Some people don’t like Valentine’s Day; they say it is too commercialised and a bit kitschy. And while I may agree with them to some extent, I still think there is nothing wrong with showing the important people in your life that you love them.
And one way to do it is to cook something special for them.
It could be the person’s favourite dish showing you remember and care. Or it could be a sophisticated and complicated meal emphasising the important occasion.
It could be a special chocolate cake for a bit of indulgence. Or it could be homemade granola for a healthy beginning of a day.
Or maybe it could be something pretty easy to prepare but made looking extraordinary, like pancakes.
“Since these pancakes are for Valentine’s day, they should be red or pink” – I thought. But I didn’t want to use artificial food colouring. That’s why at first I used raspberry syrup instead of some of the necessary water.
Unfortunately, the colour was not intensive enough. And as I was slowly entering a panicky stage of “my idea is not as brilliant as I thought, what shall I do?!”, I remembered I had some cooked beetroot in the fridge. I liquidised it and took a risk by adding it to the prepared batter.
The beet pancakes turned out to be as I wanted them: beautifully dark pink! As far as the filling is concerned, I made a white chocolate mousse that wasn’t too sweet thanks to some slightly tart raspberries which complemented the delicate raspberry flavour in the Pink Pancakes.
Although when I was preparing these Pink Pancakes, I had Valentines’ Day in mind, I think they can (and probably should) be served more often.
Adding beetroot made them healthier and when you have a child that is not keen on vegetables, every little portion you can sneak into a meal counts. And which child will say no to pink pancakes?