Pancake Tuesday Creation! With Duck 'n' Maple!

It was Shrove Tuesday and I had pancakes on my mind for days, I had seen this post by I Am A Food Blog and the pulled pork looked devine but it doesn't agree with me very well. I was tempted to just go with the pain all for my foodies but I decided to come up with my own slightly off the wall creation instead.

I am mighty pleased with the result, it was the best pancakes I have had in quite a long time.  You really really and truely need to try it, if you don't like duck then go with the pork, just slow roast or pressure cook it so that you can shred it nice and easily.

Here is my iphone snapshot first that I put onto my facebook page... it had alot of my peeps drooling.

Pancakes with Shredded Duck and Maple Savoury Sauce

Pancakes:

1 cup Plain (All Purpose) Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Bi Carb Soda
1 tsp Castor Sugar
1 Egg
1 cup Buttermilk

Topping/Sauce:

1/2 Peking Duck or 2 Duck Breasts
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Castor Sugar
1/2 cup Water
1/4 cup Maple Syrup
2 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
4 Shallots (Spring Onions)

Take a medium mixing bowl and place the flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar in the bowl and whisk to mix the raising agents through.

Then add in your egg and buttermilk and whisk until it is a light smooth batter.  Leave mixture and let it sit for 15-30 minutes as you get a better result from a rested mix.

Heat a large frypan on the lowest heat setting on your stove top, and grease with butter.

I found it good to use a cup measure for pouring, scoop some mixture and pour in 3 even circles into your frying pan.  In 2-4 minutes the top of the pancake will bubble, this will indicate it is ready to flip over. Flip the pancakes and cook for a further 3 minutes until lightly golden, then remove from the pan and keep warm on a plate under a tea towel until they are all cooked.

Next take your duck and if you haven't bought it cooked, then cook it as desired.  I bought the easy peasy supermarket peking duck, so I just needed to leave it in the packet and microwave it for 2.5 minutes and let it sit and steam itself for a further 2 minutes, then voila duck ready to shred.

So now you have a piece of exquisitely cooked duck, take 2 forks, curved downwards commence to pull the meat apart so that it is completely shredded in a seperate bowl.

Take all the ingredients for the sauce, please them all in a small saucepan and stir over a medium heat.  Stir to dissolve the sugars and you will have a runny brown sauce, then allow it to simmer and bubble away, stirring occassionally until the sauce thickens to coat the back of your spoon. Then it is ready to serve.

To plate up, stack your pancakes, arrange your shredded duck on top, pour your sauce over the top of your duck and pancakes, then top with some sliced shallots for texture and bite, it is a great balance.

Makes : 2-4 servings / 9-12 medium pancakes (with left over shredded duck with I made into rice paper wraps)

Red Velvet Pancakes

I have a personal favourite to share with you all, and you can thank my Little Miss Two, who this week has declared Pancakes for breakfast each morning, and given we have gone through a few months now of a refusal to eat anything for breakfast, Im happy to oblige to this sudden craving. Lucky for me we have been away and so the Pancakes til today were provided courtesy of the Qantas Business Club Lounge Pop-cakes Machine and the Hotel room breakfast (which I deemed the best pancake breakfast Ive eaten EVER and that is a HUGE call – I sneaked in a pic of it below so you can drool and by totally jealous) at The Prince St Kilda in Melbourne Australia.

So anyway back to breakfast, Missy declared pancakes and then immediately whipped out her apron and pushed in her chair. So with my Handy Helper all ready with whisk in hand I had no choice but to roll out the bowl and pan myself and start dishing out the ingredients to her!

Recipe

1 1/3 cups Plain Flour (All purpose)

1 tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Bi-carb Soda

1 Tbsp Castor Sugar

1 Lrg Egg

200g Yoghurt (any – I used strawberry kids yoghurt)

200ml Milk

40g Butter – melted

Sprinkle cinnamon, or Vanilla, or Emulsion (I used Red Velvet Emulsion by Lor Ann)

Using a large mixing bowl and hand whisk (even a kids size whisk or fork), measure and place in all the ingredients. And whisk til you have a runny mixture.

Place frypan on low heat for 3-4 minutes and then using paper towel or greaseproof paper grease with butter.

WHOOPS! Thats not mean't to happen!

Using a ¼ measuring cup or spoon place mixture in 2 or 3 lots in your frypan. When pancake/s become covered in air bubbles it is ready to flip over. Do this and wait approx another 3 minutes, check and if golden remove from pan. My suggestion is to keep your cooked pancakes on a dinner plate covered with a tea towel to keep them warm and soft.  Grease pan with butter between each batch of pancakes.

Cover with chopped strawberries and drizzle with maple syrup for best results!

Serves – 4 people (2-3 pancakes each)

Verdict = DELICIOUSLY STRAWBERRY!!