Something a bit special for breakfast

How about something a bit special for breakfast? The first and, let’s be honest here, usually the best meal of the day is one of those meals that I really enjoy cooking (must be something to do with the smell of frying bacon), and when we have guests staying it’s nice to do something a bit different. Bacon and parsley hotcakes it is, then, using a recipe that Allison clipped from the BBC Good Food magazine a few years ago.

We start by cutting up the bacon into lardons and dry-frying it until it’s crispy (contrary to what I appear to have learned in the Scouts, there’s no need for oil when frying bacon). 

While that’s cooling, the dry ingredients – self-raising flour, grated cheddar cheese (the more mature, the better), a small handful of chopped parsley, thyme (fresh or dried, either will do), salt and pepper – are mixed together in a bowl, to which the bacon is added.

Then come the eggs and the milk – the recipe says to use six tablespoons but I’ve found that you don’t need to use more than four to get a nice, thick batter. 

Spoonfuls of the batter are then fried, a couple at a time (oil is needed for this bit of frying) until golden; the recipe says that it serves four (meaning that it makes eight hotcakes) but I sometimes find that I can make six of them with the quantities provided. 

The recipe says that these are best served topped by a couple of poached eggs but I prefer fried ones; probably because I find poaching eggs to be a bit of a hassle (and it would involve more washing-up; by frying the eggs, I’m limiting the number of pans used to one).

So, there we are – bacon and parsley hotcakes, for when you want to make something a bit special for breakfast.