Crispy pancakes

Following the news that Findus has reintroduced the chicken curry crispy pancakes after (what has now become a ubiquitous PR stunt) a campaign on facebook and coupled with the fact that I had a couple of herb pancakes in the freezer (leftover from the last beef wellingtons I made) I decided to make my own crispy pancakes.

The first question to answer was what to fill it with. Well, I took inspiration from the humble scotch egg and decided to make "scotch pancakes" (you see what I did there? If not, read this).

Along with the chopped boiled egg and sausages slices, I added a few slices of tomato flesh and bound it all in a grain mustard reduced cream sauce. Tasty!

The pancakes defrosted perfectly and cutting them into discs was no problem. However, sticking the edges of pancakes together to create the classic half-moon shape of the crispy pancake was impossible. I now know that a pancake to pancake bond cannot be achieved with egg alone as I had naïvely hoped. However, the idea of making some sort of cornflour paste or exploring similar edible adhesive to use was beyond my rumbling tummy.

I decided, instead, to go for an scotch pancake stack. (See? The pun just doesn't work.)

I coated the discs of pancake in egg and breadcrumbs (mixed with paprika for colour and a touch of spice) and fried them in butter. I know, you're all shouting at me "Why did you use butter?" and the answer is I don't know. Clearly a touch of oil would have been better to get the requisite crispiness (or even deep fry as I was going to do with the pancakes). Then I piled on the filling and repeated alternating with layers of "crispy" pancake with filling.

It wasn't too bad, but there's definitely room for improvement. More filling would be a starter. Some herbs would go well, maybe some parsley in the sauce.

I think the idea is solid, I just need to improve the execution. Again, another time to wish I had an experimental kitchen.

I think this would be an amazing for a retro dinner party. A '70s or '80s based event with all dishes firmly rooted in the decades gone by but given a modern update.