Strawberry Fields Forever

Pancakes with Strawberry Filling and Topping

I promised some Russian cooking. This is a very mild version- no strange stuff in this one, just yummly pancakes filled with delicious strawberry filling, with even more delicious strawberry topping.

We started off with the strawberries. Take about two punnets, cut them up quite small, cover in 2-3 tablespoons of sugar, and leave overnight, until they let off lots of juice and look like this (mmmmmmm.....):

Now it's time to make the pancakes:

Pancakes
From tiny grandma

2 eggs
2 tblsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tblsp sunflower oil, plus extra for frying
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 cups water (approximately)
1 tblsp plain yoghurt (optional)

1) Whisk together eggs, sugar and salt.
2) Add sunflower oil and whisk.
3) Add flour and whisk.
4) Add milk, bit by bit. Whisk thoroughly.
5) Now add bicarb.
6) Add just over a cup of water to begin. The mixture will be very thin, don't worry about this, we're actually trying to make it as thin as possible. Save the rest of the water to add while you're frying.
7) Add the yoghurt.
8) Now, set aside for 30- 40 minutes.
9) The frying is the fun part! Take a large heavy bottomed non-stick pan, and place it on a medium-high heat. Here's the cool part: take a potato, and cut a piece off with a flat bottom and stick it firmly on a fork. Then take a small bowl and put some sunflower oil in it, and place the potato inside. When you need to oil the pan, just take the potato out, shake it off, and use it to rub oil onto the pan. Do this before every pancake.
10) Wait for the pan to heat up nicely before oiling for the first time. Then pour in pancake mixture, approximately 3 - 4 tablespoons, and swirl it around to create the pancake shape. you can add more for a better shape, but careful about making the pancake too thick.
11) Once the pancake is browned around the edges, you can run a knife along them to make sure it's coming off, then use a spatula to turn it over. Don't worry too much about tearing, they're pretty sturdy. Once they're turned over they're done after a minute or two.

12) If your pancakes aren't super thin, you can add more water to the liquid. In fact after making a few pancakes, you will need to water down the mixture a bit, as the bottom of it does get thicker. Careful though- too much water and they become hard to work with.
13) Stack them on a plate and allow to cool slightly.

14) For the filling, put the pancake down on a board, dark side up:

Take a tablespoon of strawberries from the filling, draining off the sauce. Put the filling towards the bottom of the pancake, and sprinkle with sugar:

Now follow the pictures below, fold over the bottom, then one side, fold over, then fold the other side, and then just roll the rest up:

15) Now, just stack them into a disk and store in the fridge until you need them.

16) To make the sauce, use the sauce leftover sauce drained from the strawberries, and add sour cream to taste. You should be able to mix it without all the lumps in mine!
17) Traditionally, these are warmed on a pan with butter, and eaten with the sauce. But you can warm them in the microwave, or even eat them straight out the fridge, dipping in the sauce (I didn't! It's just an idea that appeared in my brain and went away! I definitely did NOT eat about 5 straight from the fridge because they were so yummy.. Did NOT.)

These are amazing- even just the pancakes. I'm SO making these for Ralph for breakfast this weekend! He's going to freak OUT! Thanks to my wonderful grandma for the awesome recipe!