These delicious pancakes are traditionally eaten with maple syrup and crispy bacon and but cream cheese with smoked salmon, mackerel or spicy sausages are also delicious and often served these days. The southerners consider buttermilk to be a delicacy and a jug of buttermilk can always be found in the refrigerator simply for drinking or to use in baking and cooking. This recipe is as basic as they get and certainly something for our series on basics – you can exclude the orange (it’s optional anyway) and add any of the spices the southerners are inclined to use – just make sure you don’t overdo it!

Ingredients

• 175ml buttermilk
• 1 large egg, preferably free-range
• 15 g butter, melted
• 50 g tapioca flour
• 25 g fine cornmeal
• ½ orange, grated zest only (optional)
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100 ml clarified butter

Serve with

• Butter
• Crispy bacon
• Maple syrup

Method

• Mix the buttermilk, the egg and the melted butter until smooth and thoroughly blended (it’s a good idea to use a large bowl).
• Sift the tapioca flour, the fine cornmeal, the salt and the bicarbonate of soda and gently stir into the buttermilk only until the ingredients are moistened – don’t worry about the lumps.
• Heat a heavy iron or non-stick pan until medium hot before greasing with a little clarified butter.
• Spoon 1 generous tablespoon of batter onto the pan and spread slightly with the back of the spoon, cooking until the bubbles rise and break on the top of the pancake.
• Flip over gently and cook until pale golden on the other side.
• Remove and keep warm while continuing the process until all the batter has been used.
• Spread each pancake generously with butter and serve a stack of 3 per person with crispy bacon and maple syrup.