This weekend i met with my family for dinner at Le Pappion du Park on Eastern Avenue. When i was younger we had gone to the orignial one a few times before we went to plays at Young People's Theater. It was a pretty exciting outing for me, sweet crepes and the excitement of seeing a play. Our dinner at Le Pappion this time, was of course a much more grown-up affair, but of course i was going to have crepes. I ordered a ham and mushroom crepe. I had forgotten what a tasty and nice dinner option they were. My sister had one with a bechamel sauce. My father had the meat pie (of course) and for dessert we had a bread pudding and a sugar pie which was really maple syrup pie - delish!!!
Inspired by my dinner, and because i do love crepes, i though i would embark on my own dinner crepe adventure. (yeah, my life is this cool like) I still had a bunch of that asparagas in my fridge, and some eggs so this began the basis of my meal. I looked up an old recipe i used to make - actually out of the Joy of Cooking, but i also checked out a couple online. There was one that was done in the blender! I have a very few appliances, because my kitchen is part of my living room, and there isn't that much counter space/storage, but i do have a blender. (a wonderful birthday gift from my mom) I usually just make Margaritas in it, so i figgured it would be fun to make a meal. You made it, then allowed it to sit in the fridge for an hour to get the bubbles out.
At Le Pappion, my sister and i had the wrong crepes, so i had a bite of hers - i really liked the bechamel and thought it would be a nice addition to the asparagus. I had never made it before, and i was a little gun shy after my last time trying to make hollandaise, but i thought i'd try again. I actually found making the bechamel very simple, i added half a cup of extra old white cheddar to it so it wasn't just milk, flour and butter. The one thing about this sauce as it made a lot it for one person.
After finishing the sauce, i sauteed some mushrooms in a pat of butter, and once they began to cook i put in some salt and pepper and dried tarrigon. (which i love) When they were half cooked i added the asparagus with the tough bottoms snapped off. Once they were almost finshed i put them in an caserole dish and kept them warm. Then i went on to make the crepes.
I am actually pretty confident at making crepes. I've made them many times, and have my technique down by now. I have some melted butter ready, and have a brush ready to coat the pan. Once you put some batter, you then roll the pan to allow it to spread across the whole surface. The first side should take only 30 or 45 seconds, and once you flip it you only need another ten. I then would add them to a plate that was in the oven with the veggies. The one hint i have for making crepes is often the first one doesn't go well, i consider it seasoning the pan. This time the first one was the best, but if it isn't just move on.
The assembly was simple. I reheated the sauce, placed a crepe on the plate, and topped half with the mushrooms and aspargus, adding some bechamel, closed it and topped it again with the bechamel. Although i really enjoyed making this dish, it really felt weird to eat it all alone. The great thing about it, is that really you can make the batter and bechamel before hand, so its not tough to put together, but its pretty fancy and it would be worth serving to more than the tv. Also i would add shrimp if i was serving a crowd. I served this with a Pelee Island Winery Pinto Grigio.
Above:
Mushrooms and asparagus
Eating the crepes - mushroom, asparagus crepes with cheese bechamel
Adding the milk to the bechamel
Flipping crepes
Bechamel ingredients
Pouring the batter
Recently up at my parent's place my mother allowed me to irritate her by photographing her making a tasty beet and carrot salad. I thought it was a nice salad to make, and you do it in advance, so that the flavours have time to permiate. It also uses beets raw, which is a bit of a change when you think of beets they are usually pickled or roasted. (see Roasted Beet Salad)
Once she had peeled the carrots and beets, and cut them into a more reasonable size, she pulled out the trusty Cuisinart and attached the shredding blade. They say to do the beets first - i don't really know why, i guess it has to do with the dye, but that's how it was done.
