Buckwheat Crepes aka Galettes
Saveur is an amazing food magazine. Its articles manage to expertly capture the regions, stories and people behind food and recipes. In Washington, DC we have been having a wet and rainy Spring and it reminded of an article I read in Saveur on Brittany and buckwheat crepes or Galettes that they make there.
Brittany is the rugged northwest region of northwest France, a regions that has its own distinct culture. Buckwheat is a heartier grain than wheat and can survive in tougher climates. Buckwheat also has a shorter growing season, important in areas like Brittany that does not have much of a summer. The flavor of buckwheat is more assertive than wheat. It has a tangy, nut-like flavor that gives buckwheat crepes the strength to stand up to stronger fillings. Strong fillings like onion confit and bacon help keep away a chilly Spring.
The recipe from Saveur, while authentic, called for a large amount of butter. I wimped out and went with more of a conventional recipe. I used a recipe I found in the LA Times, but the NY Times also had a good one. While you can’t read the Saveur article online, you can read the accompanying recipes:
• Buckwheat Crêpes (Crêpes de Blé Noir)
• Scallops in White Wine Cream Sauce Sauce (Noix de Saint Jacques)
• Cider-Spiked Onion Confit (Confit d’Oignons au Cidre)
• White-Flour Crêpes Flambéed with Cider Brandy (Crêpes Flambées au Lambig)
• Thick Crêpes with Sautéed Apples (Kouigns Bigoudens aux Pommes)
• Buckwheat Crêpes with Gruyère, Ham, and Egg (Crêpes Complètes de Blé Noir)
Galettes (Buckwheat Crepes)
From: LA Times
Ingredients:
- 1 cup buckwheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (I used white whole wheat flour for a little extra flavor)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- Softened butter for the pan
Directions:
- In the jar of a blender, blend the flour, eggs, milk, salt and melted butter with 3/4 cup water at high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides midway with a spatula. Strain the batter through a fine-mesh sieve.
- Cover and let rest, refrigerated, for at least an hour, or overnight. (I didn’t let the batter rest and mine came out fine)
- Heat a crepe pan or nonstick sauté pan over medium heat until a sprinkle of water sizzles when you throw it on the pan. With a paper towel, spread butter over the pan, being sure to wipe most of it off. (I brushed on some vegetable oil instead of butter…I was too lazy to melt the extra butter)
- Using a bowl or a measuring cup with a spout, pour enough batter to just cover the pan (for a crepe pan, a little less than 1/4 cup), immediately swirling the batter around until it covers the whole surface. The batter may be thicker than basic crepes once it has been resting and may need to be thinned a little; if so, add up to 1/4 cup water and stir until blended. It will have a different consistency than sweet crepes (more like honey than pancake batter) and will cook slightly differently, forming bubbles and lacier edges. Adjust the heat, if necessary, to medium-low. As with pancakes, the first one or two galettes are usually experiments.
- When the edges of the galette begin to turn golden and move away from the pan, after about 3 minutes, lift the edge nearest to you using a spatula (an offset spatula works best). Flip the galette over. Cook the second side of the galette only long enough for it to set, less than a minute. Remove from the pan and start a stack of galettes, using wax paper to layer between each galette as you cook more. (Again, I was lazy and just stacked them all together and it worked fine.)
- Add more butter when needed with a paper towel.
Farmers’ Market Photos
Our farmers’ market is finally back in full swing. Right now it is mostly young greens and root vegetables, but they also have some hot house tomatoes that beat the cardboard versions we were getting from Safeway.
Purple Scallions - Deep Purple Bunching (I think)
Button Mushrooms
Hot house grown tomato
The Photo Setup
So I thought I would also include something a little different with this post–the setup of the photographic equipment I used to take the photos. I took these series of photos in our 2nd bedroom / computer room / den. The food is on a piece of matt board I had laying around after I did some framing. I used a folding work table to place everything on. The food is backlit by a Nikon SB-24 firing into a small Photoflex softbox. The front lighting comes from another SB-24 on lightstand firing through a white umbrella. Both flashes are set to 1/8th power, however the softbox is much more efficient and provides a stronger light. The camera is set to 100 ISO with an f-stop of 9.5. I will keep posting setup descriptions every now and then…as I remember to take them.
Cold Chicken Salad With Bib Lettuce
There is not too much to report on this dish. I just wanted to share because it was really simple yet delicious. I picked up the head of bib lettuce at our farmers’ market. That salad was top with chicken breast which I pan-fried ahead of time. We also added some cherry tomatoes and gorgonzola cheese. We top this all off with a red wine & Dijon vinaigrette.
Pan Fried Chicken Breast
Directions:
- Slice each breast in half horizontally so it is half as thick.
- Flavor with salt and pepper, or any other dry rub. (We used Montreal steak rub)
- Lightly oil a non-stick pan and heat over medium-high heat, until the oil begins to shimmer. The oil should not smoke, if it does turn down the heat.
- Fry the chicken, roughly 4 minutes on each side, until the chicken is firm and cooked through.
- Remove the chicken to a plate and allow to cool.
- Slice the chicken breast across the grain, into strips that are 1/4″ wide.
- Add to a salad or sandwich!
Red Wine & Dijon Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
- Olive oil
- 1/3 as much vinegar as olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 dollop of Dijon mustard
- 1 grind of pepper
Directions:
- Mix everything together in a small Tupperware container and shake to combine
- Add to salad and toss. Remember, you can always add more dressing, but you can’t take it away. Think summer and under dress!
Taste of Chicago (in DC!)
Carolyn scored big last night and got us tickets to the Taste of Chicago preview held at the Library of Congress in DC. First off, the Library of Congress is a beautiful building. If you are ever in DC you owe it to yourself to take a tour. Ok, now on to the food! The event had a sampling of some of the great food Chicago has to offer. We were dedicated and managed to try a little of almost everything.
Here is what was available:
- Arun’s Thai Resturant - Crab Cakes
- Eli’s Cheesecake - Cheesecake (I had the blood orange)
- Kasia’s Deli - Potato/Cheese and Chicken Pierogies
- Lou Malnati’s PIzzeria - Deep Dish PIzza
- Original Rainbow Cone - Ice cream cone
- Red Light - Spiced braised pork in scallion crepe with hoisin sauce and white truffle oil
- Robinson’s #1 Rib - Ribs!
- Spring - Fresh mozzarella arancini
- Table 52 - Hummingbird Cake
- Tizi Melloul - Spiced feta stuffed dates
- Frontera Grill - Cochinita Pibil
- Vienna Beef - Chicago-style Hotdogs
Everything was great…especially considering they probably had to fly in a lot of it, work in an improvised kitchen space and serve to about 2000+ people buffet style. The place was packed, but lines moved and we managed to get a lot of food. I am sure that no one went away hungry.
While everything was stellar one dish stood out, the Cochinita Pibil from Frontera Grill. Cochinita Pibil is slow cooked pork which they served on a soft tortilla with pickled onions and a Habanero Salsa. The salsa was spicy, but it was balanced by tang from the onions and the richness of the pork. Real Cochinita Pibil calls for roasting a whole suckling pig in a fire pit dug in the ground…quite the task! They were using an adaptation where pork shoulder is braised in banana leaves. The high acid of the marinade used and the long cooking time helped make the meat nice and tender.
Rick Bayless runs the Fontera Grill in Chicago and helped bring a great awareness to authentic Mexican cooking through his shows on PBS. Rick was there last night helping to plate. Had I been less of a wimp, I would have gone to talk with him. But I didn’t…so I don’t have any great quotes from him to add. This is also why I am not a reporter. I have done some investigative journalism though and I dug up some recipes that should let you recreate this dish at home. I will give them a try myself!
- Rick Bayless’s Recipe for Pit Roasting an entire suckling along with the recipes for making enough pickled onions and habanero salsa to feed 35 people. Clearly this needs to be downsized.
- This seems like a more reasonable recipe, calling for “only” 5 lbs of pork.
- Here is an adaptation of Rick Bayless’s recipe which brings it down to a more doable 3 lbs of pork. Looks good!
- Here is yet another version from Chow.
I will definitely give one of these recipes a try and report back!
Sauteed Ramps
Ramps are a trendy seasonal delight. They are a miniature version of a leek and taste like the cross between garlic and an onion. What makes them unique (and therefore trendy) is they can not be cultivated and instead have to be found in the wild. Unlike leeks, the green part is tender and can be eaten.
Since ramps can not be grown and can only be found through foraging, your best bet for finding them is going to your local farmers’ market instead of a supermarket. I was lucky enough to find a bunch at my market in Adam’s Morgan last weekend. They weren’t cheap at $3.50, but still cheaper than a Mc Donald’s meal. They were really a bargain because they entertained me for a full hour as I looked up more about them and recipes to cook them. I found a lot of recipe for cooking up ramps. In the end I followed the advice from the guy from the market and just sauteed them in butter. They cook down a lot so be careful with the salt. I did find a bunch of other recipes though:
Sauteed Ramps
Ingredients:
- 1tbs Butter
- Ramps
- Salt & pepper
Directions:
- Remove the roots from the ramps and wash. Coarsely chop the ramps, separate the white bulb parts.
- Place a non stick over medium-high heat and melt the butter.
- Once the butter has stopped bubbling, add the white bulb part of the ramps, stirring frequently.
- As soon as the white portions begin to turn translucent, add the remaining parts of the ramps.
- Once the green portions begin to wilt, remove the pan for the heat and salt to taste. The ramps will reduce a lot and will not require a lot of salt.
- Serve!
