Pancakes... in September...?!

As you may already know I'm a huge fan of duck. Very tasty! My very favourite way to eat it is Chinese style with pancakes, hoi sin sauce and cucumber and spring onions. Unfortunately, buying a kit for this meal is quite expensive and something we only have on special occasions. It is also unfortunate that my daughters love this meal too because it means there are never enough pancakes to go around. I have searched the shops for the pancakes on their own but alas they don't exist. I have also puzzled over the ingredients and wondered how to make them myself. A few attempts have resulted in pancakes but not the right type.

A few months ago I decided to write to the people who put together the excellent food magazine OLIVE. To my surprise shortly after sending my email I received a reply for Lulu Grimes with a recipe. I was very impressed! Then as I sat at breakfast in a static caravan in south Yorkshire in the last week of the school holidays I turned over the page of my September OLIVE magazine and there on the letters page was my name and the recipe for Chinese pancakes. Not only was I chuffed but I was also motivated to give the recipe a go.

At the moment Lidls are selling whole frozen duck for about £5 each which is much cheaper than any other way to buy duck so whilst I put one on the draining board to thaw I set about making pancakes. It is amazing what boiling water and flour can do. I have a feeling that to make pancakes as fine and delicate as the ones in the kits you either need some kind of mysterious factory machinery or to have been brought up in a Chinese household. Nevertheless once I'd figured out that they really needed to be rolled very thin and the oil needed to be properly hot before putting the pancake in the pan I managed to make some Chinese pancakes. They were a little more like a wrap than a proper Chinese pancake but still pretty good. I left them stacked between two plates until dinner time then once everything else was dished up I heated them in the microwave for 30 seconds. At least this way there were plenty to go round.

I figure with a little more practise they will become thinner and finer so I shall be trying them again but it also occurred to me that this is a really handy pancake recipe for anyone with allergies to milk or egg because they were pretty descent pancakes and made only of flour and water. Amazing!

Chinese pancakes (makes 16)

250g plain flour
1 teaspoon caster sugar
Sesame oil

Put the flour and sugar in a large bowl with 190ml of boiling water and stir to a soft, sticky dough. Knead it until it is very smooth. Rest for 30 minutes. Roll it into a sausage then divide it into 16 pieces. Roll each piece into a little ball. Taking two balls at a time, flatten both, brush one surface with oil then press them together with the oil between. Roll out into a 8-10cm pancake with two layers. Heat the oil in a frying pan then cook the pancake for 1 minute on each side until they are puffed up and just beginning to colour. Whilst still very hot, peel the two layers apart to make 2 pancakes. Repeat.