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| Mark Bitmann's Light and Fluffy Pancakes with Lemon. If you have any tips for how to make pancakes look pretty, I'm all ears. |
Today, in Ireland,
it’s Shrove Tuesday (A.KA. Pancake Tuesday). I learned about
Pancake Tuesday from one of my favorite
professors in graduate school. One day, we were discussing Carnival and I asked him
how the Irish typically mark the day that precedes Ash Wednesday. He responded that the Irish celebrate it by
having pancakes as a meal, and they call the day Pancake Tuesday.
I was intrigued and at the same time
underwhelmed by this tradition. I’m sure
there’s also a lot of merrymaking that goes on in addition to the pancaking. But, where I come from, you prepare for six
weeks of atonement by dressing up in crazy outfits, and drinking and eating
yourself silly. Most Pan-American
countries are shut down this week because the revelry is taken so
seriously.
For a long list of reasons, Carnival
is not happening por moi this year:
- I live in Washington
- I have to go to work
- It’s cold outside
So in honor of my staid
life and my Mother’s Irish Germanic roots, I decided to observe Pancake Tuesday,
by trying Mark Bitman’s recipe for light and fluffy pancakes. I added lemon juice and lemon zest to perk
them up. The pancakes taste like soufflés
or mini-Yorkshire puddings. If you try
this at home, make sure to have some of the egg whites in each pancake.
How do you celebrate the day before
lent begins?
The recipe can be found here
and in Mark Bittman's book, How
to Cook Everything.
