Egg And Spinach Buckwheat Crepes Food

BUCKWHEAT CREPES

Steps:

• Melt 5 tablespoons butter in an 8-inch nonstick skillet. Combine the melted butter, both flours, the milk, eggs and salt in a blender and process until smooth (set the skillet aside). Let the batter rest at room temperature at least 1 hour or overnight. Stir in the parsley, if desired.
• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Heat the skillet over medium heat until a drop of water sizzles in it. Lightly butter the skillet, then add a scant 1/3 cup batter and quickly swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Cook until the crepe sets and browns around the edges, about 2 minutes. Carefully lift with a rubber spatula, flip over and cook about 30 more seconds. Transfer to a plate.
• Repeat with the remaining batter, adding more butter as needed and stacking the finished crepes. Wrap the crepes in a damp dish towel and place in the oven to reheat, about 10 minutes.
• Serve with assorted fillings.
• Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add 2 sliced onions and 2 thyme sprigs. Season with salt and pepper and cook until the onions are lightly browned, about 20 minutes.
• Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 12 ounces spinach and cook until just wilted, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
• Heat 3 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 pound chopped wild mushrooms and 2 thyme sprigs; saute until the mushrooms are golden, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add 2/3 cup heavy cream; toss to warm through. Remove from the heat and add a handful of parsley.
• Saute 1 1/4 pounds shrimp (peeled and halved lengthwise) in 2 tablespoons butter with 1 strip lemon zest, 2 tarragon sprigs and salt and pepper until the shrimp turn pink, 3 to 4 minutes. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and 1/2 cup white wine and simmer 1 minute. Remove from the heat; add 4 tablespoons chopped cold butter and some parsley.

BUCKWHEAT CRêPES

Steps:

• Place the milk, water, eggs and salt in a blender. Cover the blender, and turn on at low speed. Add the flours, then the canola oil, and increase the speed to high. Blend for one minute. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate for one to two hours.
• Place a seasoned 7- or 8-inch crêpe pan over medium heat. Brush with butter or oil, and when the pan is hot, remove from the heat and ladle in about 3 tablespoons batter. Tilt or swirl the pan to distribute the batter evenly, and return to the heat. Cook for about one minute, until you can easily loosen the edges with a spatula. Turn and cook on the other side for 30 seconds. Turn onto a plate. Continue until all of the batter is used.
• Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil, and add the spinach. Blanch for 20 seconds, and transfer to a bowl of ice water. Drain and squeeze dry. Chop and season with salt and pepper.
• Heat the crêpes in a dry skillet over medium heat (or use the skillet you used to fry your eggs). Top with a spoonful of spinach, and top the spinach with the egg, setting the egg to one side so you can fold the crêpe over. Sprinkle the cheese over the top, fold the crêpe over, and transfer to a plate with a spatula. Serve hot.

BUCKWHEAT CRêPE MADAMES

Steps:

• Mix the flour, 1 egg, the milk and a pinch of salt in a jug or bowl. Set aside for 30 mins, or up to 3 hrs. Mash together the mustard, cream and cheese in another bowl. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6, and line two baking trays with baking parchment or foil.
• Melt the butter in a large frying pan, then once foaming, add enough batter to just cover the pan, swirling it to cover the surface in a thin layer (pour any excess back into the batter bowl). Cook until the surface is set and the underside is browning, carefully flip and cook for another minute or 2, then take off the heat.
• Spoon a quarter of the cheese mixture onto the middle of the pancake, using the spoon to create space in the centre to hold an egg. Crack one into the space and lay a few pieces of ham around the edges. Fold each side of the pancake in towards the centre to make a square. Cook in the pan for another 30 secs-1 min, then transfer to a baking tray. Repeat with the rest of the pancakes, then bake for 6-7 mins until the egg whites are set. Serve with fried mushrooms or wilted spinach, if you like.

GALETTE DE BRETAGNE (BUCKWHEAT CREPES FROM BRITTANY, FRANCE)

Steps:

• Put the dry buckwheat flour and salt into the bowl, then with a spoon push the mix to the edges of the bowl leaving a hole in the center.
• Then pour some of the milk and add some of the eggs into the center of the bowl.
• With a spoon slowly fold in a little of the flour into the liquid and mix, always keeping the liquid soupy in texture.
• Continue to slowly add the milk and eggs to the center of the bowl and fold in the flour in this way so the mix is never sticky but rather always soupy.
• Doing this results in a non-lumpy mix that is very smooth.
• Mix for a few minutes with an electric mixer, while slowly adding the water to the bowl while mixing.
• Add the water as the flour thickens so that the mixture doesn't become sticky.
• The final mixture should be more watery than you would expect for North American pancakes, roughly the the consistency of melted chocolate.
• note: A secret tip for this recipe is to add at this point a table spoon of beer to the mix for every egg you added, as the malty beer really brings out the flavor of the buckwheat.
• Leave for a few hours in the fridge.
• After the mix is chilled, check the consistency, if it is too hard (most likely) then add enough extra water to make mix smooth.
• Again, it should be smooth, silky and as runny as melted chocolate.
• The mix is now ready to use.
• To make each galette, heat up two elements on your cooker.
• One at maximum temperature, the other on a medium heat.
• Place a very flat griddle or large frying pan on the maximum temperature hottest element of the cooker to heat up.
• Add 5 grams of butter to the heated frying pan and wait till it melts and turns brown.
• Then wipe the whole frying surface with paper towel to remove the butter leaving the pan lightly greased.
• Don't be afraid to reuse your paper towel and skip fresh butter between galettes.
• Lift your frying pan slightly off the grill, and add one ladle of mix to the hot pan, so it covers a large surface very thinly.
• Quickly tilt the pan so the mix runs over the whole surface evenly to the edges.
• Try not to add a second ladle to the pan - this doesn't work well, better to live with some holes in the galette.
• Cook the galette for 10-15 seconds on the highest heat, then start to lift the edges of the whole galette up from the pan with a non-stick flat mixing spoon.
• When you can get a good edge up with the spoon, move the pan to the lower heat element of the cooker.
• Lift up a good edge of the galette from the pan with the spoon, and with your fingers lift up the whole galette off the non-stick pan and then flip it over.
• The underside should be golden brown with a very few brown spots.
• Keep the pan on the lower medium heat.
• Now add the fillings to the top of the galette's cooked side.
• filling note. A usual filling is made like this: sprinkle on a little grated Gruyère cheese, then break an egg yolk (discard the white before hand) over the cheese in the center of the galette.
• To this, add 2 slices of diced ham onto the runny egg yolk, and then top it off with a handful of torn spinach leaves.
• The trick is not to overfill the galette.
• Alternatively try different types of cheese, like brie or cheddar, or skip the egg, or skip the ham/spinach.
• Try out loads of combinations - it's like pizzas, you can design your own.
• Let the toppings cook for up to about 1 minute.
• This is the reason to only use egg yolks, if runny they are nice, egg whites however are not nice undercooked.
• Now, Fold the cooked edges of the galette into the center to make a square, to hold the filling.
• Use a spatula to press down on the folded mix so it holds its shape.
• Carefully flip over the parcel, again press down on it with a spatula.
• The galette should have nice golden colour and some little brown spots on it.
• Serve immediately.