March 23rd

Pancake Tuesday
But you know, not the official pancake tuesday. We had pancakes for breakfast. Can I digress about pancakes for a while. I love pancakes. I can't eat most kinds because of the gluten but I've figured out a recipe thats really tasty and I eat them at least once a week. Even my friends who can eat mounds of flour really like these ones. The thing I really enjoy about working with non-gluten flour is that if you are into dark and rich pastries, they really deliver some great complex flavours. Especially when you add some sort of fruit and real maple syrup. Don't be afraid to mix different flours to come up with a taste combination you prefer. I really like buckwheat because I've grown up eating buckwheat pancakes and I like corn flour because it has a pleasant sweetness to it. I haven't figured out pie-crusts yet but I definitely figured out pancakes. And fruitcake. But I won't talk about that here.

Anyway: NON-GLUTEN DAIRY-FREE BUTTERMILK-ESQUE GRIDDLE CAKES. This recipe might be a pain because I don't measure these at all. There are so few ingredients that I just add till I have the right consistency. I think about one cup of dry ingredients per person. Though I think some people would eat less than that. Batter keeps, you can make more the next day. And it's easy to mix up more batter if you don't make enough.

RECIPE
Mix various non gluten flours (I use about half buckwheat, a quarter corn flour or corn meal and a quarter coconut flour) put in a pinch of salt and a half teaspoon of baking soda per cup. Add in some sort of milky substance until its the consistency of pancake batter (runny-ish) On set we used almond and coconut milk and an egg. For the vegan with almond allergies we just used coconut milk which works because its thicker, and we added in a bit of tapioca flour to hers because its stickier. Lastly add a teaspoon per cup of some very soft vinegar preferably apple-cider vinegar. This reacts with the baking soda and fluffs them cakes up like you would get with buttermilk. Its a very similar reaction. I use this secret in all my baking now. You can actually feel the pancake batter get easier to stir as it gets airier. I have also used lemon juice, which can add a fruity tang.
The one thing my sister noticed when making this for a large amount of people, is that it really helps the consistency (and saves her from getting up at 5 am) to make the batter the night before. This guarantees no lumps because any pocket of dryness has the time to absorb into the batter. You can do this also by mixing your batter a half hour in advance of cooking. If you plan to mix your ingredients very much in advance, do not add the vinegar till the last minute.

My Favourite things to add in:
Mesquite Flour (incredible stuff, my sister could tell you so much about it)
Cinnamon and Nutmeg (nice around christmas)
Apples (my favourite thing in pancakes and hot cereal is to grate an entire apple and throw it in, because the pieces are so small it cooks the apple instantly and it adds a lovely texture)

My sister bought real maple syrup for the crew. Because it's just.... not right to use table syrup. Especially since it's that time of year. Don, one of the lead actors, and I had a pancake breakfast on a morning we were rehearsing a few weeks back. And he brought some of his home-made maple syrup. His is really nice because he boils it down in a large open topped, cast-iron cauldron over a fire pit. It has a very slight essence of bonfire and its a rich dark colour from the cast-iron. If light amber is Grade A and the darker more mineral-rich syrups are B and C, Don's is about a J. And I think that's the way I prefer it.

My sister doesn't love pancakes quite as much as I do but she does love the griddle on the professional sized oven here which she has nicknamed The Kiln after the name of our production company. She also loves Bulk Barn, and so do I. It is actually the ultimate place to affordably buy any dry good a chef could need but has also become the ultimate place for people like me to buy any kind of non-gluten flour or raw ingredient you could think of. They have bins of mesquite flour, teff flour (for all your injera desires), coconut flour, light buckwheat, etc. Bulk Barn is simply a really great Canadian franchise. They also carry red fife flour which we assume might be right from Grassroots Organics. The pasta and rice selection is not the best but the dried fruit is out of this world.

By the way, we had Chili for dinner and some.... salads.

A review of Deirdre's food by Sophia our Production Designer:

"Wowee! this food was great. better than great. you would be jealous, nay SHOULD be jealous of what we have been eating. Having been on many small and large film sets through our lives, we've come to a massive, general consensus that this is the best craft we have ever had.

As someone who is vegetarian, with gluten sensitivities, I have yet to have a meal on this set that didn't satisfy me. Everything is fresh. The flavours are both rich, yet light, and taste like gourmet home cooking. I just finished the Vegetarian Chili with a dill dresssing salad. It's been rainy and foggy all day, so it was the perfect cap to a hard days work."

Deirdre and I are both fairly new to being on sets all the time. So it's encouraging to hear this. Deirdre has the new and aggravating challenge next week of switching lunch and dinner. So that lunch is massive and dinner is lighter to keep people fuelled for the second half of the shoot day.

Stay tuned!