Today is Pancake Day and so I am reminded of one of my favourite childhood food memories. As I will be otherwise engaged this evening, I celebrated Shrove Tuesday a couple of days early this year, at the same time taking the opportunity to do a little experimentation.
I blame Christina over at The Thorngrove Table, a fascinating food blog with a serious interest in Medieval cookery. She wrote a post about c.1393 'Crespes' – medieval French Crêpes made with wine instead of milk. My interest was piqued - I had to give it a go.
From the outset I knew I wanted a savoury crepe so in a minor departure from Christina's attempt, I decided to use buckwheat flour instead of regular white flour. My eggs, from Marin Sun Farms, were on the small side and the batter turned out too thick so in addition to what the recipe called for I added an extra splash of water and another glug of wine to thin out the mixture.
I can't say I was totally enamoured of these crepes in their unadorned state, but once they had been smothered in Fatted Calf Petit Jambon, Cave Aged Gruyere and topped with a barely cooked egg in the style of a Crêpe complète, there was little telling them apart from a regular buckwheat crepe. Simply a nutty, toothsome backdrop to all the good stuff you want to throw on top of them, who am I to complain about a successful vehicle for transporting gooey melted cheese and runny egg yolk with a tasty bit of pig thrown in for good measure? It's clearly a French favourite, Fred appeared to be uncharacteristically happy with the outcome. I must have done something right, but next year it's back to the British method for me, after all that saltiness, I now need dessert.
PS Update: Christina at the Thorngrove Table kindly posted an answer to my question about Flour & Buckwheat in medieval times. Thanks Christina!
Although this looks delicious It has to be lemon and sugar to bring back childhood memories. I could never cook them fast enough do you remember.
ReplyDeleteI don't know...that looks pretty good to me. But today this California girl will be enjoying a more traditional British version here in England.
ReplyDeleteDillon thought it looked nice but doesn't want me to make those today, he wants the traditional lemon juice and sugar!
ReplyDeleteAh, how can you go wrong with that lovely ham?
ReplyDeleteOh, gahhh! Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteBut really, egg *that* runny?
I'll be at my mum's tonight so I'm going to request the pancakes of my childhood with lemon and sugar. I'm not sure about buckwheat flour, but the wine sounds a good idea.
ReplyDeletelemon and sugar in our home. no childhood memories of shrove tuesday here...just patisserie valerie.
ReplyDeleteThat looks fantastic, what kind of wine did you end up using? I'm assuming it's a white, but wonder what your result would be like with a red.
ReplyDeleteYum.
ReplyDeleteSilly girl. You never need an excuse for dessert.
This was the first year in a long time that I didn't have pancakes. It is lemon and sugar all the way for me - maybe I'll have them today instead!
ReplyDeleteIt's lemon and sugar all the way for me, but I have often fancied trying these buckwheat ones, they look devilishly good!
ReplyDeleteget yourself on a plane mum and come make me pancakes, please?
ReplyDeleteculinary cowgirl - I hope you like them.
beccy - i don't blame him - i think these crepes are great, but pancake day itself needs lemon and sugar.
brandon - I can't and I didn't!
cookiecrumb - in the top picture, the egg isn't cooked, by the time it was finished, the white was opaque but, yes, the yolk I think I could just about eat raw if pushed - I LOVE runny egg yolk.
catherine - you really should try the buckwheat flour for savoury crepes with cheese - as a veggie you would LOVE them I guarantee. I am totally sold on the idea of buckwheat for starters and regualr flour for afters.
faustianbargain - I loved their almond croissants, but I loved Cafe Amato down the street even more. Umm, Cafe Amato, of my dreams.
sabrina - i used white - there was a link to the wine I used in the bottom section of the post.
chubbypanda - I know I don't really need one, but my conscience makes it wone of the requirements anyway.
gemma - every day should be pancake day!
freya - you should try it if you can get hold of the flour. I don't recommned them with lemon and sugar though.
christina - thanks for all your help and your inspiration.
johanna - what you should do is find a UK flour source then write a post called "where to find buckwheat flour in the UK" thereafter you will be the top of google for every search on the subject!
How cool, nice photos quality on the site and nice to see someone else breaking down the things we use or avoid everyday. Our food ran blog is similar, and we put up a link to this nice read and time consuming read.
ReplyDelete