Prosciutto, brie and fig preserves crepe. Photo: Sarah LeTrent
Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food staffer Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."
As the last days of August draw near and summertime dwindles away, it's hard not to become a touch depressed. For many, this time of year means the end of vacation season and the renewal of daily routine of alarm clocks and venti, non-fat, extra hot lattes. But summer vacation doesn't need to be over -- not yet.
Crêpes, basically really thin French pancakes, are a delicious escape to France from the daily grind. That's the beauty of food: One bite can instantly transport you to a different time or place.
While a pancake might elicit murmurs of approval, if you throw some crêpes down on the table, you're sure to impress. The above video from Cooking with Alia easily outlines just how to make the crêpe, and gives you a few basic and simple suggestions for filling it.
But I say forget about the classics and get creative. (Or, at the very least, explore the possibilities!) Personally, I disliked crêpes for a long time because I was always given the sweet versions, and they weren't my thing. Once I had some savory crêpes at Art Square Cafe, however, I was a convert. Mayan chocolate with grilled chicken, tuna with cheese, eggs, Mediterranean -- they're all delicious!
For some added pep -- make the edges of the crepe a bit crisp -- the crunch is a nice addition to the usual creamy chewiness.
Ah, where to begin with my long-lasting love affair with the crêpe, the delicately thin French pancake? I think it started with a photo my parents showed me of them eating crêpes with my older sister in Paris. Perhaps, it was the toppings that attracted me. Since I have such an insatiable sweet tooth, it didn't take long for me to get hooked.
I recently crafted some crêpes with just a few different berries, raspberry coulis, and lemon curd. It was the first time I used raspberry coulis in a crêpe. It was perfect. Raspberry coulis is a fruit sauce made from puréed raspberries. It's often used on desserts. The sweetness and tartness added just the right amount of flavor to the crepe without making it overwhelmingly sweet. Although, I have to admit that it takes a lot of sugar to overpower my palate.
And, the addition of lemon curd was superb! It not only enhanced the creaminess, but it also created an exquisite looking crêpe. As if I hadn't already added enough sweetness to the crêpe, I sifted sugar over it for the finale. The recipe I used to make the lemon curd and other dishes that call for lemon curd can be found after the jump.
Click on the gallery below to see the beautiful colorful process I was fortunate to experience in order to decorate and flavor the crêpe.
I like to make sure that I offer up a good balance of new and old cookbooks in this (mostly) daily post. I love to flip through all the glossy new cookbooks that are hitting shelves these days, but sometimes I find myself turning to the old, the known and the comforting. Today's book, Crepe Cookery, isn't a volume I grew up with, but as it's one of those light-weight, magazine-sized editions that was once sold in grocery stores, it feels familiar and as if it was something that was always at hand.
Written by Mable Hoffman (who also wrote Crockery Cookery, our April 1st Cookbook of the Day) and printed in 1976, this cookbook was the first exposure that a lot of people had to making crepes at home (if they weren't ambitious enough to make them from Mastering the Art of French Cooking). It offers helpful, step-by-step pictures on how cook crepes using either the upside down (dipping the crepe pan into the batter) or right side up (ladling the batter into the pan) methods. There are also lots of pictures demonstrating the varied ways you can fill, fold and serve your crepes.
There are five all-purpose crepe batter recipes in this book, as well as recipes that incorporate graham crackers, mashed potato, wheat germ, beer, yogurt, cornmeal and chocolate. She also devotes 15 pages to the various pans you can use to cook crepes, how to season them if purchasing a new one and their pluses and minuses. It's a surprisingly relevant section, considering that the book is more than 30 years old.
If you like making crepes, or are looking for a good introductory book to help you learn, this might just be a good book for you. There are multiple copies selling on Amazon for a penny (plus shipping), so it won't cost you much to check it out if you're intrigued. c
I once whined to my mother (aka: Knower of All Things Culinary, and Go-To Person for All of Life's Quanadries) that I couldn't make a decent crepe without a crepe pan, and she waved my complaint away with her hand, insisting that while a crepe pan is nice, it's definitely not necessary.
On NPR's Kitchen Window series, we're reminded of this glorious food. Really, how can one simple butter-flour-milk mixture hold so much potential? NPR provided two simple recipes - one for a sweet crepe, and one for savory. I decided to tackle the savory one, substituting Morningstar faux chicken strips for real chicken. (The greenish blob on the top is 365 Brand Pesto - I really have to work on presentation).
As I attempted the little devils, I came to some important conclusions: 1). Let the butter soften before mixing it in the food processor. Otherwise, you will wind up with weird lumps in your batter. 2). Make sure your pan is really, really hot and really, really well-oiled. 3). If you do not like gummy, rubbery crepes, add ONLY 1/4 cup of batter and cook until the thing is lightly dotted with brown spots. 4.) If at first you don't succeed...
As you can see by the myriad conclusions, it took one or two tries before I figured it out. Granted, they aren't as good at the ones at Philly's Beau Monde, but I was pretty darn proud of myself. But if anyone has any tips for next time (I still have some batter left), please - I'm all ears!
(Oh - and mom was totally right about the pan thing).
Similar to crepes, these Swedish pancakes (prepared and photographed by Sweetnicks) are thin and the perfect vehicle for butter and syrup or powdered sugar and lemon. I remember I had a friend in middle school who's mother always made these when I stayed overnight at their house. I'm longing for the taste of them even now. Lucky for all of us, the recipe can be found right here.
I must say that I was transfixed by the photos when I read the post about the Chocolate Crepe Cake on Foodaholic. It is a dreamboat of a cake, and a very uncommon type, too. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary cake, but every slice is a wonder as the cake is composed of a stack of about 20 crepes, all layered generously with a rich chocolate and espresso filling/glaze. The white topping is actually cream that is poured over the finished cake, swirling together with the chocolate glaze. It looks amazing both whole and once it has been sliced, since you can see all the thin layers that make it up then.
The recipe was from Delicious Magazine, but it can be found in the post, as well. It was featured on the cover, but Foodaholic's photo looks at least as good, if not a bit better. If the combination of chocolate and espresso isn't your favorite, you can try Martha Stewart's darkest chocolate crepe cake, instead. Either way, jaws will drop if you serve a cake like this one.
Crepes, waffles and pancakes are three foods that are firm favorites at breakfast, but often have all their possibilities over looked in the book Crepes, Waffles and Pancakes aims to remedy that by presenting the reader with over 100 different recipes for the three that range from savory to sweet and cover every meal of the day, from breakfast to dessert. One of the things that I like best about this book is that a good number of the recipes are based on one or three basic batters. On one hand, it does seem a bit like you're only getting a few recipes in the whole book, but on the other, it means that you only really have to master a few things to make all of the delicious-looking dishes. Besides, when you have a good recipe, you may as well stick with it. The more basic recipes include Lemon and Sultana Buttermilk Pancakes, Breakfast Waffle Sandwich and Vanilla Crepes with Autumn Fruits. Some of the more unusual recipes include Walnut Crepes with Waldorf-style Chicken Salad, Pesto Pancakes Crisps and Spicy Lamb and Chickpea Waffles. There are tips for making some of the recipes gluten free, which is a nice addition for anyone sensitive to wheat or gluten, and most of the recipes are accompanied by tempting photographs.
Crepes, the thin and fluffy pancakes that always manage to seem slightly exotic to those more familiar with the thicker American-style of pancake, are as easy to make as they are to eat. Once you discover this, you might find yourself more inclined to make them on a regular basis, which is where a book such as Crêpes: Sweet & Savory Recipes for the Home Cook comes in handy.
The book has recipes for 15 different varieties of basic crepes, with 11 suitable for savory dishes and 4 sweeter ones for dessert crepes, and all are used in different combinations to create dramatically different dishes. Technique is thoroughly covered, with suggestions on what size pan to use as well as how to mix the batter and how to determine the right moment to flip the pancake. There are also tips for storing crepes, so you'll have them on-hand when you are ready for them. Recipes include Cheese Blintzes, Tomato Crepes with Ratatouille, Blue Corn Crepes with Leeks and Mushrooms, Strawberry and Ricotta Crepes and Chocolate and Hazelnut Praline Crepes, as well as many more mouthwatering combinations.
It is easy to get into a breakfast rut. Cereal, fruit and toast are so ridiculously simple to prepare that even on weekends it seems like doing anything else is a bit of a pain. But foods that take slightly longer than opening a box of cereal are also much tastier than cereal, so what we need here is some motivation to get our culinary juices flowing on this morning. The above video is a well put-together music video of pancake making, complete with a pancake-making song that could very well have you singing along as you cook. The pancakes are the thin crepe-like British style of pancake and are served in multiple - tempting - variations that will definitely get you craving a plate of them yourself.
It doesn't include a recipe, so you might want to try out one of our eight favorite pancake recipes or some crepes, so you can experiment with different fillings as they do in the video.
Of course, if you're content with cereal for breakfast, you might just want to skip the video and go pour yourself a bowl right now.
Even though the may of Pancake Town USA doesn't seem to think that
any time is a good time for pancakes, he certainly can't deny that Fat Tuesday, also known as Shrove Tuesday, is a
natural day for them. The tradition of eating pancakes on the last day before the season of Lent was started to use up
dairy and eggs that were often abstained from, from Ash Wednesday to Easter. But enough with religious roots: you don't
need an excuse to eat pancakes, but it doesn't hurt to have one. Here are Slashfood's eight favorite pancake
recipes:
Williams-Sonoma circulated a recipe this week for Goat Cheese Crepes with Fig Jam, and just the photo alone is making a bunch of us drool. And it's making a splash around the blogs, too – The Expatriate Chef, for instance, ponders the thyme folded into the crepe batter and wonders aloud about the various possibilities of using fresh herbs in desserts. I say, if you can make pesto out of mint (and believe me, you can), there's more than enough room in the cookie n' cake world for parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Even though the may of 
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