How appropriate the day before Shrove Tuesday! I have just been reading the Anaphylaxis Campaign’s excellent new factsheet on Idiopathic Anaphylaxis (the really scary one in which no one can work out what triggered your anaphylactic attack) and I came across this:
Flour contaminated by mites: In 2009 the World Allergy Organisation (WAO) published information on allergy to wheat flour contaminated with mites. The condition is known colloquially as Pancake Syndrome; the medical term is Oral Mite Anaphylaxis. According to the WAO paper (Sánchez-Borges et al, 2009), Oral Mite Anaphylaxis occurs shortly after the intake of foods made with mite- contaminated wheat flour. The condition is seen most frequently in tropical or subtropical environments, but cases are occasionally seen in the UK. Reactions have been reported when cereals have been stored for long periods at home and the sufferer may mistakenly believe the cause was wheat allergy.
Not that I am wishing Pancake Syndrome on anyone for Shrove Tuesday – the last day on which you are meant to eat yummy fatty foods before launching into the austerities of Lent. But for those of you who cannot resist the thought of some flipping this evening – pancakes are a bit of a doddle for anyone on a freefrom diet as, despite all if this ‘fatty’ Mardi Gras stuff, you can make them extremely successfully with almost any flour and water, and you really do not need to use any eggs.
This is my mega-simple standby recipe – but I am also giving you the links to Sim from Knead Bakery’s rather more exotic recipe for Blueberry Pancakes (as seen in the picture…) and a rather tasty recipe I developed for Tesco a few years ago for prawns and pancakes in a ‘cream’ sauce.
Or, if you want to be somewhat more dashing, you could try Sue Cane’s delicious Socca, a pancake that can ‘double as chappati, tortilla or even pitta bread and is really quick to make’ – and into which you can put all kinds of herbs and fillings.
(The coeliacs/wheat intolerants among you will also be excited to hear that, inspired by Ruth’s Allergy Diary which now runs every fortnight on FoodsMatter, Sue will be writing a Coeliac’s Diary for us to appear every fortnight on CoeliacsMatter, starting this coming weekend.)
100g gram/chickpea, teff, buckwheat or other gluten-free flour/flour mix such as Doves Farm
salt
200ml water or milk
1 egg (optional)
1 tbsp sunflower oil
Whizz the flour, salt, egg (if you are using it) and water or milk in a food processor then allow it to stand for 10-15 minutes. Heat a pancake pan with a tiny dribble of oil.
Pour one small ladleful of the mixture into the pan and cook quickly on both sides. The pancakes should be quite thin and you should get at least 8 out of the mixture.
If they are to be eaten at once, serve them from the pan with sugar and lemon juice, jam (jelly) or whatever filling you fancy. If they are to be used for a later dish, stack them with a piece of clingfilm (plastic wrap) between each pancake, then freeze.