Ratatouille Stuffed Pancake/Crêpe Enchiladas

It’s pancake day in T-minus 170 hours, in other words it’s in 8 days and I intend for you, me, your neighbour’s cat and anyone else who applies, to be fully prepared.
In all honesty I’ve always been a little bit put off by the idea of savoury pancakes because occasionally I have these weird things about certain foods. I am far from a picky eater but there are just some things I can’t deal with like bread and cheese together, especially when it involves butter but I also love anything with melted cheese on and that includes bread, making sense yet? Yeah, it never does. I’m pretty open minded to re-trying things though, like that time my mum gave me liver straight out the frying pan, give me a second while I involuntary shudder at the memory, but out of everything I’ve tried on here that I was a little unsure I’d like, I think this might just be my favourite.

I’m sure the majority of you are versed in the whole savoury pancake thing but in the very slight chance that you’re not you need to try this. I never imagined melted cheese and pancakes could taste so good, but here we are, and possibly the best bit of this is the crispy ends, can I just cook a batch of pancake ends up? This is a little time consuming however it’s pretty simple and if you’re making it for a family dinner it’s a good all hands of deck kind of recipe and how can anyone turn down the prospect of pancakes?
I’m sure your neighbour’s cat will be eagerly awaiting the next pancake post.

You will need
1 onion
1 courgette
1 carrot
1 tin tomatoes, blended
1 tbsp mango chutney
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tin beans, I used cannellini
170g cheddar cheese, grated
mozzarella (optional)
a few cherry tomatoes (optional)

Pancake mixture
115g/4oz/0.9 cups plain flour
2 eggs
200ml/0.85 cups milk + 75ml/0.3 cups water
2 tbsp butter/margarine, melted

Chop the onion, courgette and carrot into small pieces, heat a frying pan with a splash of oil and cook the vegetables until almost softened. Add in the tin of tomatoes, mango chutney and tomato puree and stir, then drain and rinse the beans and add to the vegetable mixture. Leave to simmer for 10-20 minutes.

While the ratatouille is simmering preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6 then make the pancakes.
Sift the flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle, crack the eggs in the middle and whisk while slowly adding half of the milk & water mixture in until you have a thick mixture. Beat the mixture until no lumps remain then add the rest of the milk & water and the butter. Heat a large frying pan on a medium – low heat and brush with a small amount of butter, ladle in enough pancake mixture to thinly coat the bottom of the pan and cook until loose (about a minute), flip then cook again until lightly golden. Repeat this process until all the mixture is gone stacking the pancakes on a plate.

Once the ratatouille and pancakes are cooked fill each pancake with two spoonfuls of the ratatouille, roll then place in a large baking dish. Once all the pancakes are rolled top with cheese, small lumps of mozzarella and sliced cherry tomatoes. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes then serve.

Makes 8-10 filled pancakes.