Savoury herb pancakes with cheese and broccoli recipe

Ingredients

• 400g peeled shallots
• 100g butter

For the pancakes

• 2 eggs
• 100g flour
• 150ml milk
• 10g parsley
• 10g chives
• 10g chervil

For the Béchamel

• 50g butter
• 50g flour
• 500ml milk
• 1 Shallot
• 2 cloves
• 50g Dijon mustard
• 50g Gruyere cheese - grated

To serve

• 250g Tenderstem broccoli
• 50g Gruyere cheese - grated
• Baby watercress leaves

Method

To make the shallot confit, finely chop the shallots, place the butter into a pan and melt, then add the diced shallots. Season with sea salt and pepper and cook slowly on a low heat not allowing them to colour. Cook for 30 minutes until they are very tender.

Make your basic pancake batter well ahead of time by mixing the eggs with the milk then adding the flour and beating until velvety smooth. Add the chopped herbs and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Then make your pancakes. In a hot non stick pan add a small knob of butter and once melted add enough batter for one pancake. Cook for 2 minutes on each side. Allow 2 per person, keep these in between layers of greaseproof paper until required.

To make basic Béchamel sauce. Cut the shallot in half and then stick the bay leaf to one half of the shallot with the cloves. Place the milk and shallot in a pan and warm up.

Make a roux with butter and flour, add your hot milk to the roux and beat with a whisk until nice and smooth, season with salt and pepper then add ½ the cheese and the mustard to finish it with, leave in the pan until required.

Blanch the Tenderstem broccoli in boiling salted water for 2 minutes and then refresh by placing in ice cold water, then allow to drain on kitchen paper.

In a clean bowl add ½ the shallot confit and 1/3 of the béchamel sauce, now add the drained Tenderstem broccoli, check the seasoning and adjust if necessary. You can, if you like, chargrill the Tenderstem broccoli to give an extra dimension of taste.

Roll each piece of Tenderstem broccoli, along with the sauce and shallots into a pancake and place in to an oven proof dish ready to warm up.

Cook at 180c for 8-10 minutes, checking they are hot on the inside.

Remove the hot pancakes from the dish and place 2 per person in the centre of hot plates. Pour the remaining sauce over the pancakes then add the remaining shallot confit. Garnish with grated Gruyere cheese and baby watercress leaf.