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Friday, July 15, 2011

The Long Awaited Crepes!

Yesterday, it was finally meant to be! Hubby and I were in a really great mood and energy was abounding so we cooked together. After I had planned this dinner at least 5 times in my head, I was ready to taste what I imagined to be delicious. I like to take out all of the ingredients that I am thinking of using in a new creation so that I can visually plan my strategy. Now, keep in mind, there isn't a recipe for this meal. This is often how I cook. I plan the meal in my head...the colours, tastes, textures and then it's a matter of seeing if the execution will work or not. Let me lead you through the story of the meal that was worth the wait.


The first thing that needed to be done was prepping the veggie part of this meal. So, 2 bunches of fresh spinach were washed, chopped and sauteed in one pan while one zucchini, one red pepper, some chopped garlic and half an onion were finely chopped and sauteed in some olive oil in another pan.



Chopped red pepper and zucchini


Cooking down fresh spinach

Now, cooked down spinach releases a lot of moisture so after it's cooked, it needs to be drained, squeezed out (rinse it in cold water first so you don't burn yourself doing this), dried more in paper towers, then chopped finer. The other chopped veggies can be drained as well and mixed with the spinach.

The next step is to make the cheese part of the filling. I bought a small tub (maybe 500ml?) of PC light ricotta cheese. I've never worked with ricotta before but I just dumped the container into a metal bowl, added an egg (which I hoped would act as a bit more of a binder), some Parmesan cheese, a little bit of light herb and garlic cream cheese that I had leftover, and a bunch of chopped fresh basil. Nothing was measured, I just went by visual cues and it looked pretty smooth and creamy after some mixing.



Filling mix

Now, it's time to mix the veggies into the cheese to make a rainbow of healthy delight!


Finished filling


Now, here's the nice part about this recipe. Right here, you now have a filling that can be used for so many different things! Let's think orf a second of what we could do with this.... Maybe spread on a pizza crust with some mozzarella cheese on top and baked, or perhaps as the filling of a quiche? What about in a double stuffed baked potato, or sweet potato? It could be a lasagna filling, or mixed into some mac n cheese...use your imagination. Or, maybe you'd like to use a different vegetable combination to mix into the cheese mixture. Perhaps broccoli and carrots. Or add mushrooms. After all, that's what cooking is all about: experimenting and being an artist.

Now, the filling is ready and I'd already made the crepes ahead of time. Here's the thing. Crepes are actually very easy to make. Well, ok, let me rephrase. The batter is simple (eggs, flour, salt, oil/butter, milk) and quick and you just have to get the hang of the temperature of the pan and the batter swirling technique. My trick is to brush the pan with a tiny bit of shortening before each crepe and to remove the pan from the heat when I add 1/4 cup of batter (I use a measuring cup to keep them standardized) then quickly but deliberately swivel my wrist to coat the pan in a nice even circle of batter. Put the pan back on the heat, leave for a couple seconds, then using my fingers (again, you get good at this with practice, a spatula just get in my way, the clunky thing), gently lift the crepe then quick as a whip, flip! Cook a few more seconds then done! Easy!


Finished crepes



Beautiful! Now we are ready to assemble dinner. I spooned about 3 heaping Tablespoons of filling into the middle of each crepe and then folded over 2 ends, then the side, then rolled.


Crepe folding


I used 2 small rectangular pans for my batches. I spread some PC pasta sauce into the bottom of them, then neatly placed the stuffed crepes on top. I finished by spreading a bit of pasta sauce on top of them all and a light sprinkling of light Parmesan cheese. Bake until heated through (was worked out well because I was roasted some carrots already for a side dish).



Crepes awaiting to be baked



And there you have it! Yes, it took a bit of time, but this was an easy meal, super tasty (even better the next night reheated) and I feel it's impressive enough to serve to company.

Spinach Stuffed Italian Crepes with Roasted Carrots


Chocolate Mousse


 Add a Dr.Oetker dark chocolate mousse and you've got a lovely meal to share with a loved one.

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