Last week I took a train under the English Channel and spent a week in France. As is often the case with cliches, many of them were true, especially the culinary ones. Seriously, I have never eaten so much baguette et fromage.
One of the culinary cliches I was pleased the see upheld was a love of crepes. I always say that it is a shame to only eat pancakes on pancake day, so you know, when in Rome! At the creperie I frequented pancakes were filled with a variety of vegetables, cheese and a runny fried egg, and it was truly delicious.
Of course, as soon as I got home, I decided to recreate it with Dolcelatte, mushrooms, courgettes, garlic and onions, for you lucky people! I suspect the creperie were making them on a large hot-plate, meaning they were big enough to fold with all the yummy fillings inside, but when using a standard sized frying pan, just have two per person with the filing sandwiched between, like a quesadilla. You could make it even quicker by using ready made crepes (though I don't really advocate this), just make sure you don't buy the sweet ones!
Ingredients (serves 2)
(for the crepes)
2 eggs
200g of plain flour
450mls of milk
(for the filling)
Half a courgette, finely chopped
4 or 5 mushrooms, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed,
1 onion, finely sliced
2 eggs
150g of dolcelatte
Pinch of black pepper
4 tablespoons of olive oil
Directions
Seive flour into a mixing bowl and crack eggs into the middle. Whisk and combine eggs with flour to make a paste. Gradually pour in milk while whisking until you have a smooth batter. Set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan and add mushrooms, courgettes, onions and garlic. Fry on a medium-low heat for 15 mins until all gooey and onions are caramelly.
Meanwhile (yes, meanwhile, not too hard I promise), make your pancakes. Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan until really hot. Swirl a ladle-full of batter around the pan to coat the surface. When mixture has set on top, flip the pancake and brown on other side. Repeat to make four, keeping the cooked ones warm in a very low oven.
Remove courgette/mushroom mixture from the heat and stir in cubes of Dolcelatte. Leave off heat, but stir now and again while you cook eggs so the cheese partially melts.
With the pancakes keeping warm in the oven, heat remaining oil in the pancake pan and fry eggs to your liking.
Place one pancake on each plate and pile with cheese/mushroom/courgette filling and top with the fried egg and a further pancake.
Loosen the top button of your jeans and enjoy!!