Saturday, February 21, 2015

.mushroom, spinach, herb, + cheese crepe filling.

in addition to the previous post for your basic simple crepe, here's an amazing filling to complete your meal! this is an old recipe borrowed from my mother-in-law's previous restaurant, 'flavours modern bistro' and is also an old favourite of mine!
mushroom + spinach + herb + cheese 
crepe filling with tomato topping
ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
250 grams of mushrooms, chopped [a mixture of oyster, shiitake, and cremini is her fav!]
250 grams of your favourite ready greens salad mix [small tub of salad mixture - we did a mix of spinach and baby kale]
200 grams of favourite melting cheese [raclette is recommended, but any available mixture - even mozzarella! can be used]
salt and pepper
1 can tomato sauce
fresh tomatoes, chopped into thick chunks
fresh herbs
directions:
1] in a large pan heat the oil and onions. cook on medium heat till translucent.
2] add chopped mushrooms and cook till caramelized-stirring as needed and increasing heat if needed. add salt and pepper.
3] take pan off heat and add your greens, roughly torn. the warmed mushroom mixture will wilt the greens for you, no need for extra heat.
4] add the cheese and mix gently till melted. divide the mixture into four and fill the crepes
[recipe here].
5] make warm tomato sauce by adding a can of tomato sauce, chopped fresh tomatoes, and chopped fresh herbs all together in a pan. warm and pour sauce over each assembled crepe.
**you can also add grilled chicken to this recipe too!

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

.crepes, three ways.

following my previous post, this is my first monthly tables recipe for january. being the month for france, we obvi had to post a few crepe recipes!! below you'll find three recipes for the crepe, all coming from my mother-in-law zosia, and i'll follow through with a great filling recipe next...again created by my mother-in-law ;)

here you'll find a basic crepe recipe [which makes a herbed crepe recipe and a sweet crepe recipe], and a socca crepe recipe [a fancy word for chickpea crepe!]. enjoy!
basic crepe
ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 cup mineral water [using this instead of milk makes the crepe delicate and super thin!]
pinch of salt
2 tbsp melted butter
directions:
1] first mix the eggs with the salt, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. *when you lift a wooden spoon from the batter, it should run down but still cover the spoon.
2] separate the batter into two bowls to make the two types of crepes.
HERBED Crepe
1] add finely chopped fresh herbs, like parsley, etc. to one batter.
SWEET Crepe
1] add 1 tbsp sugar and a dash of vanilla to the other batter.
3] heat crepe pan or teflon pan, pour oil or butter and spread around with paper towel - this should be needed only for the first crepe. cook till small bubbles form in the batter.
4] fill with your favourite filling [we recommend this mushroom, cheese and tomato filling!].

socca crepe [aka. checkpea crepe!]
ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup chickpea flour
2 tbsp olive oil
fresh herbs, chopped
dash of salt
1/2 tsp cumin
directions:
1] mix together the water and chickpea flour and leave overnight. 
2] when ready to cook, add the olive oil, chopped fresh herbs, dash of salt and the cumin. cook on preheated iron cast skillet or teflon pan and fill with your favourite filling.
*you can also cut this crepe up into bite size pieces and serve with little bits of the filling!

.monthly tables.

i was browsing around anthropologie a month ago when i came across this amazing calendar of illustrated tables of food from around the world and i immediately thought of my mother-in-law and all the amazing dishes she could teach us to make! and hence monthly tables was born!

each month she and i will get together and spend the day cooking unique foods featured from that region. for example, january's table features the country france! yum!

i plan on adding all the recipes here in detailed form, but also adding a few on my instagram account and then getting those printed off with a chatbooks or something and making a mini cookbook! if you follow me there you may have already seen a few recipes pop up in my feed last month, as i'm a little late posting this here, but i'll spend the week playing catch up to february and all it's deliciousness ;)

so to start things off, here we go! January = France.