France/Crêpes

Bonjour!

My apologies for neglecting the blog for almost two months. But, the good news is I am now back from France and ready to get back into posting!

Firstly, I will fill you in a little about my wonderful holiday.

This was my second time in France, although my first time to the southern region of Provence. Home in France was at my partner’s aunt’s house (with his mum and dad) in a little town outside Marseille called Le Pennes Mirabeau.

Whilst in France I visited the antique countryside towns of Arles and Avignon, with their amazing markets filled with anything from Laguiole knives, flowers, pyramids of spices to fromage and saucisson. The views of the Mediterranean Ocean and Calanque’s from the cliff tops surrounding the seaside towns of Cassis and La Ciotat were just incredible and the scent of the Lavender as we drove to from Gourd to Sault made me feel as though I was living a fairytale. I even caught a glimpse of the Flamingo’s of the Camarge region and saw the running of the bulls in Saint Rémy.

The food of Provence was just to die for, but also very different from its Northern counterparts. Home style cooking here is very fresh and seasonal with minimal fuss. The fruit and vegetables were amazing - tomato’s were flavoursome, cherries were sweet and the donut peaches so juicy!

I ate everything from baguettes (with salted butter of course) to snails, taureau, pheasant, macarons and my favourite, crêpes with Nutella (according to my MIL, whenever we got to a new town, i would disappear for 5 minutes to scout around and find the nearest crêperie).
I was even lucky enough to have my partners aunt, who had just come back from Corsica, prepare a special Corsican style lunch which consisted of several different saucisson, tomato’s stuffed with soft Corsican cheese and to finish up, a selection of pungent hard-style Corsican cheeses.

It all went so quickly, but my time in Provence was filled with many wonderful memories of beautiful food, sunshine, the ocean, markets, quaint villages and time spent my partner’s family and friends. It felt like home and I cannot wait to return (hopefully with my partner next time).

So, in honour of my time in France, here is a recipe for Crêpes. I managed to eat these on a near daily basis – preferably with a nice thick slather of Nutella (or in my MIL’s case, Crème de Marron)


Crêpes
1 cup plain flour
2 eggs
280-300ml milk
20g butter
Pinch salt

Sift flour into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add eggs, whisk starting in the centre and drawing in the flour. Add the milk a little at a time whisking until batter is the consistency of thick cream.

Melt the butter until foamy and a little nutty then pour into the batter with a pinch of salt.

Heat crêpe or regular frying pan over medium heat, add a butter to coat the base then ladle in crêpe mixture, turning to coat the base completely. Cook 1-2 minutes until light golden and lacy. Turn over and cook for 10-15 seconds. Remove to plate and keep warm. Repeat using the remaining crêpe batter.

Et voila! Serve with your favorite condiment.