I've never actually made crepes before today and I'm not sure why that is. I'm guessing that because its a French dish that it automatically registers at about a 55 on a level of difficulty scale. But ever since last week during my amazing Bosch engineering training in Scottsdale I've been dreaming of them! One of our instructors was talking about a feature of the induction cooktop called Autochef, which sets the temperature of the pan you're cooking in to stay consistently at the same heat. For instance, if you were making pancakes (or crepes) many times the first batch comes out nice and golden, but the later batches begin to cook much faster and oftentimes burn because you don't realize how hot your pan is getting. With a gas cooktop, you can lower the temperature manually but again, sometimes its hard to gauge how hot the pan is before its too late! The Autochef feature keeps your pan at the same consistent heat so that all the pancakes (or crepes!) come out just as beautiful as the first batch. Cool, huh?
Shrimp ‘N Crepes
I wouldn't dare attempt my first crepe dinner with a recipe all my own, so I hopped over to Food Network to see how Alton Brown does it (because he's the MAN) and believe it or not his recipe seemed to be the simplest and had the highest number of stars.... milk, water, flour, 2 eggs and butter and the batter only needed to set for one hour before using. All the other recipes were a little more in-depth and had your batter setting in the refrigerator for a longer period of time, some of them even overnight....and that didn't work for me. Crepes tonight--not tomorrow. I was actually shocked at how simple and easy the crepes were, not to mention delicious, delicate and mmmmm buttery. I'm fully shaming myself for not giving them a try sooner. Next, I think I'll try that gorgeous towering Meyer Lemon Mousse Crepe Cake that graced the cover of Martha Stewart magazine a couple of months ago. Did anyone else see that one?
Ingredients:
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup flour
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- Butter, for coating the pan
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used parsley and stems from three green onions)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions:
In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and pulse for 10 seconds. Place the crepe batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This allows the bubbles to subside so the crepes will be less likely to tear during cooking. The batter will keep for up to 48 hours.
Heat a small non-stick pan. Add butter to coat. Pour 1 ounce of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook for 30 seconds and flip. Cook for another 10 seconds and remove to the cutting board. Lay them out flat so they can cool. Continue until all batter is gone. After they have cooled you can stack them and store in sealable plastic bags in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for up to two months. When using frozen crepes, thaw on a rack before gently peeling apart.
Cajun-Lemon Shrimp
This shrimp is great served over polenta, pasta, rice....you can pick your carb if you're not up for the crepes, but I'm telling you they were DELISH!
Ingredients:
1 lb raw shrimp, rinsed, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
1/4 cup green onions, white parts only
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon cajun seasoning (if you have an aversion to spicy foods, skip this...if you love some spice--add a little more!)
zest and juice of one lemon
salt & pepper
Directions:
In large skillet over medium high heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil. When hot, add onions and garlic and cook stirring often for about 2-3 minutes until onions begin to turn opaque in color. Add shrimp, another tablespoon of olive oil and crushed red pepper and cook stirring often, flipping shrimp to ensure even cooking, about 4 minutes. Once shrimp are pink on both sides, they're ready to be removed from the heat; they will continue cooking a bit so don't worry if they look slightly undercooked in the center. Remove (scrape if you have to) all the onions, garlic and shrimp from the pan and set on a dish you can keep warm.
Return the pan to heat and add butter and flour, whisking until you've formed a roux. Add wine and continue whisking for another minute, scraping up any bits left in the pan. Add zest and juice from lemon and mix well. Add whipping cream, cajun seasoning and continue whisking often for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add shrimp and onion mixture and stir until shrimp is coated in sauce. Serve over warm crepes.
The cajun lemon shrimp looks awesome and I cant wait to try it. Do you know how many servings this will make and how many cals/serving?
Hi George, this recipe yields about 4 servings. I’m not really qualified to break down the calories, but if each serving was only two crepes my guess is around 700-800 calories per serving. Butter. Cream. They don’t help. Good luck!
Looksa like a great and entertyaining recipe. Can’t wait to try it.
This sounds good but high calorie and fat. How do you think it would work and taste if for the crepes you sub egg whites for the eggs and non-fat or low-fat or evap. milk for the milk and maybe olive oil or grapeseed oil 2tbls and maybe 1 tbls butter for the butter flavor or maybe no butter at all go with all oil?
For the shrimp make a little more roux to thicken the sauce and sub again non-fat, low-fat or evap. milk for the cream. Use the 1 Tbls butter for the flavor if you want or again sub a healthier oil.
Let me know if anyone trys this, if I do I will let you know how it turns out.
I made this dish last night for dinner, the end results without the the cream and wine and cutting down the fat worked great.
For the batter I used two tablespoons of canola oil.
I used one and a half tablespoon olive oil which was plenty enough to saute the onions and garlic and shrimp.
The sauce was mild and great tasting without the heavy cream and wine I used 3/4 cup none fat milk instead.
My husband and daughter both loved it and did not miss the extra calories, and the taste was not sacrificed.
Oh, i forgot to mention, I used half whole wheat flour and halh unbleached four for the crepes.