Crêperie gourmande

La Chandeleur, crepe day is February second, in France and some other countries in Europe. That’s a very old celebration that correspond to the Day of the Marmot in America and the Setsubun in Japan. The start of “Spring”, well, maybe Spring. At least, Sun is coming back in the skies after the darkest months. So crepes look like small suns..

The French tradition is each member of the family cooks his/her crepe in flat pan. And you have to hold some money in one hand and flip the crepe with the second hand. If you succeed, you will be rich during one year. If not…you get a crepe on the floor, on the head, or whatever, and you’ll have had a good time laughing about your clumsiness.

WHEAT CREPES
crêpes de froment

Easy recipe :
1 average size egg
3 tbs of flour
1 glass of milk (1/2 US cup)
1 tbs oil or melted butter

A-whip well B-wait 2 hours C-cook the crepes

a few savory variations

Ficelles picardes (gratin crepes with ham and mushroom filling)

colorful

BUCKWHEAT CREPES
Galettes ou crêpes au sarrasin or crêpes de ble noir

Galette day

100% buckwheat crepes

egged buckwheat crepes (quick version)

Napoleon

Cheezy beanie (vegan)

DESSERT :

crêpes soufflees with coconut and kumquat

Crêpes marée noire -“black wheat” crepes (via GiO)

Chandeleur crepe festival is tomorrow. Get ready.
LY : making pure buckwheat crepes

Sarrasin et sa farine.

Galette day

Buckwheat pancake day. Nothing official, just because I woke up with nothing in stock… Quick, easy, tasty, what more do you want ?

In the morning, throw in the jug 1 egg, 1 cup of water, about 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour. Push the button to blend. Add water if necessary. Heat the pan, cook the crepes (I got 4).

To make eggless galettes/crepes/ pancakes (click on text) :
Old fashion buckwheat crepes

For brunch, fresh with egg, salt, pepper and kujo negi leek.

For the gouter (4 0’clock coffee break), crispy galettes, like a wafer. They can be prepared in advance. Reheat them with a little salty butter, cook slowly both sides. Add a little can sugar. Pass again both side in low heat, stop when sugar is melt and not yet caramel. They harden while they cool done, so if you want to fold or roll them, do it while they’re hot.

With mikan oranges that are starting their season.

And coffee.

Crêpes marée noire

… et de blé noir.

Recipe : Put buckwheat flour and a little salt in a big bowl. Start stirring with a whisk. Progressively pour hot water until you get a milky texture. Beat during a few minutes. The final batter should be thin. If not, add water and beat a little more. Cover. Let a few hours on the counter.
N.B. : That will thicken more than you think and you can’t add water later otherwise your crepes may break.

Mais non, ce n’est pas le naufrage de la krampouz. Aucune ambition de faire des crêpes de concours homologuée par l’académie bigoudenne de Menhir-sur-Farz.
C’est un simple petit repas a quatre ingrédients locaux.

Soba, sarrasin en japonais.

Sarrasin et sa farine.
Je vous montrerai ma pierre qui tourne pour moudre le sarrasin un autre fois (faudrait que je m’en procure une d’abord).

On peut les faire nacrées, moelleuses, un peu épaisses.

Ou croustillantes et dorées. Pour avoir des bulles, cuisez vos crêpes a 90%, prenez des photos pour votre blog et réchauffez les crêpes. Il n’y en a pas si on cuit en une seule fois.

Au Japon, on n’a pas de pétrole mais on a du goma-cream.
La crème de sésame noir est obtenue en pilant des graines de sésame noir… ou en ouvrant un bocal.
On peut déguster cette crème nature, ou avec du sel, ou avec du sucre.

Kurozato, sucre noir. C’est du sucre de canne d’Okinawa. Il fond très facilement, juste le temps de réchauffer une crêpe :

Si vous êtes pressé, la version sans repos :

galettes sarrasin et oeufs

quelques autres usages japonais de la farine de sarrasin :

soba-gaki

Soba (nouilles de sarrasin) :

chaudes pour Nouvel An

With tomato tsuyu and white goya.

Old style soba lunch

Zaru soba variation

Soba-gaki. Like Japanese peasants, in old times.

Let’s make soba-gaki.

-So, dear reader, this is soba-gaki. Soba-gaki, my readers…
-Hi readers, nice to meet you…

My Japanese readers knew the beast. Well, it’s a buckwheat flour paste. Like gnocchi or kneppe.

Wheat was introduced in Japan quite recently, and until post-war times, it was available in limited quantity. Culture is possible only Hokkaido, the “newest” part of the country, conquered late 19th century. Soba (buckwheat) can be grown easily in all mountainous villages. It was abundant.
So the Japanese peasants were eating very often the soba noodles that are still very popular. And in Winter, the soba gaki, that fell out of fashion. Or is it the contrary ? As it’s no longer an everyday food, it is now retro and totally hip !

That’s how you make it. You add 200 ml of hot water to 100 grams of buckwheat flour. In a pan, on low heat, and you stir… you must be strong.
A better page : click here.

Ugly me ? No simple. It’s possible to shape it perfectly with wet hands. For today I didn’t need.
Here, you can see nice ones, served in different savory and sweet dishes.
Texture is… original. Taste is buckwheaty. You have to try.