Crispy Crepes

Fall of 2009 I went to Quebec for the CNEHA Conference.  The best part about staying with someone from Quebec, as well as having another friend who lived in Quebec for a summer, is that they know the best places to eat.  My favorite was definitely the place that did all crepes (I don't remember the name, it wasn't very important to me at the time).  They literally have all sorts of entree style and dessert style crepes, which they make on a big grill pan (?) in the center of the restaurant.  I don't even remember what kind I got, but I do remember it being delicious.  I have wanted to recreate that ever since.

I happened to this recipe for Crispy Crepes on the Steamy Kitchen blog - it is Asian themed, but she does more than just Asian food (also, she has a recipe for phoa on there, mmmm).  As attributed in the post, the recipe itself is actually from one of Tyler Florence's books.  Moving on.

I tend to do a recipe list/picture check to decide whether or not I want to try and make something (unfortunately too many people leave comments about how something sounds really good - why not leave a comment once you've actually made the dish, thanks).  With apples, prosciutto, and brie, this sure sounded like a winner to me, so the other day I set about finally making it.

One key for this is knowing ahead of time (gee I wish I read over recipes more often) that once you make the batter for the crepes, you let it sit for an hour.  Right now I don't have all-purpose flour, I have quinoa flour on hand, and given that I am a poor grad student, I will go on using my quinoa flour until it runs out.  Clearly this means that some things might get messed up in cooking however.

The recipe calls for using an 8-inch pan - mine had sloped sides, and when I put the 1/4 c. of batter in, to me it seemed much to thick.  So I ended up using closer to a 10-inch pan, and just not filling the whole thing up.  What I think the more important part of the recipe lays, is that you need to wait for a little browning to occur in order to flip the crepes.  When I tried to follow the 30-45 seconds recommended, I found that mine were not yet brown (perhaps due to the quinoa - maybe it makes things a bit thicker?), and basically fell apart.  After learning to wait longer, I also found it was easier to just figure out how to flip the thing using the pan alone.  And to be honest, flinging the pan actually works pretty well.

Once the crepes are cooked, you can go ahead to the crispy part.  I added thinly sliced Pink Lady apples (Weaver's didn't have the proscribed Granny Smith), and prosciutto on top of that.  Then they get cooked for about 10 minutes - the recipe failed to mention the cooking temp, so I used 250 degrees.  Once they get out, you add thinly sliced brie, which melts due to the heat, watercress, and some fresh ground black pepper.

My crispy crepes, mmm

Overall, I thought they came out delicious.  Even after the crepes are made, they do require a bit of assembly.  I also have to mention that, being on a strict budget, the prosciutto is fairly expensive - 5 or 6 bucks for 3 oz worth, and the recipe called for 6 oz.

In the future, I'd like to do something more similar to what I ate in Quebec though, which doesn't require going in the oven.  It reminded me of a very simple omelet, but with a flour based batter rather than eggs.  MMM.