To celebrate Shrove Tuesday, former GB Rowing Team chef Omar Meziane shares his favourite pancake recipe
Every Saturday at Caversham we had pancakes for breakfast; it marked the end of an incredibly tough week of training.
We served ours with crispy bacon, Greek yoghurt, fruit compote and butterscotch sauce. But once you’ve mastered the pancakes they really do go with anything you fancy for a slightly indulgent breakfast.
Ingredients (serves four)
280ml buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 pinch of sea salt
2 heaped tsp baking powder
1 pinch bicarbonate of soda
100g plain flour
Oil for cooking (neutral in flavour)
How to make them
- Sift into a large mixing bowl and add the bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt. Give this a little mix.
- Now add the buttermilk and eggs and gently whisk to form the batter, don’t worry too much about the odd lump, and don’t over-whisk the batter as this will stop it rising.
- Now heat a pan over a medium to low heat and add a tsp of oil. Wait until the oil has warmed then add a generous ladle of batter onto the centre of the pan. Remember these are not French pancakes so they don’t need to cover the entire bottom of the pan, and you don’t need to shake the pan either!
- Allow the pancake to cook for a minute or until you start to see air bubbles forming on the topside of the pancake. Now gently flip the pancake and cook for a further 1-2 minutes or until it is cooked through.
- Enjoy with your favourite toppings.
Nutritional content per serving (one pancake, before topping)
175kcal
23g carbohydrates
8.4g protein
5.3g fat (mostly unsaturated)
Why’s this recipe good for rowers?
Nutritionist Jacqueline Birtwisle says: “The eggs and buttermilk really push up the protein content of these versatile pancakes plus the protein includes the essential amino acids thought to be more involved in muscle synthesis and repair after strenuous exercise. Choose your topping depending on what you want: for lean and light, go for 0-2% fat Greek yoghurt and fruit. Or you can tuck into a couple of pancakes and load up with the toppings for a larger recovery snack or meal (for smaller rowers).”
