Viva la!

I have been to Paris.

But Paris was not the first place I had crepes.

I had crepes in Chicago for the first time. In an apartment. Of friends of my parents. From that day on that was it; I loved them.

The first ones I had were filled with some wonderful creamy seafood mixture which was, as just stated, wonderful.

Upon returning to my parent’s house (for I was still in high school), I was delighted, although not surprised, to find that my mother possessed a cookbook entitled, “You can do anything with crepes.”

Now how many of you have cookbooks that obscure? Probably not most. My mother would though, and she still does, to this day (because it hasn’t somehow yet fallen into one of my tote bags as I was vacating her house).

Contrary to popular opinion, crepes are really quite easy to prepare. They became a staple of mine when I was still at home. We would entertain weekly and for sure I did them probably once a month. Maybe that’s excessive. Or an exaggeration. Or an excessive exaggeration. But I made them a good amount and the people partaking always raved.

You can fill them with anything. Sweet, savory, meat, dessert, whatever.

I was at my parent’s home this weekend and we had the masses over to see me, so naturally I made crepes.

Without further ado, here is a little story of how French culinary favorites get transported to the Midwest.

I would also like to add that the guests we typically have over are not easily impressed. This weekend was no exception. Accomplished chefs, all. Even discriminating tastes had to be obliged by this fare.

Ok. For real this time.

“Without further ado,” here is an education for your taste buds.

Crepes are a basic recipe, comprised primarily of flour, salt and sugar.

If the recipe ever calls for dry ingredients to be sifted, I know I will get flack for saying it, but I have ever only done this:

This is the flour canister we had at my house while growing up, where it still resides, and was also the one my mom had in her house when she was growing up.

I think it's brilliant. Brilliant enough to make it on the list with Dutch Ovens, espresso machines, and whisks.

Note that these are HOME GROWN EGGS.

Look at that color! Yolks like that don’t come from the store, kids.

And the size disparity! Love it!

Now the batter is going to be very thin. Much thinner than a pancake.

And what kind of pan you use is important. Keep in mind that the crepe will become whatever the size of pan it is.

For crepes I like to use a non-stick, probably 8 inch, pan, sprayed in between each crepe.

I call the technique for crepes the “swirl-tastic 3098,” which pretty much consists of pouring a ladle full of batter into the middle of the pan, picking up the pan, and swirling the batter all around to create a very thin coat over the whole flat surface of the pan.

I wish I had pictures for you, but, you got to be fast to swirl, so alas, no picture.

Once the basic crepe is done you can put anything in it. For my entertaining purposes I like to do both a sweet and a savory, just so my guests can choose.

This weekend for my Savory selection, because it was over the brunch hour I filled them with some delicious scrambled eggs, as well as some garlic mushrooms. I would have also included caramelized onions but was without the onions.

I then did a little drizzle of a béchamel sauce (which is a fancy Italian way of saying butter, flour, and milk…with a little nutmeg and pepper) inside the crepe, as well as on top, and then garnished with sautéed green peppers.

Delicious.

For my sweet chicks, they got caramelized apples in a vanilla yogurt, cinnamon cream sauce topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of honey.

While I am on a roll, I will say that I have done crepes for dessert. Go ahead and scoop out some vanilla ice cream and then freeze the ice cream balls so that they are hard. Put those inside of the hot crepes and top with hot fudge, strawberries, and powdered sugar. I had this in Austria one night and flew right home to try it out on some most willing guinea-pig friends. Literally, I got on a plane straight away from dinner and flew home to make these.

That’s not actually true.

If you like the banana and chocolate combo, quickly sauté some banana slices in melted butter and put those on top of the ice cream, then roll up, then hot fudge.

Crepes are delicious and I love them. But the reason I made the crepes, well, I love that more: coffee with best girlfriends.

Being with them is like coming home.

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.

Crepes:

1 ½ c. flour

1 t. sugar

1/8^th t. salt

3 eggs

1 ½ c. milk

2 T. melted butter or oil

Sift together flour, sugar, and salt. Crack in the three eggs and mix. Batter will probably be lumpy. Pour in the milk and whisk, whisk, whisk! You want to batter to stop being lumpy J

Drizzle in the butter and whisk again.

Voila! That is the batter.

Heat a medium sized skillet on medium heat and spritz with cooking spray. Pour a ladle full (probably ¼ to ½ cup) of the batter into pan and twirl the pan so that the bottom is evenly coated with batter.

When the edges roll back a little, or you are able to move it with a spatula without tearing it, flip it over for just enough time to cook.

They are done and they should be soft and lovely with gold speckles or a soft gold color all over.

Fill with whatever your heart desires!!

Bon Appetit!

Viva la Crepe!!!