These two recipes are De-lightful to make, De-licious to eat, and De-lovely to serve... with your favorite turkey or ham or chicken!
Time Machine: Chicken Crêpes
I can't really explain it...
OK... I could say that some of the roast chicken [or, you know, TURKEY or HAM!] was sitting in the fridge waiting to be... repurposed.
I could say that it was the week before Christmas and I wanted to cook everything I could think of that is the antithesis of new/fast/low-fat/fusion, etc.
I could say that, knowing we'll be working in L.A. on Christmas day, I felt the need to pamper us now... in preparation.
Whatever the reason, I stepped into a time machine yesterday. I made a batch of crêpes... and yes, it's true, the first one never works!
For a basic crêpe recipe, one need look no further than Julia... No surprise there...
Combine 1 C AP flour, 2/3 C water, 2/3 C milk, 3 eggs, a pinch of salt, and 3 T melted butter. A blender works well, but whisking is fine. Let it sit for at least an hour. Heat a bit of butter in a non-stick pan. Pour in 1/4 cup batter, swirl it around the pan, pour any excess back into the batter... cook for about 30 seconds... flip it over... cook a few seconds... and remove to a plate.
Then I made a velouté... essentially a béchamel using my roast chicken stock in place of most of the milk. Then I sautéed some finely minced onions in - wait for it - schmaltz... which I had scraped off of the roast chicken stock.
I deglazed with a shot of Sherry and added some frozen (no need to thaw) tiny peas. These were combined with about three-quarters of the velouté, to which I added a generous helping of cubed roast chicken and a few scrapings of nutmeg, along with some salt and pepper.
I rolled up crêpes with about 2 tablespoons of the filling, put them snugly in a buttered baking dish, topped with a bit of the remaining velouté and a dusting of microplaned Parmesan, then off they went to spend 15 to 20 minutes in a 350° oven.
All I can say is, do this right, and you bypass The Magic Pan and head straight for Paris... ooo la la!!!
(OK, this was originally posted on December 24, 2012, and though these tasted great, I hadn't quite mastered the technique or the photography. Check out the recipe below to see my progress! It's a terrific choice for those of you who prefer ham over turkey at Thanksgiving...)
Ham 'n' Cheese Crêpes with Peas 'n' Dijon
So I froze the hambone, knowing full well that there was still plenty of recoverable meat...
And today I decided to recover it...
I thawed the bone, stripped the remaining meat, and cut it into very small dice. Then I made a very basic velouté with butter, flour, and chicken stock. Off the heat I added a tablespoon of Dijon, a cup of shredded cheddar, a cup of frozen peas that I'd thawed in hot tap water, and the ham. And...
OMG... I could eat this mixture by the spoonful!!!
But I won't, because I also made a batch of basic savory crêpes. [See above.]
I rolled each crêpe around a heaping tablespoon of the filling, then placed them all in a buttered baking dish. I had reserved about 1/2 cup of the velouté (without the ham and peas), and thinned it with another 1/3 cup of the stock.
I poured it over the crêpes, topped it with a bit of Parmesan, put it under the broiler for a few minutes until browned and bubbling, then turned off the broiler, turned the oven to 350°, and heated it all for about 15 minutes. I served it with a shower of chives and chive blossoms.
This is the Easter that keeps on giving! These crêpes were incredible...
And of course, this rich, flavorful ham now costs about $.50 a serving... and I still haven't made soup!!!