Nigel Slater’s recipe for lemon pancakes with strawberry sauce
Melt 30g of unsalted butter in a small pan, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Put 100g of plain flour into a large bowl. Break 1 large egg into a bowl, add a second egg yolk, then mix together with a fork or small whisk. Pour in 350ml of milk, then add to the flour, together with the cooled butter and mix to a thin batter. A few lumps won’t hurt. If you have time, let the batter rest for half an hour.
Finely grate the zest from 1 lemon, then stir into the rested batter. Melt 50g of butter in a small pan, then remove from the heat. Warm a shallow pan that doesn’t stick over a moderate-to-low heat, then pour in 1 tbsp of the melted butter. Pour a ladleful of the batter into the pan and twist the pan left and right and back and forth until the base is covered with a thin layer of batter.
Cook the pancake over the heat until it is golden on the underside then, with the help of a palette knife, flip the pancake over and cook the other side.
Slide out on to a warm plate. Add a little more butter to the pan, then repeat until you have six thin pancakes.
Make the strawberry sauce: remove the leaves from 250ml of strawberries and put them in a food processor or blender with 1 tbsp of icing sugar and the juice of 1 lemon. Add 6 mint leaves, then process to a smooth sauce. Taste for sweetness. Thinly slice a further 100g of strawberries and add to the sauce.
Put a pancake on each plate and spoon over the strawberries and strawberry sauce. Makes 12 pancakes
• Instead of strawberry sauce, the pancakes can be filled with chopped mango and mango purée; stewed apple with a seasoning of lemon juice and cloves; or raspberries and raspberry purée.
• Make the pancakes a day in advance if you wish. They will keep, covered with an upturned plate, in the fridge.
• I have seasoned the pancakes with lemon zest, but you could also add a pinch of grated orange zest, rose or mint sugar or finely chopped lemon thyme.