SA MasterChef contestant Sashi Cheliah’s amazing pancakes recipe
WANT to cook like a MasterChef? SA contestant Sashi Cheliah shares his amazing pancake recipe, which is a true family favourite.
WEEKENDS in the Cheliah household are all about whipping up delicious breakfasts and enjoying them as a family.
MasterChef Australia contestant Sashi Cheliah, from South Australia, said pancakes are a favourite for his sons Ryan, 10, and Marcus, 12.
“Whenever I’m in the kitchen the boys will be there also,” he said.
“They will be there tasting my food and telling me, ‘This needs a bit more salt, this needs a bit more flavour’. They love to be around the kitchen with me.”
The 39-year-old, who has made it to the final four cooks and is a favourite to take out the competition, spent several months away from his young family to follow his MasterChef dream – and it was a tricky time for all of them.
“We don’t spend much time away from each other so having this kind of time away was very hard,” he said.
“We really missed each other. I missed the kids, I missed my wife, but somehow I managed to pull through.”
It meant their weekend ritual of cooking pancakes or a big breakfast was not always as smooth sailing for Ryan, who said he didn’t have as much success in the kitchen without his dad around.
“When my dad was away I had to make pancakes by myself and they were really dense,” he confessed.
Despite that minor mishap, he was happy to share his pancake tips.
“Instead of plain flour I would use self-raising flour,” Ryan said, adding he likes the pancakes to be “sweet and fluffy”.
Sashi said educating his kids about cooking was important because it builds confidence in the kitchen.
“Cooking your own food, rather than eating out, is so much better,” he said.
Ryan agreed kids should learn how to cook. “If your parents are away they can help themselves to make whatever they want,” he said.
SASHI’S AMAZING PANCAKES
Makes about 8 pancakes
INGREDIENTS
1 cup self-raising flour
150ml full cream milk
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 whole egg
Pinch of salt
50g unsalted butter
Plus toppings of your choice for the pancakes
METHOD
1. Whisk egg and sugar until pale. Add milk and mix well.
2. Mix flour and salt in to the egg and milk mixture until it turns into a thick batter. Set the mixture aside for 10 minutes to rest.
3. In the meantime, heat a flat pan on low heat. Lightly butter the pan. Use the 1/3 cup to measure out the batter for each pancake. Cook the pancake for 2-3 minutes on each side.
4. Serve pancakes with toppings of your choice, such as maple syrup, cream and berries, which is a favourite in our household. You can also dust the pancake stack with some icing sugar to top it off. Yummy!
TOP TIP
You can add chocolate chips or other flavours to the pancake batter.
MasterChef continues 7.30pm Wednesday on Network Ten.