Those of you who know me will know that I think rituals are a very important aspect of our lives as humans, particularly in an age where it can sometimes feel like…well, maybe up until 2020 hit, we were spinning on a hamster wheel and not always partaking in our days quite as consciously. And whilst my approach to rituals has deeper roots, some of the best advice I’ve ever heard is that one must always have something to look forward to, be that something big or small. 

In this time of quarantine, we’ve added a few rituals to our daily life. Every morning (some easier than others) we walk straight down the sand path and dive into the ocean. I also start my day with a big glass of water, followed rapidly by a percolator coffee. Come 5pm, at the Stanley-Tucci-appointed cocktail hour, I reach for my Negroni and light the candle in the apartment. I’ve also tried to meditate for a little while each day.

Evan’s personal rituals seem to have acted a little more as a way to distinguish the days. Mondays through Fridays he works out first thing before our swim, which makes the weekend more relaxing. Tuesday night’s, he gets Domino’s pizza (and boy does he get excited about it) and on Sunday mornings, he has pancakes.

 This last ritual is one he’s particularly fond of. The measuring, the shaking of the packet, the pouring onto the sizzling pan, layering the first pancake, then the frozen berries and then another pancake on top to melt the berries… I think in our house, there is merit to changing the name of ‘Sunday’ to ‘Pancake Appreciation Day’. I, however, don’t participate. Packet mix pancakes are, in my humble opinion, crap. Full of sugar and a bit of a non-event. It’s like bacon - I always think I like the idea of it and then I’m always disappointed by it.

This weekend, however, Ev had made a terrible oversight on the shopping list. Not a pancake mix to be found in the house. As his eyes popped open on Sunday morning, the groan that escaped him in his realisation made it clear, something was horribly wrong - that is, I was about to spend the day with a pancake-less man. Neither you nor I deserve that. And so, as the old saying goes, scarcity breeds creativity.

Below is without a doubt the very best pancake recipe I’ve ever tried and tested. Gluten free,  casein free, low in processed sugar and downright bloody delicious are these Goop inspired beauties. I would say they are a little more like Crepes than the American style pancakes (but in my opinion the Europeans always do food better anyway). Did you know, Otzi the Iceman was found to have eaten something akin to a pancake? When they found his remains in 1991 in the Italian Alps, it must have confirmed that even Neolithic Europeans were doin’ it right!

I hope these fill your breakfast table of a Sunday morning soon to come and I for one, am taking up this ritual for this week’s Pancake Appreciation Day. Put it in the calendar…if you’re still using those these days :P

Serves 2
What you’ll need:

¼ cup gluten free flour (can use coconut flour)

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 pinch salt

3 tablespoons ghee, plus extra for frying the pancakes (can use coconut oil if you prefer)

1 tablespoon honey

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/3 cup organic soy milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon zest (or a little more if you’re like me)

Warmed berries for serving

1. In a small bowl, stir together the gluten free flour flour, baking powder, and salt (basically all the dry ingredients). Set aside.

2. In another slightly larger bowl, mix together the 3 tablespoons of ghee and honey until mostly smooth. It helps to warm up the ghee first but don’t worry if there are a few little clumps in the mixture. It should be like a cream now. Whisk the eggs in one at a time. Add the soy milk, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.

3. Fold in the dry ingredients to your wet mixture now and mix until just combined. You don’t want to go too hard on the mixing so as to overwork it. Just enough to combine the ingredients fully so the mixture remains fluffy!

4. Heat a little ghee in a sauté pan over medium high heat so the pancake batter doesn’t stick to your pan.

5. Add the batter and cook for about 2-3 minutes on first side. These pancakes work best with about 3 tablespoons of batter to one pancake, I find. Don’t worry if they don’t bubble as much as traditional pancakes – just be sure to keep checking the underside so that you don’t burn them. When the underside is golden brown, flip and cook for 1 -2 minutes on the other side.

6. Now just keep using up that batter until you’ve got none left! I like to warm up the berries in a pan while the last lot of pancakes are cooking so they are warm in time for serving.

7. Serve up these delicious Sunday Pancakes and be sure to tag me in any photos of your creations!

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