Thurston's Strawberry Crepes Alaska
WARNING: I am of the firm opinion that it is better to live well for 50 years than to eat berries and nuts and drink some green tea and live 75 years. In other words, I COOK WITH FAT BABY.
I am, according to those that have eating my stuff, a great cook. Too bad it is only an illusion as I can only make about 5 or 6 things really well. I used to practice making these things and then when I had occasion to cook it would come off well. By the third date she would ask, "didn't we have this before". And I course I would say, "lets order PIZZA". You get the picture.
The first year I "created"* this recipe I received three proposals of marriage (two of them were from women). I believe the surest way to enslave a women is to feed her well, nuf said.
* No need to reinvent the wheel. The basic crepe is shamelessly stolen from Julia Child's wonderful cookbook, "The Way to Cook". The rest was created during a drug-induced haze in my youth.
The best part...after you get the hang of making a crepe, the rest is just about as easy as it gets.
The secret is to keep the three favors in balance. It is the subtle mix and texture than makes this mess work. It has one major limitation and that is each serving must be prepared and then served at once. I usually do this in an assembly line fashion after the main meal is served.
Serves 4-5 depending on the size of your crepe pan.
Basic crepe recipe (If you need help actually cooking a crepe post here and I will give you my method. Make sure you practice this many times before you actually plan to do it for a dinner party. Its like riding a bike, and once you have learned it you will always be able to do it well).
1/2 cup flour, the instant mixing type.
1 egg and 1 yolk
1/4 cup milk
1/4 water
1 1/2 tbs melted butter
1 tbs sugar
pinch of salt
3/8 tbs vanilla (real is best)
3/8 tbs finely ground cinnamon
Mix this the morning of your event and let it sit all day in the fridge. Crepe batter than has time to sit and let all the air out is much better for getting a smooth and even crepe. Mix flour first and slowly blend in milk and water to keep it smooth. Mix in all the other stuff and again keep it smooth. You may want to filter it if you notice lumps. Lumps are very bad.
The topping
Get a quart of strawberries and pulverize them into a liquid. Add a little confection sugar to taste. This is not going to be used in a large amount so it can be a little on the sweeter side.
Get some excellent chocolate and shave it into fine slivers.
Now you are ready to put it all together.
Make the crepes one serving at a time. Do not overbrown the crepe, but do keep it slightly on the drier side. If it breaks after it cools you have overcooked it. Fill the crepe with a high quality vanilla ice creme (I like Hagen Daze, but it should be not be a french vanilla) Now trickle the strawberry over the top of the crepe, covering about 5-10% of the surface. I use a zig-zag pattern. Now sprinkle the chocolate shaving on the top and serve. I usually make two small ones for each person. The entire time to actually make each one is about a minute and a half. I can serve 10 people in less than 15 minutes.
After you are finished, get ready, cause you are going to get lucky tonight.
Have a good one all.
TH
Next time, Thurston's blacked and seared filet*
*Shamelessly stolen from Del Frisco's in Louisville, KY. |
