Crepes--Cook-Off 23

[Chufi]

Yetty, so good to see you here again!

Marmish, that chocolate mille crepes is amazing.

Okay, I just had lunch, Dutch kaaspannenkoek - cheese crepe.

After ladling in a thin layer of batter, and swirling it around to coat your pan, quickly cover the uncooked top of the crepe with thin slices of cheese (I used a semi-mature Gouda, but any flavorful cheese with good melting capabilities will work).

Now, quickly pour some more batter ontop of the cheese slices. The trick is to have this layer of batter as thin as possible, just a mere coating of the cheese.

Cook until you can see that the cheese is melting and the top layer of batter is starting to set. Flip and cook for another minute. Some of the cheese will ooze out and start to fry and crisp in the pan, but that only makes it more delicious.

These crepes are served 'wrong' way up, otherwise you would not be able to see the cheese.

Okay, now I'll stop making crepes!

[Lori in PA]

Klary, that looks SO good! Do you sort of drizzle the top batter on the cheese? Spread it with a spoon?

[Chufi]

Klary, that looks SO good!  Do you sort of drizzle the top batter on the cheese?  Spread it with a spoon?

←

yes, just drizzle a bit on top of the cheese and spread it out with the back of a spoon. It does not really matter if not all of the cheese is covered, those bits will fry up in the hot pan after you've flipped them over and those crispy bits of cheese are what makes this so good.

[Susan in FL]

Klary, thanks for describing your cheese crepe making. This cook-off has given me a "new thing" more than any of the others have; I am ready to branch out to a cheese crepe I do believe. And, your post is timely. Last night my reading in bed (which is usually food magazines) included reading that some restaurant serves prosciutto crepes, and I wonder if those are made the same way.

One thing I love about crepes is they are so versatile. Anything goes, especially with the kind of batter I made, which was not too savory and not too sweet. They have been great for either entree or dessert.

Did you make a whole bunch, and have some for other meals, or have you perfected a recipe that makes just enough to serve two people? How about the others of you? My batter made like twenty-some crepes, and what's left are in the freezer, each separated by waxed paper.

[Shaya]

Oh, Klary, those cheese crepes are right up my alley. Must make those really soon.

[mrbigjas]

Yetty, so good to see you here again!

Marmish, that chocolate mille crepes is amazing.

Okay, I just had lunch, Dutch kaaspannenkoek - cheese crepe.

After ladling in a thin layer of batter, and swirling it around to coat your pan, quickly cover the uncooked top of the crepe with thin slices of cheese (I used a semi-mature Gouda, but any flavorful cheese with good melting capabilities will work).

Now, quickly pour some more batter ontop of the cheese slices. The trick is to have this layer of batter as thin as possible, just a mere coating of the cheese.

Cook until you can see that the cheese is melting and the top layer of batter is starting to set. Flip and cook for another minute. Some of the cheese will ooze out and start to fry and crisp in the pan, but that only makes it more delicious.

OMG dutch quesadillas!

[Marmish]

Klary, those look delicious!

[purplewiz]

Klary, what a lovely cheese crepe. I'm going to have to put those on the future dinner list - I'm getting all kinds of ideas on how to serve them!

Marcia.

[Abra]

Klary, I love that idea, especially with the "triple-aged" Gouda we can get in a couple of places. I'm really looking forward to making those.

[kalicki]

Used a batter posted earlier in the thread, a beef bourguignon recipe I found in a cookbook I have, and some sliced pears and cherries sautéed with butter, cinnamon and sugar (well, splenda) for dessert.

I really need to get better at taking food pictures, my kitchen is just so dark though.

[JustKay]

There was a crepe stand here that sold crispy thin crepes. Prior to this, the crepes I've had were all the soft type.

Anyways, I just want to share what can be called Malay Crepes. It's proper Malay name is Kuih Dadar or Ketayap and it's filling is coconut.

The basic recipe is:

For the batter:

10 pandan leaves (pound and mix with a little water and then strain to obtain extract/juice)

120g AP flour

1 egg

pinch of salt

300ml coconut milk (not thick coconut milk/cream - it's consistency should be like milk)

Filling:

60g palm sugar

20g sugar

3T water

1/2 coconut - grated

pandan leaves (to add aroma)

Prepare the filling: add sugar and water and heat till dissolved. Add coconut and pandan leaves. Cook over medium heat until it becomes sticky. Remove from heat, discard pandan leave and set aside.

For the batter:

Add egg to the flour and add coconut milk with the pandan extract and mix until batter is smooth. Strain if necessary.

Heat and grease the pan. Add about 1/4 cup of the batter and slowly swirl and tilt the pan to obtain a thin layer of batter.

It's not necessary to turn it over as when the bottom is done, so will the top.

Remove from heat, let cool for a bit and then put the filling on the top-side and fold over ends, and roll.

A Malay cooking site, Alaf21 is the source for the recipe above. The site is in Malay though.

And here's a recipe for "Net Crepe" which is a savory crepe. Pictures here. You can see how it's cooked 3/4 down thru this blog here.

Edited June 30, 2006 by JustKay (log)

[jenc]

I *love* those Malay crepes! When I go back, I eat as much as I can. (... uh.. of everything, in fact...) I should try making it here, as the ingredients are more easily found these days. I think the pandan leaves are the sticky point, but I have pandan extract...

In the end, I think it's all about the coconut+palm sugar for me.

[MelissaH]

Enlighten me: what's a pandan leaf? Does it provide flavor, structure, or both? What do they look like, and do I have any hope of finding them in the US?

MelissaH

[jenc]

Here are a couple links on it: one and two. My family has had little success in finding fresh pandan in Canada. We've seen frozen and we have a bottle of pandan extract.

It's used in a lot of malay cuisine, (desserts mostly, I think, but that's just from what I recall), and it's a very subtle aromatic. It adds that "something" to the taste. Usually makes things green from boiling the leaf.

My favourites include the coconut spread "Kaya" or "Kayang" (Guy-yang), and some little coconut jelly that was made in little leaf-boxes for my cousin's wedding. Those I absolutely adore. As well as the pancake thing above.

I really have to go back sometime and get them to show me how to make it and then let me write down the recipe. Though I may not be able to reproduce the results here in Canada, at least I have something and can try! T_T

Edited July 1, 2006 by jenc (log)

[miladyinsanity]

Melissa, I think it's called Screwpine leaf. You'll need to try Asian supermarkets for it.

[jasie]

So far, the only place I've found selling the actual pandan leaves is http://www.thaiherbs.com/. Its really expensive though (compared to how much we pay in SE Asia at least), at $18 a plant! There's a lot of different species of pandanus/screwpines however. Most of them are trees, shrubs and are not used for flavoring. The one we use in SE Asia is known as the Pandanus odorus. I usually just buy the frozen ones found in the asian markets or pandan extract/paste. I find that the frozen ones don't really come out as strong or flavorful as the fresh leaves I cut when I need them (when I'm home in Singapore) but beggars can't be chosers I guess. Hmm... now I want to make some kueh dardar too.

ETA: funky punctuation/spelling mistakes.

Edited July 2, 2006 by jasie (log)

[JustKay]

My family has had little success in finding fresh pandan in Canada. We've seen frozen and we have a bottle of pandan extract.

When I lived in Ottawa, I used to get fresh leaves from the Vietnamese shops, they plant all kinds of Asian herbs in their yard during the summer.

In the end, I think it's all about the coconut+palm sugar for me.

←

Enlighten me: what's a pandan leaf? Does it provide flavor, structure, or both? What do they look like, and do I have any hope of finding them in the US?

MelissaH

←

Sure, you can omit the pandan leaves in the recipe. It's main purpose is aromatic.

I've never liked the extracts - the smell and the green coloring ... just urgh. If you can get the clear flavoring, I think that's the better one. If you need help to get this. PM me.

Pandan leaves smells somewhat like Jasmine rice.

If you ever get your hands on a stalk of pandan leaves that has some roots, plant them. They are so easy to grow.

But you need palm sugar to make the filling. Brown sugar just doesn't do it.

Edited July 2, 2006 by JustKay (log)

[MelissaH]

Wow, thanks for your responses, everyone. I'm now really curious to at least find pandan leaves, to stick my nose in them and smell them.

We have a small Asian grocer in town here, run by people who are (I think) Filipino. If they don't have a clue what I'm talking about, we have larger Asian stores in Syracuse. Do Filipinos use pandan leaves and/or palm sugar?

Ottawa's not far, but something tells me I'd have a problem getting fresh leaves of any kind across the border.

MelissaH

[miladyinsanity]

We have a small Asian grocer in town here, run by people who are (I think) Filipino. If they don't have a clue what I'm talking about, we have larger Asian stores in Syracuse. Do Filipinos use pandan leaves and/or palm sugar?

←

This is a bit late, but yes, I believe they do. But the kind of palm sugar they use might be different. I do know the one JustKay referred to is different from the Thai one, for instance.

Does it count as crepes if I just diluted chocolate pancake batter with water and 'turned' them into crepes? I'll have a pic of a sort-of mille crepes in a couple of hours--it's chilling in the fridge.

[little ms foodie]

the left over crepes from a few weeks ago were stored in the freezer. tonight I made duck confit crepes with the last of my confit. I also made a little red onion marmalade to go. served with with some french gnocchi with summer veggies

[Susan in FL]

I was thinking about posting a note to ask if anybody had used crepes that had been frozen for a few weeks, and if so how they turned out. I'm getting a craving for some, so I'll probably defrost mine. I'm sure they aren't as good as freshly made, but were they good enough that you would want to make a lot next time and have frozen ones left over again?

BTW, that preparation of them, with the duck confit, sounds good!

[snowangel]

Susan, I have been very negligent on photoing and reporting! Until you posted this, I completely forgot that when the boys (a neighbor boy is over every weekday) and I made crepes, we froze a mess of them. They were curious to have them again, so we thawed them out and filled them with scrambled eggs and ham, topped them with cheese and gave them a few minutes in the toaster oven to melt the cheese. I thawed the stack in the fridge, and they worked beautifully.

OK, so they might not have been quite as good as freshly made, but they were about 90% there. And, given that once I got my crepe mojo going, it just made sense to make a mess of them, that's what I'll do in the future. Make and eat and freeze.

I'm also seeing these as a way of creatively presenting certain leftovers in the future. People feel special when you feed them crepes.

[Susan in FL]

Thanks, Susan. That's good to know. I was hoping for about 90%. And exactly, you are right... it's a great way to use leftovers and feeding people crepes does seem special!

[little ms foodie]

I also had this question but nobody answered it so I had to experiment!

the green onion (not chive as a typed) had been in the freezer for a few weeks. I heated up the same pan I made them in with some butter and warmed them first. This morning I did a take on Chufi's melted cheese crepe and warmed them in the pan and them put in some melted swiss like a quesadilla- YUM!

great out of the freezer and they didn't stick together at all.

[Susan in FL]

Thank you as well. An endorsement from each of you seals it up for me! I'll try to remember to report back after I use some of mine from the freezer.