Chocolate Breakfast Pancakes

For mornings when you wake up feeling rubbish, but you know you have to get to the office somehow. Despite the fact it is sunny and gorgeous outside. And Saturday...

These pancakes are a good half-inch thick. Fluffy AND filling. Later on in the day you will be able to say to yourself, "Stop being such a wuss! Remember what you had for breakfast!" And your inner voice will reply: "Fair do's."

150 ml full fat milk

1 tblsp white wine vinegar

Mix.

1 over-ripe banana

1 large egg

260g strong wholemeal bread flour

1 tblsp sugar

c 1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

milk mixture

Blitz.

c 50 g 70% chocolate, cut into small chunks

Mix.

Fry. (In butter, with a touch of oil to prevent the butter burning). About a tablespoon of mixture per pancake.

Go out and ace the day!

Hints and tips:

• The longer you can leave the milk to sour the better. Overnight? Half an hour, while you shower and dress?
• As the container for blitzing in, I use a deep Lock&Lock/Tupperware box (that fits into the door of the fridge, a bit like a carton of milk). That means you can shove everything in there, blitz it up, make as many pancakes as your day will require, then put the lid on and shove it in the fridge for tomorrow. With a bowl, I find the blitzing gets messy...
• Blitzing? I use a wand. (Love that word!)
• Using more than one type of chocolate will give a more complex flavour. I finished up some squares from the French Pyrenees (that's a whole other story, for another time); added some Green & Black's 70%. Would have used some 70% Lindt too, if I had had any knocking about. Any chocolate dust from chopping should be thrown in too.
• The final mixture will be thicker than any pancake batter you have ever seen. Don't panic.
• Be generous with the butter for frying. I put a large pan on a high heat, add about a tablespoon of groundnut oil and about half an ounce of butter. (Sorry - I still think of butter in ounces. And I can cut butter to the perfect ounce weight. When sober.) When the butter has foamed and died down, spoon in the pancake mixture, and turn the heat down to low. With my cast iron pan, I find the pancakes are ready on the first side in about two minutes. Then flip them over for another two minutes on low heat and they are done.

Makes about 18 pancakes.

Butternut Squash Lasagne

This is quite rich, so you might want to have it with a very plain salad of the rest of the baby spinach. But don't let that stop you putting improbable quantities of baby spinach into the assemblage, as that is the only way to ensure that the spinach layer isn't all thin and feeble when it is cooked.

1. Roast the quartered butternut squash (or maybe two?) until soft. Scoop out of skin into bowl. Don't mash - let it stay lumpy.
2. Meanwhile...
3. Roast the pine nuts - couple of packets, but depends a bit on how rich you are feeling. (If you scorch them; chuck them. They will make the whole thing bitter if you don't. So, it is worth setting a pinger.)
4. Infuse loads and loads of Microplaned garlic (maybe even a whole head) in a big-ish milk pan of double cream, with a hefty pinch of salt and about twenty grinds of black pepper. Basically gently simmer it for about 5 mins. Then take off the heat and add half a block of grated parmesan.
5. Wash about as much baby spinach as you get in one of those supermarket bags of salad.
6. When both the butternut and the pine nuts are cool-ish, put them together in a big bowl. Add some (ideally) goats curd - about as much as the size of a tin of beans, or even a bit more. (But given that goats curd is ridiculously expensive - until I take up goat farming - and only available at Neal's Yard and maybe La Fromagerie, you are totally forgiven for using rindless soft goats cheese or even, at a push, feta.) Mix about, but again, leave some lumps and texture.
7. Then ASSEMBLE:

Layer of first THIRD of lasagne sheets.

Layer of first HALF of the butternut mixture.

Layer of first HALF of the spinach.

Pour over first QUARTER of the cream.

Layer of second THIRD of lasagne sheets - push everything down a bit with the sheets.

Layer of second HALF of the butternut squash mixture.

Layer of second HALF of the spinach.

Pour over second QUARTER of the cream.

Layer of final THIRD of lasagne sheets.

Layer of final two QUARTERS of the cream.

Layer of remainder of block of parmesan, grated.

8. Finally, put the lasagne into the oven at about Gas Mark 6, for about an hour. Roughly, roughly. Make sure the top doesn't burn. (Cover with foil, if you need to.) It is ready when the lasagnes sheets are soft on all layers. You should be able to cut through them with a normal sort of knife.
9. Invite me to supper.