Chandeleur is a holiday in France, Candlemas in English. Anyways, when I lived in Dijon, I learned how to flip a crêpe. Traditionally, you hold a coin in your hand while doing it and if you catch the crepe, it means prosperity for you and your loved ones for the year to come. Well, I can't wait until February to feast on crêpes, so I decided to whip some up now.
It's actually the small café Alice Waters founded after the success of Chez Panisse that features these delectable treats as a fixture on the menu. Buckwheat crêpes (krampouz in Breton, and Mission, SF eatery, Ti Couz) in France are topped only with savory things. The mix (
pâte), however, is very simple and dry, sometimes made only with buckwheat flour and water. The
pâte to follow is more involved, requiring a cup of flat beer. Both necessitate a rest time of 2 hours before cooking for the flour to absorb the moisture.
My mom has always been a devotee to Alice Waters. Reading the forward in the cookbook, Waters really did start using buzzwords like sustainable and local 30 years ago. The book is older than I am:
Because this recipe is nontraditional, until I went to France, I thought it was cheating to use a white flour recipe for sweet crêpes. I was raised on these, and Café Fanny serves them both with sweet and savory toppings. A secret? Flat beer!
The beer produces this tangy, yeasty flavor. Now for cooking:
My favorite: sucrée!
Organic plain yogurt with fresh organic plums. Alice Waters would have it no other way. And later that night, a friend sought refuge from the heat outside:
I put him outside, in a rosemary patch.
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