Have Your Crepe and Eat It, Too
Last night was rainy and a little chilly, and I got a hankering for something earthy, a little cheesy, a little oniony…galettes!
Galettes are what the French call crepes made with buckwheat flour. It gives them a nuttier, rounder flavor. They’re particularly reminiscent of the north-western French region of Brittany.
When I was in France last year, we went to a little restaurant in Paris that specializes in them. Standard savory fillings are gruyere, sunnyside-up eggs, ham, spinach, bechamel, mushrooms…but there are plenty of unconventional ones too, such as smoked salmon. Of course, sweet crepes are just as easy to make. I particularly loved one in France with salty caramel ice cream. Salty caramel candies are very Brittany, as is the sparkling hard cider you’d wash your galettes down with.
Food blogger and cookbook author David Lebovitz has a great recipe.
I had a lot of luck with it last night. It turns out crepes are about as easy to make as pancakes (which they are a cousin of, after all). You don’t need a special pan or equipment beyond what you likely already have in your kitchen - a large non-stick pan and a spatula. We ate them with apple compete, gruyere and caramelized onion. But I’m not done. I have some leftover crepes in my fridge waiting for me to fill with any odds and ends I can find for lunch. I’m out of caramelized onions and apple - I’m thinking of a bag of mushrooms I have, though, and of course, more gruyere.
