Growing up in a Lebanese family in western Sydney I attended St Andrew’s Catholic Primary School in Marayong which enabled me to experience my faith in learning how other cultures celebrate Catholic feast days.
Each year, St Andrew’s like many other Catholic schools, would celebrate Shrove Tuesday by serving pancakes to be shared by all.
We were taught the significance of Lent while the entire school gleefully devoured pancakes.
As a child, Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Tuesday) always baffled me as it was an unfamiliar concept given my family simply had one big Lebanese BBQ on the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
Years went by, and I found myself celebrating Shrove Tuesday in the workplace, where my colleagues would bring in pancakes, pikelets and even crepes with all the decadent trimmings.
Shrove Tuesday originated in the United Kingdom and is celebrated in Australia.
The word shrove is a derivative of “shriving” which means to tell your sins and to be forgiven, which saw many Christians throughout the United Kingdom attend confession on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday to allow them to start the season with a clean conscious.
It was also the final day where they ate rich foods such as butter, cream and eggs before abstaining from it for the Lenten season.
Often the best way to consume these would be to bake a cake or make pancakes. Hence, Shrove Tuesday became synonymous with making pancakes.
In modern times pancake races began whereby people raced each other with a frypan while flipping pancakes. This was a fun way to celebrate Shrove Tuesday which encouraged Christians in keeping with the customs of Lent. These days pancake races still occur and are sometimes run by charities to raise money for those in need.
Here is my husband’s simple yet delicious crepe recipe. Either indulge yourself with various sweet toppings or fold them up and fill them with your favourite savoury ingredients.
I humbly pray that as we prepare ourselves in giving up for a season, we remember all those who too often go without.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 300ml milk
- 125gm all-purpose flour sifted
- 2 large eggs (beaten)
- 1 teaspoons vegetable oil (and extra for cooking)
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
Using a funnel, pour all wet ingredients into an empty plastic bottle. Then add sifted flour and salt, remove the funnel, close the lid and shake vigorously for a few minutes ensuring there are no lumps. Allow to rest in fridge for 30 minutes.
Heat a frypan on medium-high heat and brush with remaining oil. Pour about 1/8 of the crepe batter (about 1/4 cup) into the pan, tilt the pan until batter coats the entire surface. Cook until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes per side, then remove to a plate. Repeat to cook remaining crêpes.