As a mother of two kids, it gives me nightmares to think that my older one will be going to school next year. Every few days, I hear some heartbreaking and scary incident in school which makes me want to homeschool my child. Now, I know that we need more strict gun control in this country but my biggest problem is with the schools themselves. I come from a very small town (Jodhpur) in India and even there, my school gates would close when the school started and remain closed during school hours. There would always be a person at the gate to make sure no one entered without permission. So why does this not happen in the schools here? Also, now with changing times and evolving needs, why aren’t the students’ bags checked before they enter the premises. I worked in a Fortune 500 company in India which had over 50,000 employees at just one of their locations and they used to check the bags of every single employee before they entered and left the premises.
Now, I have a lot of respect for schools and its teachers but I am so disappointed that the schools don’t enforce tighter security measures on their campuses. I think it’s because the public schools provide free education, (technically, it’s not free!) they don’t have much control over matters related to money. At the same time it’s not like it depletes their funds if you decide to pull your kid out of their school. I understand that there could be a lot of politics behind this one simple measure but is that a reason enough to be so casual about the safety of kids? A nation that takes immense pride in valuing the life of its every citizen suddenly becomes so indifferent (or money minded) when it comes to innocent kids. My prayers and wishes go out to the victim’s family and everyone concerned. I wish, hope and desperately pray for a solution to this madness.
Breakfast in our household is usually not a lavish affair! We keep it quite simple but there are days when I go the extra mile for my family and prepare something delicious for them. Last week, I made these beauties and have to add, they were gobbled up in no time. Ricotta cheese makes these pancakes as light and fluffy as air itself and lemon adds another dimension of taste to it apart from the little-sweet-little tart blueberries. If you choose to serve them with plain maple syrup instead of a blueberry sauce, they would still taste divine!
Ingredients
- 2/3 plus 1/4 cup blueberries
- 1/8 cup water
- 2 tbsp. sugar (depending on the tartness of blueberries)
- 1/3 plus 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tbsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. butter
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- zest of 1 lemon
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup milk (or as needed)
- little butter or oil to coat the surface of pan.
Instructions
- In a pan, add blueberries, water and sugar and cook it till it becomes saucy. It should have some chunks of blueberries and some liquid. Keep it warm on the lowest flame.
- In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. ( flour, sugar and baking powder) Whisk well and keep aside.
- In another bowl, add ricotta cheese, butter, egg, lemon juice and lemon zest and whisk well. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
- Now add milk as needed to make a smooth lump free batter. The batter should be thick enough that when you pour it on griddle it doesn't run all over and still be thin enough that when you pour it on the griddle, it should smooth itself out.
- Take a non stick griddle. with a pastry brush, lightly coat the surface of griddle with oil or butter. Pour about 1/4 cup batter on the griddle at 3-4 places (depending upon the size of your griddle).
- When the top forms bubbles and edges look dry, flip the pancake on the other side.
- Cook on the other side too.
- To Assemble - On the pancake, you can choose to put 1/2 tbsp. butter. Pour the blueberry sauce (or maple syrup), lemon zest, some powdered sugar over it and enjoy it hot.
Notes
A great substitute of ricotta cheese is homemade chenna. (milk solids, right before making paneer) Whip it well. You might have to use little extra milk to the final batter to adjust its consistency.
Coating of butter on griddle is very light. It can be skipped too.
When you coat the griddle with butter, make sure it is not too hot. If the temperature of griddle gets too hot, the butter will burn. If you are unsure, use oil.
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