The Crepes from my childhood

2014 was full of joy and pain.. We’ll remember the joy of having our baby girl Amelia, and the pain of losing Jim.

2015 is the year of changes, getting use to being new parents, and finally settling in our house. So once again I’m trying to fill up my blog. With the renovation of our kitchen starting in a few, I am really excited to be cooking in a kitchen build to suit Paul and I. In the meantime, I’ll post update & recipes.

Most of my friends are in the recent years either getting married or having babies. My own niece and nephew are growing like weeds, my own little one is already 10 weeks. So I recently took some time to look back on my childhood. Unfortunately, my mum and grandma who were the two pillars of my childhood, passed away. But I like to think their wisdom live through me and my sister. At least, I really hope so. I think I reach an age where you are supposed to be well and truly an adult and a responsible person. I remember being a teenage rolling my eyes at the all knowing adults, who knew better then me. Turns out I really think they did.

Overall, I find this quite scary actually. Does this wealth of knowledge and experience comes with parenthood? Because from my point of view, I feel as stupid as I was 10 years ago. Sure I know more things now that I did then, but I don’t feel wiser… Oh well I guess I can ask Amelia in 20 years!

Thank god I can also look back at my childhood and have a “madeleine” of Proust moment. My childhood is filled with good food memories.  My nonna (Italian grandma) was looking after me and my sister when we were kids, and let’s face it, she could cook. But she didn’t pass on to me just the love of cooking, she also taught me how to choose the best ingredients. I guess her cheesiest, and yet truest statement was “the secret of a good receipt is love. If you cook with love, it will always taste good”. It is the corniest thing ever, yet try to cook a dinner for people you don’t really care about or dislike… For me, it’s always a disaster.

So when frustration knocks on your door in the kitchen, it’s time to go back to the classic, to a bullet proof recipe. Since I was a kid, we had this 70’s looking cooking book. It’s all beaten up, following apart, and most of the recipes ask you to put a kilo of butter, because nobody cared about their cholesterol back then! Nevertheless, this book has my childhood bullet proof crepe recipe. I have been doing it for 25 years and it never disappointed me.

Crepes are one of this wonderful french dish, that never go out of fashion. Whether you like them with a few strawberries and a dash of sugar, or with Nutella and coconut (my all time favourite), or even if you are more on the savoury side (but the batter should be a little different either with buckwheat floor and get ride of the sugar or just get ride of the sugar), crepes are loved by everyone, especially kids!

The Bullet proof Crepe recipe: 

 Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 20g melted butter

Melt the butter. Whisk the flour and the eggs together in a large mixing bowl. Slowly stir in the milk. Add the salt and (cool down) butter, and beat the mixture until smooth.

The best thing to use is a crepe pan. They are quite cheap and easy to source. Alternatively you can use any pan you want, it will just be harder to flip your crepe. Heat pan to medium. Put a tbsp of butter on a piece of paper towel. Fold to create a little bundle, and quickly go over the pan. This will help the crepe sliding off the pan, especially if you want to flip them.

Drop the crepe mixture onto the heated surface, right in the middle of the pan. You want to put one ladle of batter for each crepe. Really quickly tilt the pan with a circular motion to cover the entire pan. if you have any hole you can either leave it like that or use the back of the ladle to fill them. Crepes are not pancakes!!! Therefore you want them nice and thin

Cook each side until the golden brown brown, if you’re dared, bring the crepe at the edge of pan, letting a small amount hang outside the pan, then flip the crepe in the air. It should land on the other side (or on your rangehood depending on your skills).

This will make 8 crepes, so 2 crepes per person (that is if you are reasonable). You can divide the batter in 2 batches one savoury, one sweet.

 

Enjoy!!!