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| pancake wrap filled with salad, rushers and egg |
Once upon a time or a long time ago, Buckwheat pancake was the poor man's bread in my area. Buckwheat was the only crop besides barley and potato (and potatoes came much later) our local and very poor farmers managed to grow. We are living in the bogs and heath. Wet soil, sandy and sour, very good for moss and blueberries but nothing much else, so the people made a poor living from peat cutting and raising sheep.
Interesting enough there is a local tradition of making pancake batter while using tea or coffee but I very much prefer skimmed milk. Coffee and tea were a luxury which came later on. I guess most of the time they just used water instead.
Buckwheat pancakes are not that easy to prepare because buckwheat has no gluten. So there is no glue to keep the batter together.
For 5 thin pancakes
- 1 cup whole meal buckwheat.
- 1 1/4 cup skimmed milk (more or less)
- 2 eggs
- 1 pinch salt
- cooking oil
Mix, cover and let sit in the fridge for one hour or longer.
The batter should be prepared some time in advance because the buckwheat flour has to soak up and take in some liquid. Mix batter again, the batter should be only slightly runny, a little bit thicker than crepe batter and somewhat guey. The dark spots are milled spelt from the seeds:
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| pancake batter |
Use a little oil for the griddle heat it up to medium high heat and spoon 1 ladle of batter in the middle of the griddle, swing the griddle around to spread the batter nice and thin.
Flip the pancake over when the surface looks dry with bubbly holes all over. Wait until the pancake shows some crunchy browned edges. Don't flip it over too early or the pancake will break. This is to early:
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| pancake in the griddle |
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| pancake in the griddle |
Cover the stag with cling film or the pancakes will dry out and break while wrapping, the stag:
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| 5 pancakes |
For filling:
Traditionally it is just bacon rushers. Good but not good enough. Today I decided on smoked salmon, salad, bacon and sunny side up eggs.
For salad:
- I good hand full of salad greens
- 1/2 carrot sliced in thin strips
- a few young walking onions, or one spring onion sliced. Walking onions, I have lots and lots of a special wild kind of walking prairie onion from the USA in my garden, they are very tiny. but delicious. To compare look at the tarragon:
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| walking onions |
- 1 tablespoon tarragon freshly chopped
Dressing:
- 1 teaspoon sweet mustard
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- some olive oil
- salt
- pepper
Stir until it comes together, toss with greens, carrot slices and chopped onions.
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| Salad |
- 4 slices smoked salmon
- 2 tablespoons creme fraiche
- 1 tablespoon horseradish paste (without cream) or wasabi paste
For another filling:
- 3 eggs baked sunny side up
- pepper and salt
- some crunchy bacon slices turned to rushers / 2 or 3 for each pancake
Arrange:
Put salad on each pancake.
Cover with 2 salmon slices and add some hot horseradish mixed with creme fraiche.
To serve wrap it up or just leave it open:
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| pancake with salmon |
Cover salad with bacon rushers and and egg, sprinkle egg with pepper and salt
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| pancake with egg |
Once again: wrap it or leave it open.
Needless to say you could serve a pancake as dessert, just spread some yoghurt or creme fraiche or cream cheese and add lots of blueberry jam.
