{"id":887,"date":"2021-02-18T12:39:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T12:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/?p=887"},"modified":"2021-02-18T12:39:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T12:39:01","slug":"baking-through-the-pandemic-pancake-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/2021\/02\/18\/baking-through-the-pandemic-pancake-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Baking through the pandemic: Pancake day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In this pandemic, some of us have not seen our families for months, if not a year. Some have not seen anyone but<\/em> their families as our social circles contract. Some of us yearn to go home, others crave traveling away. We\u2019re all exhausted (even more so key workers) and bored of our daily lives, where each day looks the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so we need strategies to fight the monotony. For some, this may be reading or watching classics, for others catching up on new releases, or training for a sporting event. Since the beginning of 2021 I\u2019ve turned to baking and cooking \u2013 embracing the many food-related \u2018holidays\u2019 around the world as an excuse to cook something new, to mark the day that we\u2019re in and move on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These holidays (often of religious origin) are different in each country \u2013 sometimes we celebrate different things, sometimes we celebrate the same thing, but on different days. After a January marked with a galette des rois<\/em> for Epiphany (French cake, but this is also celebrated in other countries with different cakes) and haggis<\/em> for Burns Night (Scotland), February has been all about pancakes. In France, we traditionally make cr\u00eapes<\/em> on Candelmas\/La Chandeleur which falls on 2 February every year. In the UK, pancake day falls on a different day \u2013 on Shrove Tuesday (the day before the beginning of Lent) \u2013 a moment to finish off the eggs and butter that would not be traditionally consumed during lent. Other countries have a tradition to finish off butter and eggs before Lent, but usually do it in more style\/fat \u2013 with doughnuts and beignets of any kind, either on \u2018Fat\u2019 Tuesday, or a few days before (last Thursday for example was T\u0142usty Czwartek, or \u2018Fat Thursday\u2019 in Poland, a day for eating many p\u0105czki,<\/em> a kind of doughnuts).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year we need more excuses to celebrate \u2013 and thus for the last fourteen days, from French to UK pancake days, I\u2019ve been making pancakes<\/a>. Pancakes from home in Brittany (a region of France renowned for sweet cr\u00eapes and savoury buckwheat galettes) and from around the world (with recipes from Germany, China, India, Ethiopia, Japan, Morocco, the US\u2026), sweet and savoury, some vegan, some gluten free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the author’s pancakes from the past two weeks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As today is pancake day in the UK, many of us will be heading back once more in the kitchen. I suggest you make both pancakes that remind you of home (wherever that is) and pancakes that make you travel and try something new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some suggestions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n