T
oday, my dear chaps and chapettes, we’re
talking about the most important meal of the day. Tat’s right, pudding! Oh, no, um, I
mean beer! Agh, nope, wrong again. Errrr, breakfast! Yes that’s the one. Breakfast.
So, Mr Kellogs is obviously going to tell you that unless you partake in a bit of Petit Déjeuner you are pretty much buying yourself a one-way ticket to Crazy Town, but what’s the science behind the cliché? Basically, it’s all about your metabolism. Te theory is that when you eat breakfast in the morning it kick starts your body into burning calories and turning them into energy. If you forgo your usual dippy egg or bowl of Shredded Wheat then your body tries to hold onto the calories in your system, stockpiling them for emergencies. Tis is why skipping breakfast doesn’t really help with weight loss, and generally makes you feel a bit crap.
Starting the day with a full stomach also, in theory, makes you less likely to binge eat later in the day, and puts you in a better mood. I, for one, cannot function when hungry. With the recent arrival of an infant in our house, the expectation of hot buttered toast, or a cup of tea that is anything above tepid, is long gone - in fact breakfast often consists of a dried up bit of old pasta from the night before, or a couple of custard creams - but if something edible hasn’t entered my system by 9am then things can get a bit Norman Bates.
Recently, breakfast has been at the forefront of my mind, more so than usual, as on 23rd May I have somehow been convinced by my other half to cook it for 30 people. Luckily he’s not planning on inviting the masses over to our place; it’s all happening at our pub, Te Plasterers Arms, as part of
Fem.Ale - a very exciting event aimed at showcasing beers from female brewers. As if there weren’t enough excuses to drink beer during waking hours, we decided to host a six- course breakfast menu, matched with special tipples from the featured Brewsters. Now I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of any better way to pass a morning than eating, drinking beer and sticking two fingers up to the patriarchy.
So, how have I gone about deciding on six courses of beer- suitable fodder? Well, I have to admit I have taken more than a little inspiration from my new stay-at-home-mum favourite, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. In each episode of Triple D (as it is known by the fans) you are taken on a tour of America’s most gluttonous dishes and delicacies by bleached-blonde grease-monkey, Guy Fieri, who looks like he was rejected from Sum 41 in 1996 and has never quite moved on. It’s basically Man vs. Food, but with marginally
36 / May 2014/
outlineonline.co.uk
fewer calories and none of the sense of challenge or achievement.
One dish that gets a lot of airtime on DDD, in various shapes and forms, is the American-style pancake, and I was keen to work this in somehow - the result being this beer batter pancake recipe. It might sound gross, but the beer simply adds a subtle savoury element, keeping the pancakes nice and fluffy. Basically it’s breakfast, booze and pudding all in one, so my opening paragraph wasn’t too inaccurate after all…
If you would like more details on
Fem.Ale and our breakfast event, see p.28 of this very magazine, or go to
www.theplasterersarms.co.uk.
Morgan Pickard
Beer
Batter Pancakes
INGREDIENTS Serves 4
2 cups self-raising flour 1 cup of beer 2/3 cup of milk
2 tbsp caster sugar 1tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 2 eggs
2 tbsp salted butter
METHOD Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, creating a well in the centre, and add your eggs. Once combined, gradually add the beer and milk and stir until there are no lumps in the batter. Melt the butter and then stir into the mix. Spoon the batter (amount dependent on how big you want them) into a hot non-stick pan and give about 30 seconds on each side. You’ll know the pancake is ready to flip when you start to see bubbles forming on the top.
Morgan writes her own, hilarious blog on the internet. You can visit it and do a laugh wee wee at
sodnigella.blogspot.co.uk
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