"A la Chandeleur, l'hiver prend fin ou prend vigueur" (At Chandeleur, winter ends or gets stonger). Chandeleur (from "chandelle", i.e. candle) marks the return of light, the lengthening of days: winter will be over soon. (In English, it is know as Candlemas, although I met no one here who had heard of Candlemas. Here's some Christian Wiki-info for you, and some pagan info. This page has proverbs).
To help you be patient and bear the cold, the best thing to do is to enjoy what winter is good for: greasy and heavy foods.
Traditionally, in France, families and friends gather together to make crêpes.
Crêpes used to be the poor person's fare: a simple mixture of flour and water. Nowadays, many recipes include animal by-products, but that is unnecessary. If you hear people say that real crepes have to contain eggs, milk and butter, it's simply not true: that's just the way they learned. "Real crepes" just have to be round and flat...
There are two types of crêpes: savory or sweet. Savory crêpes are made of buckwheat (a gluten-free flour), and sweet crêpes are made of wheat.
To stay true to the origins of crêpes, I made a very basic and recession-friendly recipe.
batter in a jar
Crêpes
ingredients for one crêpe
¼ cup flour (buckwheat or wheat)
¼ cup liquid (water, almond, rice or soy milk, or half water-half milk)
¼ tsp potato starch
¼ tsp sugar (for the sweet crêpes)
1 pinch salt
+½ tbsp oil for cooking
what you need
1 non-stick or well-seasoned cast iron pan
1 jar with a lid (or food processor)
1 paper towel
1 bowl for the oil
1 wooden spatula
To help you be patient and bear the cold, the best thing to do is to enjoy what winter is good for: greasy and heavy foods.
Traditionally, in France, families and friends gather together to make crêpes.
Crêpes used to be the poor person's fare: a simple mixture of flour and water. Nowadays, many recipes include animal by-products, but that is unnecessary. If you hear people say that real crepes have to contain eggs, milk and butter, it's simply not true: that's just the way they learned. "Real crepes" just have to be round and flat...
There are two types of crêpes: savory or sweet. Savory crêpes are made of buckwheat (a gluten-free flour), and sweet crêpes are made of wheat.
To stay true to the origins of crêpes, I made a very basic and recession-friendly recipe.
batter in a jarCrêpes
ingredients for one crêpe
¼ cup flour (buckwheat or wheat)
¼ cup liquid (water, almond, rice or soy milk, or half water-half milk)
¼ tsp potato starch
¼ tsp sugar (for the sweet crêpes)
1 pinch salt
+½ tbsp oil for cooking
what you need
1 non-stick or well-seasoned cast iron pan
1 jar with a lid (or food processor)
1 paper towel
1 bowl for the oil
1 wooden spatula
Put all the ingredients (except the oil) in the jar. Close the lid and shake well until you have a smooth batter. (You can also do this the lazy way: in the food processor)
I don't even let it sit (but you might want to do it if you can).
Shake it, shake it!Pour some oil in a small bowl. Heat up the pan. Dip a paper napkin in the oil and apply at the bottom of the pan. Once it's hot (after 20 s.) pour batter in pan, rotating the pan to make sure that the batter covers the whole surface. Like this:
It goes "Pshhh!"... Beautiful...
If you encounter difficulties, just use the spatula to spread the batter evenly.
Cook for about one minute, until the batter is compact, no longer liquid.
This one needs a few more seconds.With a wooden spatula, delicately unstick the borders of the crêpes. Shake the pan horizontally: the crêpe should be loose.
Flip the crêpe, either with the spatula or by throwing it in the air, the way we like to do it in France.
Hold the handle in one hand and a coin in the other hand. Make a wish. Flip.
If the crêpe falls back in the pan,your wish will be granted. And you will be prosperous.
Great flipping job: prosperity is in the cards for 09!Voilà!
Put your crêpe on a plate and top with any filling you want on it. Savory filling for the buckwheat crêpes, sweet filling for the wheat crêpes.
Don't overfill them: it's not a burrito! Fold. Eat.
Yum!Ideas for fillings
Sweet:
The basic filling is butter and sugar: make it Earth Balance and agave sirup. It's delicious... if your veggie butter is salty: even better! In Bretagne, the land of crêpes, people typically eat salted butter.
"Nutshella" (That's what I call my vegan version of Nutella)
Nutshella and banana (a classic...)
Butter and jam
Any type of sweet spread (I made almond-fig paste)
Butter and apple sauce
Cooked apples and raisins
etc.
Savory:
Veggie Butter
Sauteed or creamy spinach
Sauteed or creamy mushrooms
Butter and caramelized onions (OMG...)
Leek (I made creamy cumin leek, which was delicious)
etc.
Basically: anything you feel like or have in the fridge. Just make sure it doesn't come in big chunks: you need to ne able to fold and close your crêpe. Crêpes are NOT burritos!
Invite friends, have them flip crêpes. Light candles. Enjoy the smell of fried foods on your clothes and in your hair all night.
It's also great for breakfast, and for a dinner on a tight budget.
NB: for all of you gluten-intolerant folks, the good news is that buckwheat crepes ARE gluten-free (read about buckwheat here). I don't know if crêpe restaurants mix flours, though, so I would ask. You can also use buckwheat to make your own pancakes, quickbreads... The taste is different than white flour, but what's wrong about that?
Sweet:
The basic filling is butter and sugar: make it Earth Balance and agave sirup. It's delicious... if your veggie butter is salty: even better! In Bretagne, the land of crêpes, people typically eat salted butter.
"Nutshella" (That's what I call my vegan version of Nutella)
Nutshella and banana (a classic...)
Butter and jam
Any type of sweet spread (I made almond-fig paste)
Butter and apple sauce
Cooked apples and raisins
etc.
Savory:
Veggie Butter
Sauteed or creamy spinach
Sauteed or creamy mushrooms
Butter and caramelized onions (OMG...)
Leek (I made creamy cumin leek, which was delicious)
etc.
Basically: anything you feel like or have in the fridge. Just make sure it doesn't come in big chunks: you need to ne able to fold and close your crêpe. Crêpes are NOT burritos!
Invite friends, have them flip crêpes. Light candles. Enjoy the smell of fried foods on your clothes and in your hair all night.
It's also great for breakfast, and for a dinner on a tight budget.
NB: for all of you gluten-intolerant folks, the good news is that buckwheat crepes ARE gluten-free (read about buckwheat here). I don't know if crêpe restaurants mix flours, though, so I would ask. You can also use buckwheat to make your own pancakes, quickbreads... The taste is different than white flour, but what's wrong about that?
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