Not technically a Friday Recipe, but who could resist those pics? From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
I love crepes and friend of blog, Kirk Spencer just did a posting on them, reminding me that I had a pretty decent recipe, too. Check out his link, he has some nice filling ideas. For this menu, we’re sticking with fruit.
Do the idea of crepes scare you?! They did me until I decided to brave the waters for this recipe. They are unbelievably easy. The only difference between this and making pancakes is how you manipulate the pan. Make sure after you’ve lightly greased the pan and heated it, you remove it from the heat before adding the batter. Then you need to swirl the batter thinly around the pan and up the sides, until it sets. Return to the heat to let it cook. Immediately begin to loosen the top edges with a butter knife, so when it’s time to flip, it’s easy to do. I found flipping it by hand easiest. Gently loosen the edges completely and gingerly pick up by the edge and flip it over when the bottom is golden. You may need to loosen the bottom with a spatula before flipping. If you’re feeling daring…you can try flipping them. Just remember, they don’t have to look perfect or be paper thin to work!
It looks like we’re going to have another bumpy, rainy, flash flood warning weekend. No grilling. I’ll have to make do with some Buttered Potato Pie and nice Pan-Seared Strip Steaks. And a reminder, there won’t be a recipe exchange this week, but I’ll find something fun for later in the weekend. Until then….TaMara
On the board tonight: Kids Night Crepes Dinner
Fruit Crepes
Raw Vegetable tray w/dips
Popcorn
Fruit Crepes
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups flour
2 cups milk
4 tbsp butter, melted
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cinnamon
4 oz sliced strawberries
1 banana, sliced
2 kiwi fruits, peeled and sliced
1 cup granola
1 cup vanilla yogurt
powdered sugar
10-inch skillet with sloped sides or a crepe pan
2 bowls, plate, parchment or wax paperWhisk together eggs, flour, milk, butter, ¼ tsp cinnamon. Mix well and refrigerate for 15 to 30 minutes while you prepare fruit.
In medium bowl, combine ¼ tsp cinnamon, berries, banana, kiwi, granola and yogurt. Cover and refrigerate.
Lightly grease skillet and heat over medium heat. Just before adding batter, remove from heat. Add ½ cup of batter for each crepe. Immediately after adding it, swirl pan until batter is spread completely around the pan and up the sides. Return to heat and cook until golden on the bottom, flip and cook until other side is golden. About 2 minutes each side, but watch carefully. Remove to plate. Repeat for each crepe. Place parchment paper between crepes.
To assemble, put ¼ fruit mixture in each crepe and roll up. Top with garnish of powdered sugar. Makes 8 crepes.Alternately you can prepare them on a griddle, using a ladle to spread the batter around into a 10” circle.
If this still sounds too difficult, you can always purchase pre-made crepes in your produce section, usually by the fresh berries. Follow package instructions to heat.
OzarkHillbilly
OK, I’m sold. I make cottage cheese crepes from time to time and the pic just sucked me in.
“HONEY? GUESS WHAT WE’RE HAVING TOMORROW?”
ant
we made these as kids (80s) with a recipe out of a red and white checkered betty croker cook book.
We cooked up the crepes, then spred butter and fruit jelly, then sprinkle with sugar, and then rolled em up before eating.
Yum.
Alison
Memory lane. I worked in the crepes booth at the Renaissance Faire as a teenager :)
Sorry for the #nerdbreak, go back to your recipe chats :P
Svensker
If you put marshmallows and Hershey bars (or chocolate chips) inside and leave them on the stove for a bit… You can also add some sliced up bananas, roll them up then fry in butter with the marsh and chocolate. Sprinkle with sugar. Really really good. Really really messy, too.
Nutella also works purdy well.
Powdered sugar and lemon juice, too.
Slice up some tart apples, saute them until soft in lots of butter, sprinkle them with sugar (brown or white) and let them caramelize a bit. Roll up in crepes, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Try the same thing with peaches or with fresh pineapple.
Bet you could do something fun with dulce de leche, too.
different-church-lady
The other secret: stir the batter — keep it thin before putting it into the pan. Don’t put sedentary batter in the pan.
MikeJ
Buttered potato pie? It looks like what I would call a potato galette.
NotMax
Blintzes over crepes, any day of the week.
MikeJ
Crepe dinner is a great thing for thanksgiving leftovers too. My usual crepe dinner night is turkey (or chicken) in a tarragon cream sauce, and done in the square crepe fold style rather than rolled.
rea
I’ve made them from time to time, and sometimes I can pull them off, but other times . . . not so much.
It’s kind of a [ducking and running] crepes-shoot . . .
Billy K.
In my experience, making the crepe batter thinner (with water or preferably milk) makes them easier to manipulate, and I like the consistency better anyway.
raven
Hey, put my goddamn posts up.
Schlemizel
About a year ago there was a food truck for sale on ebay, It was a Boeing 707 body mated to a truck chassis and finished off to look like a space shuttle. I desperately wanted to buy it & run my own food truck. Everything would have been served in crepes & the truck would have been christened Crepe Canaveral. I didn’t have the $100k for the truck though.
Schlemizel
BTW – there is no need to double up the cinnamon 1/4 tsp one time should be enough :)
There used to be a restaurant here in the Twin Cities called “The Magic Pan” that sold crepe meals. They had an ingenious machine for making crepes. It was a rotating set of convexe ‘pans’ the first pan would turn upside down & be dipped in a tub of batter. the correct amount would stick and the pan would turn upside right, the whole thing turned on a horizontal plane and the next pan would be loaded, there were about a dozen pans. By the time the first pan came all the way around a human would slip the crepe off with a spatula onto a plate & the cycle would start all over again.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
Other than the filling, what’s the difference between a blintz and a crepe?
Mnemosyne
@Schlemizel:
We used to have those in Illinois, too. My favorite was the crepe sundae — a rectangle of ice cream wrapped in a crepe.
Svensker
@Schlemizel:
Magic Pan was across the country. A real 70s phenomenon.
RSA
@MikeJ:
For us it’s chicken with broccoli in a Swiss cheese and white wine sauce, rolled and baked in the oven for a bit with some sauce on top. Yum.
I remember my first time making crepes, some years ago, and thinking, “This isn’t nearly as hard as I’d expected.” They weren’t perfect, but they were fine.
Schlemizel
@Svensker: @Mnemosyne:
I did not know they were nation wide. I never saw them anyplace but here so I assumed they were local. I was never a huge fan of their crepes but they had the best pea soup I have ever had in a restaurant.
Have you ever seen a crepe maker like that anywhere else? When I was looking at the food truck I went googling for them & never saw anything like it.
Betty Cracker
I really need to make some crepes — been meaning to for ages since I’ve got so damned many eggs. Tomorrow’s the day! Thanks for the inspiration!
Hawes
Hey, I just drove through West Virginia and was admiring all the Subarus out in fields.
What color was John’s again?
Emerald
Magic Pan Pea Soup recipe (Potage St. Germain):
MAGIC PAN RESTAURANT POTAGE ST GERMAIN (Pea Soup)
This pea soup recipe is from the Magic Pan Restaurant.
1 (1 pound) ham bone
4 1/2 cups water
1 (13 ounce) can chicken broth
2 cups split peas
2/3 cup finely chopped leeks or green onions
1/3 cup finely chopped carrots
1/3 cup finely chopped celery
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon thyme
Bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 1/2 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup chopped ham, cooked
1/2 cup chopped chicken (cooked) (optional)
Place ham bone in large pot. Add water, chicken stock and peas and bring to
boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 30
minutes.
Sauté the onions, carrots and celery just until limp. Add them to the soup
pot along with all the seasonings and continue to simmer until peas are very
soft and mixture is thick – about 45 minutes. Remove ham bone. Gradually
stir in the milk and cream. Add ham and chicken. Simmer, stirring
occasionally, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Potage St. Germain soup should be served with a dollop of sour cream
and a splash of sherry. The sherry was served on the side in a tiny
glass pitcher, while the sour cream was placed in the bowl and dusted
with chopped parsley.
—–
The Magic Pan served this with a little cruet of sherry alongside if you wanted it. (I always did–yum!)
I’ve got their Coquille St. Jacques recipe too. BTW, their spinach crepe recipe was just Stouffer’s Spinach Souffle in a crepe.
Schlemizel
One last crepe story. I worked a banquete gig for a wedding & the head chef was an inflamed asshole that screamed & threw things around the kitchen & treated staff like dirt. As one point I handed him a spoon & the screamed at me to not give him something until he asked for it and threw the spoon at me. His “big finish” was going to be crepe suzettes in a big production number. Another grunt & I made a couple hundred crepes, filled them with cherry & folded so we were all set to go. The chef set everything out up front so he could produce the flambe thing for the Bride’s table. My job was to stand beside him with plates etc. He botched the flambe part badly & splashed alcohol on himself so that there were large spots of flame all over his coat and pant – polyester pants. He tried to beat the flames out with his side towel but it had been splashed too so he dropped that & was just trying to do it with his hands. Now I had a perfectly good side towle that he could have had but I knew better than to give him anything he had not asked for so I watched as 4-5 inch circles of polyester melted against his legs. None of the staff lifted a finger but one of the groomsmen used a tablecloth to put him out.
Chef went to the emergency room & we finished the crepes perfectly, everyone was very impressed & the brides father gave us $100 to split because we had done such a good job of recovering after the mishap.
Schlemizel
@Emerald:
Cool, thanks!
Svensker
@Schlemizel:
Nope, that was their proprietary crepe machine.
@Betty Cracker:
The nice thing about crepes is they’re easy to freeze. Just stick a piece of waxed or parchment paper between then wrap tight. Warm them up in the oven or in a warm pan with a little more butter.
Betty Cracker
@Schlemizel: LMAO! Great story! I love it when an asshole gets his comeuppance. ;-)
@Svensker: Good to know. Thanks!
Omnes Omnibus
My ex always used a bit of sparkling water when she made clătite (Romanian crepes). If you sub it in for some of the milk, the batter is thinner and lighter.
Keith P
State your menu.
You said “crepes” twice.
Omnes Omnibus
@Keith P: Nice Blazing Saddles play.
RaflW
My mom taught me to make crepes when I was in maybe 10th grade. They really are easy.
We almost always had them savory. A favorite was to take chunks of the Sunday roast beef and make a quick, cheap, pan ‘stroganoff’ with some mushrooms, sour cream, red wine and strips of the leftover beef. Fold into hot crepes and seve. Really jazzes 3 day old roast beast.
Save a little batter for a sweet crepe for dessert (often lingonberry jam in our house).
Wow, haven’t made crepes in 15-20 years. Thanks for the reminder. I’m salivating!
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: Some of my French friends used beer in the same way for savory crepes, with the same explanation.
RaflW
Oh, and if anyone is ever in Breckenridge, CO, the Crepe Cart on Main Street is fun. It’s a nice way to eat fairly cheap in an expensive town (savory as well as sweet offerings), and help a ski bum make rent. No magic pan gizmo, just a big hot pan, some batter, and little wooden squeege-like things.
The staff all look like they are definitely not the young trustafarians who have daddy’s Amex privileges.
Mnemosyne
Fred Clark wrote a beautiful piece about mourning today. I think the pull quote he chose will sufficiently warn those who need to be warned what the content is:
NotMax
Everybody sing:
I heard it through the crepevine…
@Mnemosyne
Traditional blintz uses a yeast batter and are filled and then either baked or pan-fried.
@Schlemizel
There was a similar chain at the same time period called La Crepe which had something like 800 different varieties listed on their menu. The ones filled with apple and bleu cheese were very tasty.
NotMax
@O.O.
Secret to light and fluffy matzo balls is to add some seltzer to the mixture.
Omnes Omnibus
@RaflW: There is a great crepe place selling to go crepes in downtown Vancouver.
justawriter
Here is an insanely easy dessert crepe filling that goes great with tart fruit sauces like raspberry …
Cheesecake Creme
one brick cream cheese
one jar marshmellow fluff
Blend with a hand mixer until smooth and fill crepes. Top with raspberry sauce.
Sandia Blanca
Another great filling: take some brown sugar, stir into a large spoonful of sour cream, and add some sliced pears or strawberries. Kind of a Romanoff sauce. So good!
Omnes Omnibus
@justawriter: Sorry, mate. You lost me at marshmallow fluff.
Mnemosyne
@ Omnes (yes, FYWP has struck again):
Marshmallow fluff has its uses, like for rice krispy treats where it’s a pain in the butt to melt all of those marshmallows.
Kyle
Nice post – certainly a good way to get kids eating fruit or for something different to smoothies.
Another one is using a waffle cone filled with fruit, a nice treat when they just come home from school.