Paris, crêpes, and Mary

The family and I went to Paris to start out our summer vacation this year.  It was really fun to see Paris through the kids' eyes and to have an excuse to be a tourist.  The kids loved the Louvre and Eiffel Tower and even wanted to climb up the Arc de Triomph. They were unimpressed with the beauty of the avenues and prefered to sleep in taxis rather than admire the view.  They did not want to sit in a cafe all day (what?!) but loved the food markets, fresh crusty baguettes and eating Vietnamese pho noodles for the first time.  And as all good tourists do, we had several crêpes for snacks in between seeing sites. 

Which led us to understand that we really needed a râteau en bois to take home.  Yes, that's right.  A 

wooden crêpe batter spreader thingy. The ultimate Paris souvenir. You heard it here first folks!

Mary and I cooking together.

So, today we tried making crêpe with our rateau.  The recipe I use now is from my friend Mary, so I always think of her whenever I make crêpes.  Mary was an amazing cook and the last time I saw her, we made a huge pile of crêpes together for a party.  We made the crêpes in advance during the day.  To serve, we just reheated them in the oven, wrapped in foil.  We had a big bowl of whipped cream, another huge bowl of berries, and some chocolate sauce. Guests filled their own crêpe and we had a long line of very happy customers.  I am so privileged that my last memory of Mary was such a happy one, full of laughter and good food.  I think Mary would have approved of the râteau.  She probably would have been better at using it than me!

To be honest, it wasn't that much easier to use the râteau than to just swirl the batter in the pan. It takes a light touch on the rateau not to tear the delicate batter and it took a few tries before we managed to make a good looking crêpe.  The main thing that is better with the râteau is that you don't have to be in such a hurry, like you do when you swirl the batter.  In fact, you need to wait a few seconds after you have poured in the batter before you spread it with the râteau. So the process is a bit calmer.  Whether you decide to swirl or use a râteau, the crêpes will taste good all the same!

You can put almost anything on your crêpes.  My personal favorite is the simplest, just a sprinkle of sugar and lemon onto the hot crepe.

Mary's Crêpe Recipe

Makes  about 10 crêpes:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1/3 cup water

3 eggs

3 tbsps butter, melted

1.       Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and process briefly.

2.       With the motor running, add the milk, water, and eggs,  through the feed tube.  Process until smooth.  Alternatively, you can beat the batter with a whisk by hand.

3. Pour the batter into a bowl and then add the melted butter slowly, whisking all the time.

3.       Heat a heavy 7-inch nonstick skillet (mine is a 9-inch) until quite hot.  Pour in 3 tbsps (I use a 1/4 cup) of the batter, then quickly tilt the pan so the batter spreads evenly, forming a crepe.  

4.  If using a râteau, pour in the batter in the center of the pan.  Wait a few seconds and then gently use the rateau to swirl the batter around to the edges of the pan.

5. Cook until lightly brown, 30 to 45 seconds; then turn and cook another 15 seconds.

6.       Repeat, using up all the batter.  As you finish the crêpe, stack them between sheets of waxed paper to prevent them from sticking or serve them at once, hot from the pan.  If making crêpes for later, wrap the stacked crêpes in plastic wrap.  They will keep in the refrigerator for 2 days.  To re-heat, simply wrap them in foil and heat them in the oven. 

Madeleines

Oscar informed me this morning that he was going to make Madeleines, the French scallop shaped teacake that Proust has made so famous.  He said he had promised all of his teachers to give them some.  Oscar has loved madeleines since we lived in Berkeley where they are commonly sold at Starbucks.  A couple of weeks ago, he asked me to buy him some but I told him that I had never seen any here in Sweden.  I then mentioned that we had a madeleine pan and that we could make them.  He said no more about it and I assumed he forgot, but this morning I understood I was wrong!  He asked me to buy the ingredients and so I googled madeleines and found a myriad of recipies.  I read blogs about the cakes which discussed at length whether or not to refrigerate the dough over night and whether you must freeze the pans.  The size of the bump seems to be important, though it is unclear what size the bump should actually be.  It all looked daunting and I felt a bit tired before I even started.

Finally, I found two recipes that interested me.  One was by Martha Stewart which used cardamom and orange instead of the traditional lemon as flavoring.  The second was in Epicurious and this one I liked for its simplicity.  No refrigerating the dough, no messing about with the pans, and no bump discussions.

Oscar and I made both kinds, traditionally flavored with lemon, and ones made with orange and cardamom. They turned out to be easily made; the batter only took a few minutes to put together. Both flavors were delicious, particularly  when hot straight out of the oven, which is the way I believe they are intended to be eaten.  Slightly crispy on the molded side and tender on the other side. Most recipes say to dust with powdered sugar but they did not need the extra sweetening.

The Martha Stewart recipe specified a simple orange juice and powdered sugar glaze to brush over the finished cakes.  If I thought that the cakes would last more than an hour in my house or I was making them in advance, I would be tempted to do this because I suspect it would help keep them fresher.  But it is gilding the lily.

Makes 24 madeleines

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel or orange peel

½ teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)

Pinch of salt

1 cup all purpose flour

10 tablespoons (140 grams) butter

Powdered sugar, if you like

Preheat oven to 350°F (175 c). Generously butter and flour pan for madeleines). In a small pan, melt the butter with the lemon or orange peel and cardamom, if you are using it.  In a medium sized bowl, beat eggs and 2/3 cup sugar with a whisk just to blend. Beat in vanilla, and salt. Add flour; beat just until blended. Gradually add cooled melted butter in steady stream, beating just until blended.

Spoon 1 tablespoon batter into each indentation in pan, so that is almost completely filled. A small icecream scooper makes this an easier job. Bake until puffed and brown at the edges, about 10 to 15 minutes. Gently remove from pan. Repeat process, buttering and flouring pan before each batch.

Dust cookies with powdered sugar, if you wish.

*A metal mold with scallop-shaped indentations, sold at cookware stores.  If you are using a non-stick pan, then you do not need to flour the pan.

Crepes Suzette

Summer Evening by P.S. Kroyer, 1893

There is a tiny town at the very Northern tip of Denmark called Skagen.  It is a magical place with the whitest sand, bluest seas, and an extra special light which has been a siren’s song to artists for hundreds of years.  You can walk out on the beach to the end of land and see where two different seas collide into one another, which is a magical sight all by itself.  In the very charming old town, there is a charming hotel called Brondrums.  In its heyday, artists flocked to stay at this hotel and paint lovely ladies in lace dresses strolling on the surrounding beaches.  Today it is still a quaint and charming hotel with a delicious French-influenced restaurant.  And here, unbowed by culinary fashions, very proper waiters serve delicious old-fashioned food at white clothed tables.  My young boys were absolutely fascinated at the Crepes Suzette that were prepared and flamed in front of them at the table.  Every now and then, they say to me “Oh, do you remember those pancakes that were on fire…I wish we could have them again.”  So, after a time, I felt inclined to recreate those pancakes for them.  And they were delicious.  This classic grand dame deserves to return to the table.

Serves 4 to 5

For the pancakes

100 grams flour (1 ½ deciliters)

2 eggs

200 ml milk

Zest of one orange

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted

For the sauce

150 ml orange juice (about 2 to 3 oranges)

Zest of oranges

Juice of one lemon plus zest

2 tablespoons sugar

50 grams butter

About 3 tablespoons Grand Marnier or Cointreau

To prepare the pancakes, beat the eggs and milk.

Vanilla icecream to serve.

For the pancakes, beat the eggs and milk together.  Add the flour and sugar and beat until completely smooth.  Stir in the orange zest and melted butter.  You can prepare this batter in advance and let it sit an hour or so, if you like.  To prepare the pancakes, heat a pan very hot, then turn it down a bit.  If you are using a nonstick pan, you don’t have to really use butter, but if you aren’t then swipe the pan with a paper towel with a bit of butter on it between each pancake.  Pour about two tablespoons of batter onto the pan, swirling it around to form a very thin pancake.  This is tricky to do and you may have to go through a couple to get the hang of it.  But don’t worry if they are not round and perfect, you really won’t notice it in the final dish.  It should take less than a minute to cook.  You will see the very edges go brown and then it is time to flip.  The other side will only take a few seconds to cook.  Lay the pancakes on a plate with a bit of wax paper or parchment paper in between each pancake so that they don’t stick together.  You can prepare the pancakes well in advance.  This batter should make between 10 to 15 pancakes, about 6 inches in diameter.

When you are ready to eat, prepare the sauce.  Have all the ingredients pre-measured and ready at the side of your pan.  Heat the sugar over a medium heat until it liquefies and starts to caramelize.  Note that once the sugar starts to color it will go from light gold to burnt very quickly!  Plop the butter in the pan and stir.  Pour in the juices and the zest.  Stir vigorously until all the caramel has melted into the juice.  Let the sauce simmer for a bit until the sauce reduces and thickens slightly.  Take a crepe and fold it in half, lay it in the sauce and then flip it over so that both sides are covered with sauce.  Fold the crepe into fourths and push it to the side of the pan.  Repeat this with all the crepes.  When the last crepe has been folded, pour in the liqueur.  Quickly take a match and light the mixture.  Let the fire burn for ten seconds or so to burn off the alcohol, while swirling the pan.

To serve, take two crepes on each plate.  Add a large scoop of vanilla ice cream and pour some of the orange sauce over the crepes and ice cream.  It is also lovely to garnish this with some sliced oranges.

Eat while hot!