travelforfood

How to make the best crêpes with Dandelion flowers jam

This recipe for crepes is the one I use both for savoury and sweet, and with which I obtain thin, light and irresistible crèpes. Among the ingredients, you will find water (it serves to make the crepe thinner) and clarified butter to cook it. In essence, its peculiarity is to have a smoke point similar to extra virgin olive oil, so it does not burn and gives a delicious flavour to the crepes. You can find how to make clarified butter online. There are lots of videos about the subject.

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Crêpes and Dandelion flowers’jam

Ingredients for about ten crepes

Two eggs, 150 gr of all-purpose flour, you can also mix flours of your choice, 350 ml of full-fat milk, 50 ml of water, ½ teaspoon of salt, 30 gr of clarified butter

Directions.

I Break the eggs in a bowl, beat them a little with the whisk, start adding alternating the sifted flour and the milk /water, mix well until I have a slightly liquid and smooth batter. I Add the salt, mix and leave to rest for at least an hour in the fridge. It is possible to prepare the mixture the day before, and for me, it gets even better.

To cook good crepes, you need a heavy pan, because of its capability of retaining the heat. I put the pan on high heat, and I grease it with the melted clarified butter. For this, I prefer to use a silicone brush because it’s the only one that can resist the high heath. The important thing is to grease very well the pan, in this way I obtain that delicious crepes that in France are called Crepes dentelle, which means laced crepes. I also want them slightly browned, which gives a better taste.

I prepare a measuring cup and thus to have the exact dose to be poured so that I can throw it in one go. At this point, I rotate the pan to spread the paste evenly, cook until it is golden brown, then turn it and finish cooking on the other side. Once it is ready, I slide it onto a plate and so I do with the remainings, building up a pile. If I have leftover, I cover with a film and keep in the fridge.

Dandelion flowers jam

It’s springtime, and as I live in beautiful countryside, I can go foraging as much as I like. This jam’s like honey, even the taste makes me think of dandelion honey, which doesn’t exist, I guess.

I give you the quantities to make a medium pot of jam, for the flowers, as my scale was out of use, I got a bowl for soups full of flowers, 300 ml of water, 200 gr of sugar, juice of one lemon, one spoon of freshly grated ginger. Some recipes call for using only the petals.  I tried once, but I found that the taste was weaker and being a tendentially lazy person I was happy with this. So I cut the flowers at the height of the receptacle.

Directions

I wash the flowers thoroughly, and then I lay them on a clean teatowel. I put a saucepan with the water and sugar on low heat, and I mix well to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, I let it cook until it starts to form bubbles evenly. Now I add the flowers, the ginger and the lemon juice and keep on cooking at the stade of jam. It is essential to stay there because when it is almost ready, it goes fast and can become too thick. The traditional way of testing a jam will work. When it’s ready, I put in a clean jar and keep in the fridge. If you make several jars, you should consider sterilizing.

I served myself ( quarantine demands) a crepe with whipped coconut cream topped with a teaspoon of dandelion jam. About the coconut cream: I prefer the one in tetra pack, it’s more fluid, and you don’t have the taste of tin. For the rest, I just whipped it as usual cream. With this, I had a wild blackberry leaves tea. To make it bring the water to boil, once it’s boiling throw a handful of leaves, switch off the fire and let sit for 10 minutes. It’s a very delicate herbal tea.

 

The easiest and most delicious semifreddo

When I made this new website, I wanted a page that I can write on. Still, last year as gone so fast and I had to face up to many changes in my life, the most important of which is that I relocated from the Luberon Valley to a no touristic village near Saint Remy de Provence. I found a beautiful, old farmhouse, nestled in orchards of pears, almonds and apples that are just starting to blossom now. All winter, I have been working hard to prepare everything to welcome people from all over the world at my cooking classes. But then the virus came, and all reservations stopped. So, here I am, sitting at my table in front of the window and time to write.

Before the quarantine started, I had a last meal with some dear friends, and the dessert was a semifreddo. Or to better say, my semifreddo, as technically it’s not. The classic recipe contains eggs that bring up the level of difficulty. In the years I’ve been working as a private chef, I was creating so many desserts, trying to make them lighter and more accessible as sometimes I didn’t have much time. I always like to use just a few ingredients in my recipes, because this leaves space for more creativity. You have the basics, like the cream and coconut cream, and from that, you can completely change the taste. On Springtime, one of my favourite addiction is strawberries. I chop some and some I mix with a little sugar and also put some crushed meringues for crunchiness if I have. In this time cooking at home is coming back, so I hope you’ll enjoy!

Semifreddo with dark chocolate and orange

Ingredients for 8/10 servings

500 ml of whipping cream 30%of fat

400 ml of coconut cream, I prefer the one in Tetra Pack rather than tins as it has a better flavour.

One tablespoon of marmalade

100 gr of chocolate chips, or grated dark chocolate.

One teaspoon of grounded ginger, a pinch of grounded allspice

50 gr of chopped candied orange peels

The chocolate sauce

100 gr of dark chocolate 70% of cocoa finely chopped

100 ml of water, one tablespoon of sugar

Pinch of salt, Fleur de sel or Maldon salt are delicious, and I always have at home as they enhance the flavour of any food. Grounded ginger as much as you like.

For decorations: candied orange peels, pistachio powder or anything that inspire you.

Directions

As the quantity of cream is high, I use an electric mixer, but you can also make half of the amount if you don’t have one or prefer a hand-whisk. I start putting the bowl and the whisk attachment in the fridge, as they have to be very cold, then I prepare all the ingredients so that I won’t need to stop during the preparation. This step is crucial because once I have started, I can finish it without interruptions.

Now that I have everything ready, I pour the coconut cream, the marmalade and the spices in the bowl. I mix to combine and smooth the coconut cream if needed, then I add the whipping cream and start whisking till soft peaks forms. Now I fold in the chocolate and the candied peels with a spatula, making a bottom-up movement.

At this point, all I need to do is filling the mould. I can use a rectangular cake mould, in which case I line it with a piece of parchment paper, so it’s easy to take it off, or I use individual silicone moulds when I want my dessert to be outstanding. I also pay attention that there are no air bubbles by making a light pressure onto the cream, then I put my semifreddo in the freezer for at least 5 hours. It’s a great dessert to make when you have a party or guests, as you can prepare it even days before, make sure though to protect it with a film before freezing.

When it’s time to serve I prepare the chocolate sauce: I bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, I switch off the heat and pour in the chocolate, the ginger, the sugar and the pinch of salt. I wait that it melts before stirring. In the meanwhile, I sort out the semifreddo and take it off the moulds, then onto a dish. I mix the sauce till it’s velvety, then I pour on the dessert when it’s lukewarm if you’d like it perfect as in a restaurant do the pouring on a grid instead of the plate. I decorate with orange peels and pistachio powder, or pistachio chunks, what I have in the pantry, you can take your time as the semifreddo needs to defrost a bit. For the photo, I had some kumquats marmalade which makes a beautiful decoration as well.

 

 

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Utterly delicious snow balls