Deus Ex Culina

Salty Crepes

This is a surprisingly simple recipe that looks wonderfully complicated...

When I lived in Paris, it was customary for my friends and I to go out and have cider and galettes in the fall. The cider would be served in a large bowl-like mug and the galettes were thin and tasty, and contained either sweet or salty fillings. Galettes are made with buckwheat flour. The recipe I have calls for regular flour, so these, technically, are crepes.

You should make the batter yourself. It's not hard at all and you'll find that the ready-made stuff is too sweet for this kind of dish.

PANTRY RAID

Crepe batter

7ozs of flour (that's approximately 1 cup and half)
17 ozs of fat free milk (just over two very generous cups)
1 1/2 tbsp of melted butter
1 large egg
pinch of salt

Mix until well blended and smooth.

Filling

1 lb of ground beef
Worcestershire sauce
black pepper
fines herbes
garlic
seasoned breadcrumbs

Holy Crepe!

Prepare the filling first: Mix the beef and the seasonings together in a large bowl. Cook fully in a skillet over medium-high heat- should be moist still, though. Set aside, once cooked.

Get the largest skilled you have and heat up. Spray with non-stick spray. Keep heat at medium level. Take a laddle and pour into the skillet making sure you turn the skillet around to spread the batter over the surface in a thin layer. It cooks fast- no bubbling like with pancakes. You have to flip them over quickly with a spatulla and your fingertips.

Once you've made your crepe, place it on a plate, spoon some filling on it, and roll it up.

That's it! You can serve it with some fresh spicy salsa topping (warm up first) or a dollop of sour cream. You can really use any kind of filling you like! If you have any left over crepes (this recipe usually yields 10 crepes), you can serve them for dessert: fill them up with Nutella and serve with sliced strawberries...

Enjoy in good company!

Salted Cod Delight

Salted Cod Delight

In Brazil it is common to eat cod on Christmas or New Year's Eve. It's a custom that we inherited from the Portuguese, and I believe it isn't an unusual tradition in Spain and Italy (southern), either. While there are several ways of preparing the cod, my favorite recipe consists of salted cod shredded and cooked up in olive oil with generous helpings of shrimp.

PANTRY RAID

One pack of boneless salted cod (a pound so be enough to satisy 4 hungry dinner guests)
Olive oil to taste
Chopped garlic
Black pepper
Shrimp (tiny shrimp are best- but jumbo are fine too)-Approximately a pound.

FISH FOOD

This dish requires some planning. You need to allow a 24-hour period to remove most of the salt from your cod. Once you open the packet of cod, place it in a bowl with water. During that 24-period, change the water 3 times.

What you want to do now is start shredding the cod into flakey tufts in a separate bowl. You gotta do it wth your fingers, so it's a lot of work, but it'll be worth it.

Once the cod is all shredded, take a large frying pan and coat it with olive oil. Wait till warm and put cod in. Fry in the olive oil until it looks somewhat dry(but not overly dry- you don't want pencil shavings). Keep sampling little bits- it should look dry, but still feel chewy. Throw a little pepper in. Set aside.

In another frying pan, cook the shrimp, also in olive oil and garlic. Remove excess liquid, but keep a little bit. Mix the cod in with the shrimp, stir in the pan til nicely blended, and then serve.

This tastes great with rice and a side dish of lentils. We had ours with rice and a big salad.

Enjoy in good company!