SATURDAY,FEBRUARY22,2020 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O PURSUITS| P7
Crepes are a classic French food. As you wander Paris,
crepes from street vendors make for a quick snack, a
whole meal or a tasty dessert. But you don’t have to visit
France to enjoy them – crepes are easy to make at
home.
Most importantly, you need the right pan. A good
quality 20-centimetre (8-inch) non-stick frying pan
makes the best crepes, but well-seasoned cast iron is
good, too. There is no need to invest in a specialty crepe
pan.
To make the batter, place 1 cup flour in a large bowl
and make a well in the centre. In a separate bowl, whisk
together 3 eggs, 1^1 ⁄ 2 cups milk and a pinch of kosher salt.
Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the well, whisking
to incorporate the flour. Stir in 2 tbsp melted butter,
which helps to make the crepe lacy. A spoonful of bran-
dy is good for a dessert crepe.
The finest crepe batter is smooth and has the consis-
tency of whipping cream. It should coat the back of a
spoon. If the batter is too thick, stir in a little more milk.
For beginners, a thicker batter is easier to handle.
Alternatively, you can combine the eggs, flour, milk
and salt in a food processor. However, if you follow this
method, you will need to let the batter sit for an hour to
settle. Stir in the butter after the batter is out of the food
processor.
Set your pan over medium-high heat. I prefer to use a
flavourless vegetable oil, as I find that butter burns as
the pan gets hotter. If you use high heat, the crepe bat-
ter sets too quickly making the crepe difficult to turn.
Use a scant^1 ⁄ 4 cup batter for each crepe; the object isto make them thin. When the pan is hot, add a bit of oil,
remove from heat and add the batter, swirling and tilting
the pan immediately so that the batter runs to cover the
base. Return to the heat and cook 30 seconds to 1 minute,
or until brown underneath and lacy bubbles are forming
on the edges. Flip with a spatula or use your fingertips
and cook the other side for 30 seconds. Turn out onto a
clean tea towel.
The first crepe is always a mess, as the pan is not hot
enough or the batter is too thick. Eat it yourself, adjust
for any issues and continue to fry. Turn them out on top
of one another and cover lightly with the tea towel. Don’t
refrigerate; it toughens them.
To reheat crepes, butter a baking sheet and spread the
crepes over it, overlapping. Brush with a little melted
butter and bake at 400 F for 3 to 4 minutes.
Crepes can be frozen for a month. Lay on a baking
sheet and freeze. Once frozen, stack in a freezer-proof
container. Separate and reheat from frozen as above at
350 F for 20 minutes.
In Catholic countries, the Tuesday before Lent is a day
to use up all the rich food around the house. Crepes, with
their butter, eggs and milk, fit the bill. This year, Shrove
Tuesday falls on Feb. 25. Use it as an excuse to show off
your crepe-making skills.
–LUCYWAVERMANSpecialtoTheGlobeandMailNeedsomeadviceaboutkitchenlifeandentertaining?
[email protected].HowdoI
makecrepes?
I
n these grey days of February, when my plan is to
hunker down and keep close to home, I feed any
sense of wanderlust by feeding my family, with
travel-inspired cookbooks as my guides.
When I am actually abroad, grocery stores are al-
ways on my itinerary. I poke through the aisles with
greed and curiosity, relishing the opportunity to dis-
cover how locals eat. A meal can embody the history
of a place – its economics, politics, priorities and her-
itage. My spreadsheet of sites to see furthers the
study, allocating equal column inches to restau-
rants, cooking schools and bookstores as it does
landmarks.
At home,My Lisbonby Nuno Mendes brings me
back to the city’s bairros; I can smell the caramelized
sugar wafting from pastelarias, feel the sun and
breeze blowing across the Tagus at the Praca do
Comercio. When I cook from the book, past memory
is brought to full-colour present, as dishes recreate
the faraway with startling immediacy.
A book from Dishoom, the famed London restau-
rant, is an ode to the Iranian cafés of Mumbai and in
its pages I find reminders of my South Indian fam-
ily’s homes. The photographs could be pulled from
our albums, and I’m again in the cool shade of my
aunty’s porch, with salty-sweet limeade in hand. The
bacon naan roll with tomato chutney is everything I
want for breakfast, washed down with searing sips of
heady masala chai. The meal brings forth memories
of every time I’ve tasted it before. Reading the de-
scriptions alone is a journey.
Then, there are books that transport me to where
I’ve never been. Meredith Erickson’sAlpine Cooking:
Recipes and Stories from Europe’s Grand Mountaintops
sends a welcome shiver down the spine. The photo-
graphs, with gleaming, clear light and the brightestblue skies against snowy peaks, conjure the imag-
ined nostalgia of a perfect après ski moment. Her
treatise on schnitzel is contagiously passionate; her
mention of the hidden basement workshops of
grand hotels captures the romance of those industri-
ous spaces; each section is marked by a love letter to
the geography of a region. Erickson situates you in
the landscape and saves a space for you at the table,
with raclette and cornichon waiting.
Basque Country: A Culinary Journey Through a Food
Lover’s Paradisegrants the armchair traveller en-
trance to the everyday alchemy of Basque cuisine,
with the expertise of one who knows the land intim-
ately. As with the other books, Marti Buckley inter-
sperses recipes with longer passages detailing spe-
cific aspects of cultural interest. These are cook-
books-cum-anthropological studies, odes to people
and places as much as how-tos on cooking.
On a recent Saturday, I lost myself inVietnamese
Food Any Day: Simple Recipes for True, Fresh Flavours
by undisputed icon Andrea Nguyen. Her straightfor-
ward teaching inspires immediate action, and soon
enough I was in the kitchen with her voice in my ear.
I’ve made meatballs like this for years, not wholly
traditional except only to the ingredients I often
have on hand. They are inspired by those southeast
Asian flavours, cribbing heavily from the tastes of
Vietnam with a generous inclusion of herbs and chili
paste. A combination of ground chicken and pork
keeps the mixture lush, as all too often ground chick-
en on its own resembles cotton rather than anything
temptingly succulent. I pair the meat with cucum-
bers dressed in nuoc cham, a Vietnamese condi-
ment with a foundational funk of fish sauce made
bright with garlic, fresh chilies and an assertive dose
of lime juice. The juxtaposition of tangy, almost-
pickled, cool vegetable against sizzling meat is espe-
cially effective here. I would offer the dish, as is, as a
snack with drinks for a larger crowd, or round it out
with sticky rice for the family for dinner. It is travel
without moving, leaving us as equally sated as we are
stoked for the next adventure.HERBEDCHICKENWITH
NUOCCHAMCUCUMBERSINGREDIENTS(SERVES4TO6)FOR THE MEATBALLS(^1) ⁄ 2 cuppanko(Japanesebreadcrumbs)
2tablespoonssweetchilisauce(Thainamchia
kai),or1tablespoonchilipaste(sambaloelek,
orsimilar)and2teaspoonscanesugar
1tablespoonsoysauce
2teaspoonsfishsauce
3shallots,finelyminced
2garliccloves,minced
(^1) ⁄ 3 cuplooselypackedcilantroleaves,minced
(^1) ⁄ 3 cuplooselypackedbasilleaves,minced
(^3) ⁄ 4 poundgroundchicken,preferablynotlean
8ouncessweetsausagemeat,porkorchicken
(about2sausages,casingremoved)
Neutraloil,forcooking
FOR THE SALAD
1garlicclove,peeled
1to2bird’s-eyechilies,stemmedandseeded
3tablespoonscaneorgoldenbrownsugar
Juicefrom1lime,pluswedgesforserving
2tablespoonsfishsauce
(^1) ⁄ 2 cupwater
2Englishcucumbers,sliced
1smallredonion,thinlysliced
Sesameoil,asneeded
Mixedfreshherbs(cilantro,basil,mint)
Chiliflakesandtoastedsesameseeds,
optional
Start with the meatballs. In a large bowl,
mix together the panko, chili sauce, soy
sauce, fish sauce, shallots, garlic, cilantro
and basil. Let stand for 5 minutes, to allow
the panko to soften. Crumble in the ground
chicken and sausage with clean hands,
gently work to combine. Form the mixture
into 16 portions, shaped as desired (patties
and the pictured quenelles grant flat sur-
faces for browning, balls will give a more
tender-bellied result). If there is time, cover
and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
While the meat rests, make the dressing.
Pound the garlic, chilis and half the sugar
together in a mortar and pestle to a paste.
Stir in the rest of the sugar, lime juice and
fish sauce, and most of the water. (If you
don’t have a mortar and pestle, finely
mince the chilies and garlic and stir into the
remaining ingredients.) Taste; the dressing
should be quite intense as the cucumbers
are mild and juicy, but if it is hair-raisingly
bold, dilute with the remaining water. Fold
the dressing into the sliced cucumbers and
onions in a medium bowl. Drip in some se-
same oil and set aside until serving.
Set a heavy, cast-iron or non-stick skillet
over medium heat. Pour in enough oil to
thinly coat the surface. Working in batches
as necessary, cook the patties on all sides
until golden brown and cooked through,
about 8 minutes total, depending on size.
Transfer to a plate and keep warm while
you finish up with the rest.
Arrange the still-sizzling patties on a
serving plate, then spoon the cucumber
salad over and around. Make sure to spoon
the collected vinaigrette over the meat.
Scatter with extra herbs, chili flakes and se-
same seeds if desired, and tuck lime wedges
alongside.
SpecialtoTheGlobeandMail
TARAO'BRADY/THEGLOBEANDMAIL
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