My goodness, it's Shrove Tuesday! But I haven't made pancakes in nine years! They just wouldn't have been right in Tanzania or Uruguay...open the fridge - I have eggs and milk. Open the cupboard - I have flour and a pinch of salt...so there's no excuse. But pancakes? When do you have pancakes? I forgot at breakfast time. And I had yesterday's leftovers for lunch. Husband gets home at 7, so it's a bit late to have them with a cup of tea...I suppose we could do pancakes with honey or jam or lemon and sugar for dessert...but I was planning pasta for the main course - with courgette and mushroom...that would be way too heavy a meal if we have pasta AND pancakes.

Brainwave...

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We'll combine pancakes and main course! (Quantities are specified with my usual precision)

Paola's Savoury Pancakes

Ingredients

For the batter (calculate for about 3 pancakes per person):
a few tablespoons of flour
a couple of eggs
a fair amount of milk
a pinch of salt

For the filling
a bit of olive oil
a clove of garlic, chopped
a sliced courgette
a punnet of button mushrooms, sliced
loads of freshly ground black pepper and a bit of salt
a slosh of white wine
a squirt of soya cream
some chopped parsley

Method

1. Make the batter in the usual way, preferably at least a couple of hours before you use it.

2. Make the filling: Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, and add the garlic, courgette and mushrooms, and the salt and pepper. Stir it about a bit, then cover with a lid. Let it simmer on a low heat for about ten minutes. Up the heat, add a slosh of white wine, and a squirt of soya cream (or normal cream, if you're not low-chol obsessed). Let it reduce a bit, then add loads of chopped parsley.

3. Meanwhile, start making the pancakes.

4. Put some filling into each pancake and roll it up.

5. When they're all prettily laid out on a dish, squirt a bit more cream decoratively over them.

6. When fellow-diners get home, stick the dish into the microwave for a couple of minutes.

7. Serve with a fresh green salad (mine was made of loads of different green leafy things and beany sprouty things with a mustard vinaigrette dressing).

My best invention ever! Delicious! Bon appetit!