing to make for breakfast on our recent Australian road trip. They sustained everyone wonderfully for the morning’s activities (often swimming and surfing).
My granddaughter Frida, like me, is coeliac – she was diagnosed a few months ago – and, importantly for coeliacs, buckwheat has nothing to do with wheat. It’s actually a member of the family of plants that includes rhubarb and sorrel. Its name is a corruption of the Dutch bockweit, which translates as ‘beechwheat’: the buckwheat seeds were thought to resemble beechnuts in shape, although they are very much smaller.
All sorts of dishes can be created with buckwheat pancakes, but my grandchildren chose eat them with soft summer fruits (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries), excellent Tasmanian Greek-style yoghurt (purchased in 1kg tubs) and delicious, perfumed Australian artisan honey.
This recipe was given to me by the wonderful and generous Michelin-starred chef David Adlard.
MAKES ABOUT 12 SMALL PANCAKES (DEPENDING ON THE SIZE OF YOUR PAN)
60g buckwheat flour
2 eggs
300ml milk
1 tablespoon oil
Salt
30g melted butter
Whisk the flour, eggs, milk and oil in a bowl and season to taste.
Set a 20cm frying pan over a medium-high heat. (I always use a well-seasoned carbon steel frying pan.) When hot, lightly smear the pan with a little butter.
Ladle in about 40ml of the batter and swirl to cover the base of the pan evenly. Cook on one side of the pancake until lightly browned and coming away from the pan, about 2–3 minutes. Turn the pancake over and fry until the second side is cooked, about 45 seconds.
Repeat with the remaining batter, making a pile of pancakes to help them stay warm, or – as we did when we were camping – serve them as they are cooked.