Crepe envelopes with mushroom-chard filling

Jon was away last weekend, so I wanted to make something special for him when he came back last night. (I'm like Ina Garten that way.) I decided on these stuffed crepes. We had made them one other time when a friend came over for dinner, but I tweaked and improved the recipe a bit this time. These are buckwheat crepes with a yummy, creamy filling. I decided to go with a crepe recipe that had some wheat flour as well instead of the all-buckwheat version I often make because I thought the wheat would help the crepes stay pliable for folding. Next time I might try with the all-buckwheat ones.

I based the filling on a caramelized leek and mushroom filling I saw in a cookbook, but I used onions instead of leeks because I am not sophisticated enough to care about leeks, and I added chard because I don't like mushrooms that much, and the chard takes some of the focus away from the mushrooms. If I do say so myself, it's a pretty darn good filling: creamy, flavorful, and rich-tasting. Jon is insane and adds Tabasco sauce to his.

This dinner was a bit time-consuming and involved, but I think it's a really nice, elegant looking meal. Jon was very appreciative. Of course, I served it with a salad as well. (And a ginger cake that will appear on the blog soon.)

Crepe envelopes with mushroom-chard filling

Crepes:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup buckwheat flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup water, plus extra if necessary

2 tbsp butter, melted

Filling:

2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil

1 medium onion, diced

1/2 lb assorted mushrooms, sliced (I used a mix of shiitake and crimini, but that's just because the store was low on mushroom variety)

5 leaves Swiss chard, stems separated, both stems and leaves chopped

1/2 tsp salt, divided (1/4 tsp and 1/4 tsp)

zest of 1 lemon

5 leaves sage, julienned

3/4 cup yogurt

1 egg

1/2 cup grated cheese (we used Gruyere, but any hard cheese would probably be good)

To make the crepes: Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and whisk the egg, milk, and 1/3 cup water together in another bowl. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry. Whisk in melted butter. Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour. Remove from refrigerator, whisk in a little more water if necessary to make an easy-to-pour batter. Make crepes by heating a crepe or nonstick pan with a flat bottom over medium heat. Pour 1/4 cup batter onto pan and turn to spread as evenly as possible. Cook until bottom is golden brown. Turn and cook a little more on the other side, so it has brown flecks as well. Repeat, and set crepes aside in a warm oven or microwave to keep them warm and pliable. (I actually made the filling first and then the crepes, so they wouldn't get too cool.)

To make filling: Saute onions in oil until very soft. Add mushrooms, chard stems, and 1/4 tsp salt, and cook until mushrooms are very soft and have given off their water. Add leaves and lemon zest, and cook until leaves are just wilted. Turn off heat and stir in sage leaves.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine yogurt, and egg. Whisk until smooth, and then stir in cheese, remaining 1/4 tsp salt, and vegetable mixture.

To assemble crepes: Spray a baking pan with nonstick spray, and preheat the oven to 350 F. Place one crepe "face"-side down (the face is the first side you cook; it's a little more attractive than the other side). Spoon some filling in the middle. Fold top and bottom over filling, then left and right sides, to make a little pouch. Place seam-side down in your baking pan. Repeat with the rest of the crepes. Bonus points if you have exactly the right amount of filling for the crepes. If you have extra crepes, you can eat them with butter and a little salt.

Bake crepes for 15 minutes or so. I'm not really sure how to tell if they're done visually, but 15 minutes worked for me.

Dosas with potato filling

I tried to make dosas a long time ago, and while they were fun, they were also kind of chunky and didn't spread very well. I intended to try again soon, and now a mere 18 days later, I have. This time I used a mix I found at a Chinese grocery store (not sure why they sell dosa mix, but I went with it). Instead of having to ferment the rice-lentil batter overnight, this one was instant. I just had to let it sit for 10 minutes. I still had trouble spreading the batter, but they were smoother. I really liked the potato filling I made up. The only time I've had dosas in a restaurant, the filling was way too spicy for me. This one was just right. I parboiled the potatoes before adding them to the saute with the rest of the veggies, and I think that was a good call. I also used some frozen veggie mix because I am in pantry/freezer elimination mode (moving to Chicago in about a month), and I had these veggies in there. I think fresh cauliflower would have been even better than this mix.

To complete the faux-Indianness of the week, I also got henna on my hand yesterday. It's very pretty. Do you see the bird in the design? In this picture, the henna paste is still on my hand. Today, the design is a dark reddish brown.

Dosas with potato filling

4 medium red potatoes, chopped into 1-inch cubes

Vegetable oil for sauteing

1 tsp whole mustard seeds

1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1/2 large onion, diced

1 1/2 tsp curry powder (I'm in love with Penzey's Maharajah blend-if you get the Penzey's catalog, you just got a coupon for a free 1/2 cup jar of anything. Try this curry powder. I think it's the most expensive thing they sell in a 1/2 cup jar. And it's tasty.)

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups frozen vegetables (my blend was cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots) or fresh cauliflower or whatever needs using

Dosas, prepared using package directions

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until they are almost ready. Remove or drain, reserving some of the water.

In the meantime, heat oil in saute pan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let them sizzle and pop for about 30 seconds. Add onion and saute for about 4 minutes or until translucent. Add curry powder, salt, and potatoes and saute for a few more minutes. Add about 1/3 cup potato cooking water to deglaze the pan, then add other veggies. Cook until everything is hot and potatoes are completely tender, adding more potato water if necessary. Spoon potato filling into dosas and wrap it up.

Buckwheat galettes

First, a crepe vocabulary lesson. In France, if it's made with wheat, it's filled with something sweet and called a crepe. If it's made with buckwheat, it's filled with something savory and called a galette. So really, "buckwheat galette" is redundant. But we don't live in France, so I'm calling them that anyway. Vegetarian Times had a buckwheat galette recipe in their September issue, and since we had some really fantastic galettes in Brittany in July, we wanted to try to recreate the experience. The recipe worked really well, and we will definitely be making it a lot. The buckwheat has a very distinctive, savory, nutty flavor we love. It's also a lot more interesting texturally than plain wheat crepes. The only drawback to this recipe is that you have to let the batter rest for 12-24 hours before you can make the crepes, so it does require some planning. We usually do menu planning for the week every Saturday or Sunday, so we always know to whip up the batter the day before.

You can fill these with anything savory. Sometimes I just melt some cheese on them and fold them up. They're a great substrate for beet salad. When we serve them that way, we melt the blue cheese a little before adding the other ingredients and leave them open-faced. I also really love filling them with melted cheese, sauteed greens, and a little black pepper. Add a fried egg on top and you have a very hearty, yummy breakfast.
Buckwheat galettes (from Vegetarian Times)
They claim it makes 8, but it made 12 the one time I actually counted them.

1 1/2 cups buckwheat flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 tsp honey

Whisk together flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg and honey with 2 cups of cold water. Using an electric mixer, beat egg mixture into flour mixture until batter is smooth. Beat 6 to 10 minutes, or until batter is light and thickened slightly. (I don't know why we do this step or if it is actually necessary, but the recipe works well as is, so I haven't messed with it.) Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 12-24 hours.

The next day, whisk 1/2-1 cup (I always use 1/2 cup) water unto the chilled galette batter to thin. Heat a nonstick crepe pan over medium heat. I don't have to grease mine at all, but you probably know if you do, so grease it lightly with butter or vegetable oil if necessary. When skillet is hot, pour 1/3 cup batter into the skillet, lifting and turning the pan so the batter coats the bottom. Cook 2-3 minutes, until edges begin to brown and center is brown. You will usually get little bubbles coming up. They're fun to look at. Remove from skillet with a spatula or your fingers and make the next crepe. Before you do that, you might want to melt some cheese on top. If you want dinner to be warm and on the table all at the same time, you can put the cooked crepes in a warm (200 F) oven until you've made them all. Store any extras in the fridge for a few days. They might crack a little when you get them out to reheat and fill them, but they'll still be tasty.

Chickpea crepes with tomatoes, olives, and feta

I've been on a Bon Appetit recipe kick lately, as you may be able to tell. This was in the July 2009 issue. It's not really a crepe, but it's not really a pizza either. It's similar to socca, which we tried in Nice. It's made with chickpea flour, which you can find at a health or fancy food store or an Indian grocery store. (It's called besan in Indian stores.) The recipe from the magazine is rather involved. You cook the crepe on the stove until it's mostly set. Then you put it under the broiler and brown the top and whatever toppings you put on there. You have to add a ton of oil to keep it from sticking, and it's still pretty messy. I had really tasty results when I made it that way, but it was time-consuming, difficult, messy, and very hot. Standing in front of a stove and broiler in August in Houston is not a lot of fun. I would recommend that technique if you really want to knock someone's socks off and aren't on a diet.

Convinced there must be an easier way, I decided to see if I could make them entirely on the stove using my nonstick crepe pan. I don't have to oil the pan at all. I played around a little and came up with this technique, which saves a little time and a lot of heat and effort with very little compromise in flavor. I even got pretty good at flipping the crepe without breaking it, but don't fret if you can't. It'll still taste good. Of course, the toppings below are just a suggestion. The first time, we used beet greens instead of the tomatoes, and those were good too. Plain with a little olive oil and pepper would work just fine, but adding some more toppings makes it a real meal. I think putting a full salad on top would be fun, too.

A nutrition note: 1 cup of chickpea flour has about 21 grams of protein and 10 grams of fiber. More nutrition info here.

Chickpea crepes with tomatoes, olives, and feta (based on Bon Appetit)
1 1/3 cups chickpea flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups water, divided (2/3 cup and 1 1/3 cup)
1 tbsp minced fresh rosemary

1/2 tomato per crepe, cut into wedges
6 kalamata olives per crepe, pitted and coarsely chopped
1 tbsp feta per crepe
Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling

Mix chickpea flour with salt. Gradually add 2/3 cup water, whisking until smooth. Whisk in 1 1/3 cups water and rosemary. Let stand 30 minutes. (Note: I don't know why it needs to stand 30 minutes, but I haven't tried omitting that step.) While you're waiting you can pit olives or make a salad. You should also smell the batter because it smells delightfully beany with lovely rosemary notes.
Heat a crepe pan or other nonstick skillet over medium heat until water sizzles in it. Pour in about 3/4 cups of batter. (That was for a 9-inch crepe pan. If you have a smaller one, use less batter.) Tilt the pan if necessary to get the batter to coat the whole thing. It should be 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, more a pancake thickness than a crepe thickness. Cook until mostly set on the top. Pierce bubbles if they form. Carefully loosen crepe from pan and flip. Cook about 30 seconds to a minute on that side. Repeat with remaining batter. You might have to turn the heat down a little as you go along.
Top each crepe with tomatoes, olives, and feta. Drizzle with olive oil as desired.

Crepes three ways

Since getting back from Europe, we have been suffering from a little jet lag. It is getting better, but when you travel west, you get tired early and wake up early. Consequently, I've been having more elaborate breakfasts than usual. This is what I made on Sunday. For once I was up well in time for With Heart and Voice on the radio, and I listened to it while eating my crepes. Initially, I was planning on filling them all with fruit, but I had all this time and all these ingredients, so I filled them three ways.

Filling 1: strawberries, blueberries, and plain yogurt
Filling 2: mozzarella cheese, a slice of tomato, and basil
Filling 3: Blue cheese and blanched asparagus

Jon did the expert garnishing. The bottom two are garnished with basil flowers from my garden, which is still alive after being very well-tended by some friends while we were gone.

Half-whole-wheat crepes
I have a friend whose mother is white and father is Korean. She describes herself as 100% half-Asian, so I think of her when I describe these crepes as half whole wheat.

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/8 cup water, plus more if the batter is too thick
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor and mix together. Refrigerate batter for 1-24 hours. To make the crepes, heat a crepe pan over medium-high heat until hot. Pour 1/4 cup batter onto the pan and try to get it to spread as well as possible (and let me know if you figure out how to do that). Cook for about 30 seconds on the first side. Flip and cook for about 15 seconds more.

This was cooked into one of my crepes. I thought it kind of looked like calligraphy.

Chocolate crepes with fruit and yogurt

I got a crepe pan in November from an aunt. At first I thought it was kind of silly. I had never minded not making crepes. But it works really well, and I have had a lot of fun with it. I have made regular savory crepes, chickpea flour crepes, garlic scape crepes, regular sweet crepes, and now chocolate crepes. We had a lot of fruit salad left over from Jon's mom's visit, and I thought this would be a good way to use it up. I accidentally forgot to add the water, and the batter didn't spread as well in the pan as I would have liked, but they tasted pretty good anyway. Also, the recipe calls for 1/4 cup powdered sugar, and I used 2 tbsp regular sugar. It was not very sweet at all, which was fine with me since I was putting fruit in it.

Chocolate crepes, from Crepes by Lou Seibert Pappas
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup water
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp liqueur, optional (I used Grand Marnier, although I didn't get much of the flavor)
2 tbsp butter, melted.

Mix everything in a food processor. If you don't have one, mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately and then whisk together. Cover and refrigerate 1-24 hours. (I don't know whether that is essential, but I always do it.) To make the crepes, stir the batter just to make sure nothing has separated. Then heat up your crepe pan over medium to medium-high heat. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan, tilting to let it spread. Cook until mostly dry on top, usually under a minute. Then flip over and cook for 15-30 seconds on the other side. Fill as you see fit.

In case you were curious, the fruit salad contained apples, bananas, clementines, pineapple chunks, strawberries, raspberries, and sliced almonds. I thought the almonds were a stroke of genius. It's nice to have that little crunch every once in a while. And of course, the yogurt I used was my homemade plain stuff. I added 1/3 cup of powdered milk to the last batch, and I think it helped make the yogurt nice and thick.