Simple Saturday Brunch

I've been making crêpes more and more recently, and had forgotten how much fun they are. For a recent Saturday brunch I made two different kinds of blintzes, folded in the pillow style rather than rolled in a tube. One has a cottage cheese filling and is topped with strawberries reduced in balsamic vinegar. The other is stuffed with wilted spinach, ricotta, ham, and topped with sour cream and cracked black pepper.

I don't have a proper crêpe pan, but I do have a skillet wide and flat enough to do the trick. If you make a dozen crêpes you'll quickly figure out what works and what doesn't, and if it's hot and dry (as it's been here in Memphis recently), you'll need to add some water along the way to make the batter thin again. Uniformity of thickness is really important, and if your pan has any curvature there's going to be a tendency to be thick in the middle and paper thin on the edges, which is still tasty but doesn't roll or fold well. There's no golden ratio of ingredients, but I've found the ones with more eggs to work better and taste better. In reality you're making something that's somewhere between a pancake and an omelette, and that soft, steamy, eggy dough tastes better when it's a little closer to the omelette side.

The wine pictured is my standard go-to sparkler when I'm out of bubbly samples: the NV Domaine Ste. Michelle Blanc de Noirs from Washington State. I've written about it so many times here that I'm not going to review it again, but will say that it's never disappointed me and went wonderfully with brunch.

Afternoon Delight

Some guys may wilt at the thought of cooking for the girlfriend's parents. Hell, some might even fail while opening a can of Chef Boyardee. I have no such fears.

Today I had the opportunity to cook dinner for Julia's parents while they were passing through town. I was in the mood for some traditional northern Italian eating, and we started out wiht a platter of cheeses and olives and marinated mushrooms. The first course was one of my favorites, crespelle. I love this dish, and don't know why stuffed crepes have never really caught on here in the states. They're so delicious and so much fun to make and serve.

Mine were made with spinach, prosciutto, and béchamel sauce, topped with a bit of grated asiago cheese. Grilled white asparagus on the side because I was craving it. This was served with a California Chardonnay that will show up in a future review. Stay tuned!

Salads are a favorite palate cleanser between courses here at Casa de Benito. Here I've got frisée, oak leaf, and butter lettuce topped with tomatoes, dried figs, shaved asiago, fried shallot rings, and a vinaigrette made from Chilean olive oil, white wine vinegar, mustard, an egg yolk, and other bits of magic.

Two of these salads are missing tomatoes: Julia and her father are not fans of that particular ingredient in its raw form. Dee and I enjoyed our fresh farmers' market diced tomatoes.

The salad was crisp and tart and refreshing, though in the proper European tradition I had stretched out lunch quite a ways. I think from first appetizer to final dessert was about three hours. And honestly, there's no reason to rush good food, and you fill up the time with actual human conversation and maybe a stroll around the backyard with the dogs.

My main course for the evening was gamberi fra diavolo, deviled shrimp or shrimp of the devil's priest or some other odd translation. The presence of a tiny bit of dried chile flakes is enough to condemn this dish to eternal damnation. I made it with white wine and San Marzano tomatoes and fresh parsley and basil at the finish. I kept the shells on because that's where a lot of flavor resides.

By this point in the afternoon, I think everyone was a bit worn out, but this dish was still a hit and appropriate for a hot summer afternoon. Fun to eat with fingers! Just enough of a sauce to add flavor, but not enough to require pasta or a spoon. It was a pleasure to dine with Julia and her parents, and I look forward to more meals in the future.

Galettes bretonnes

I'd read several articles about the famous savory buckwheat crêpes from the Brittany region of France. I've never been there, but the idea appealed to me and I thought I'd give it a shot. Galettes are normally cakes or small cookies in France, but the term also refers to these kinds of crêpes. This dish could be described in several other ways: crêpes complètes de sarrasin, crêpes complètes de blé noir, crêpes avec fromage et oeufs et jambon, or simply thin buckwheat pancakes with cheese, eggs, and ham--and that's without even touching on the unique Celtic dialect of Breton spoken in the region. For ease of the title I settled on the charming galettes bretonnes.

I cheated a bit on the batter and used Arrowhead Organic Buckwheat Pancake Mix which I thinned out with extra water. And the result was fantastic--like a regular crêpe in texture but with a deep, earthy flavor and a darker color. Even though it's been over ten years since I last made crêpes, all of them came out great. After the galette was just done, I spread a thin layer of Dijon mustard and added some shredded aged gruyère, a few small slices of smoked ham, and finally a just-set fried egg. Wrap it as desired (clever folds or burrito-style) and enjoy. Since the region is famous for its apples, I sliced up a Jona Gold to go along with the galette. The flavor was phenomenal, and I ended up having three of them for dinner.

If you decide to make this for several people, I'd suggest making the galettes in advance, frying the eggs in a skillet, assembling the ingredients on a baking sheet, and finishing it all in the oven. Or lining them up like Italian stuffed crespelle and topping it all with mushrooms and a white sauce.

While a northwest French cider would have been a more appropriate pairing, I used the 2005 Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay from the Columbia Valley of Washington. Bright and fruity with aromas of apples and stewed fruit. Touch of ginger on the palate, with just enough oak to give it structure and make it interesting. A surprisingly apt match for the meal, when initially I was just in the mood for a Chardonnay.