Today after the walkless walk, i headed over to the farmers' market
and from there to Kitchen Port, where they were demonstrating electric
crepe makers.  No gadget could be more useless, i thought.  But i watched
anyway.  Wow neat!  An electric crepe maker is shaped sort of like a
small frying pan (with a handle and a "pan" part), but instead of having
a "pan" part it's got a sort of "dome" on top of where the pan part would
be.  You plug it in, wait for the "hot enough" light to light up, pick
it up and turn it over and dip a circular surface of the "dome" into
crepe batter, then turn it right side up, and let it sit until the little
"it's done now" light comes on.  Then you turn the crepe maker over and
plop your crepe onto a plate.  Too easy!  I was sold.  I'm now the excited
owner of a new electronic crepe maker.  It's amazing what they can sell me
nowadays.  I'm psyched about making all kinds of warm crepey treats.

I have a few crepe recipes i love.  Who else makes crepes?  Who has good
recipes for fillings and for crepes themselves?  Please share?

Would anybody be interested in a "Crepes and other food" pot luck?  Or maybe
a pot luck with a French foods theme?

23 responses total.

Some of my favorite recipes involve crepes.  Like the one I posted here
some time ago, a shittake mushroom thingie.  And blintzes with
fresh ricotta cheese and sweet berries - delicious.  I tend to make
crepes with the same batter in the same pan and have it down pretty
idiot-proof at this point.  SO DON'T GET ME HOOKED ON ANOTHER MACHINE,
EH VALERIE! ;-)

I bought a non-electric crepe maker about ten years ago.  It worked
OK.  I never really got into crepes, though.

one of my favorite things about living in one of the tiny parisian quartiers
when i was over there was the street crepe vendors. crepes were cheap and
came in a great variety of delicious combinations, even bananna and choco-
late, which made a wonderful evening sweet. i have nice memories of crepes.

yes yes yes yes yes!!!

Sounds fun.  (When I was 10 and visiting Paris, I practically lived on
strawberry crepes from the street vendors.)
  
My crepe pan works pretty well, but then again, I have a gas stove.

I once made chocolate mousse to feed 100 people for a French 
themed party back when I lived in a French dormitory as an
undergrad.  If I could find Tante Marie's recipe, I could
probably repeat it (with smaller quantities) for a French
foods potluck.

Any luck finding it, Leslie?

I think I'll try the library.

Didja find it?

Been kind of occupied, and haven't gone to the library yet...  

Well, after trying unsuccessfully to find my exact chocolate mousse
recipe in one of the Cookbooks in Webster's, I stumbled across an
index card upon which I had scribbled Tante Marie's recipe back
about 11 years ago.  Here it is, translated into English:

         Mouse au Chocolat

4 1 oz. squares bitter chocolate
1/4 cup water
3/4 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 Tbls. cognac

Melt chocolate in double boiler.  Add water, sugar, and stir until
sugar is dissolved.  Separate eggs.  Add yolks, one at a time, to the
chocolate mixture, beating vigorously.  Remove from heat, add cognac.
Beat egg whites until stiff, then fold gently into chocolate mixture.
Pour into molds or dessert bowl, and place in refrigerator.  Let
stand at least 12 hours (the longer, the better, up to a point).  Keeps
for several days.

The best advice I could give is to make this the day before a big
party.  When I made enough of this mousse to feed 100 people, I made
it in triple recipe batches, 15 eggs at a time.  (I think I used
about 45 eggs in all...)  Believe me, I was sick to death of cracking
and separating eggs.  But it is a very delicious mousse.

what does the cognac do for it?
can it be omitted without losing anything in it?
(flavor, that is...)

Cognac or dark rum can be omitted from mousse, of course.  They transform
the flavor.  Sometimes, in their absence, a mousse can taste too much like
candy.

Sounds heavenly!!

You can also get alcohol-free flavorings (i.e. artificial rum
flavoring) for many liquers.

Actually, fresh berries complement an alcohol-free mousse quite well.

I never tried it without the cognac, so I can't help you there.

Drunkard!

Good sense would tell me not to reply to a proven idiot...  
Unfortunately, good sense has gone on vacation for a
little bit.  

I've often wondered what exactly Tim gets out of his numerous
baiting and inflammatory posts and replies...  Is it pleasure?
I just don't understand how someone's mind could work that way.

Just as a point of information, the last time I made Mousse au
Chocolat was 1981.

]/oose-eater!

 CREPES!!!! wow! i havent made crepes in ages...
 but the thing is you don't need a fancy creepe maker
 a non-stick frying pan and a good eye usually make good crepes.  The biggest
thing is making sure its not too hot. Hmmm... i wonder if i shouldmake crepes
wth fresh strawberries for breakast this mor? 
 i am going off onto my own tanget here.. yikes
 anyways, i will look into my recipe books for some great crepe recipes.  Out
of the million and one books i do have and use adimantly i should have one
in there.   I think i also have one that is great with this chicken mixture.
i will post ya later with some recipes!

I love crepes but now, with my emphasis on low fat eating, I hardly ever eat
them (except when in France).  If you post some good recipes, jiffer. I will
be tempted to try them again.  Maybe with egg beaters this time. . . 

<abchan recalls 8th grade Paris trip and how everyone kept on begging the
chaperones to stop and let us get crepes every time we saw a stand...>

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