Denise remembers: “When my mother married my father back in 1953, she moved from dynamic Brussels to the scanty area near Rotterdam in the Netherlands. This area had been immensely affected by the war, and in the fifties life was still very sober there. According to my mother, Belgium suffered less in World War II and Belgian people somehow managed to continue their tradition of cooking elaborate meals. The predominantly Catholic background of the Belgian people may very well have been a reason for this, because it had always allowed them to live more generously. My mother, just married, longed for this tradition and for ingredients which were not available at that time in the Netherlands.
She would ask my father to bring home those products from his trips abroad. She longed for chervil to make a delicate soup. My father would bring home asparagus from his trips to areas which were without a doubt not far away at all, but were almost mythical in my child’s mind. By the way, I detested asparagus for their bitter taste. But, like all adults, I gradually started to like also bitter tastes, so in the spring we will present you an original Limburg recipe for asparagus.
And, once in a while my grandmother, her mother, would come and stay with us from the far and away Belgium (which sounded absolutely exotic in my ears) and ask for mineral water. Can you imagine? Mineral water! And it even sparkled? Bubbles? I found it an extravagance without compare.
My parents are both still alive and happily married after 56 years. And till this day we all love to go home and sit down at my mother’s table and enjoy one of her new ideas. My mother is famous with her grandchildren for her pancakes. Pancakes are in fact a real Dutch treat. The ones we have in our column today are slightly different (which can be no surprise coming from a Belgian cook). They taste more like the French crepes. My mother serves them as a desert; I find that slightly exaggerating in my attempt to avoid unnecessary calories and I prefer them as a light dinner course maybe combined with soup or some fresh fruit. You can serve them with sugar or molasses and if you like you can make some more, freeze them or eat them for breakfast.”
Ingredients
250 grams plain flower
4 to 5 eggs
1 package of vanilla sugar
100 ml sunflower oil
1 table spoon of what we call ‘basterdsuiker’ (brown sugar)
500 ml milk
Some sparkling mineral water
Salt
Preparation
Combine all ingredients (except the mineral water) including the sunflower oil in a mixing bowl and mix well. Adding the sunflower oil at this stage saves you the trouble of putting oil in your pan every time. The consistency has to be that of a rich cream. It has to run off your spoon quite easily, but it should not be too thin. Add the mineral water to give it an airy texture.
Heat the fire under a non stick pan and put a spoonful in. Flip the pancake over once the surface has little holes in it. It takes some effort to get a feel for cooking them exactly right. But, lucky you, all failures can be eaten on the spot.
Smakelijk eten!