Oh Crepes

Last week I got the urge to make crepes. It had been a few years since I made them so I wasn't sure how they would turn out. Thankfully they looked fine and the taste was great. Just to note, I used soy milk. I would suggest not using low or non-fat soy milk if doing this.

So what to do with these crepes? My first thought was salmon with lemon along with spinach cooked in butter with lemon. I kind of used this recipe here, but kind of didn't 

http://www.foodrepublic.com/recipes/salmon-and-spinach-filled-crepes/. I left out the tomatoes, cheese and garlic because I wanted to have the salmon and lemon stand out.

And I made a white wine sauce which is a simple white sauce with white wine added in. I use to make this to go with turkey filled crepes. I also used soy milk for this and topped the crepe with a little green onion since I did not have chives. Capers would be good too.

The thought of that sauce with poultry led to my next dish using the crepes. I made a rosemary chicken with crimini mushrooms cooked in butter with a little onion.

This time I put a few fresh parsley leaves on top. Similar to the turkey dish I made in the past. This was so good.

My imagination was in full swing. Chicken crepes with an orange sauce maybe?

I had orange syrup from making candied oranges so I added in some acid in the form of red wine vinegar plus minced onion, orange peel and orange slices. This is a variation on a classic orange sauce like the one in this recipe http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/duck-a-lorange-102145. I left out the butter and broth because I wanted to reduce the amount of fat in the dish.

Put chicken in a crepe, add the orange sauce and cooked slice and it was like a Chinese orange flavored chicken dish. Very sweet and good.

I had one more crepe. Deciding I wanted to go with vegetables I made a veloute sauce with butter, flour, low salt vegetable stock, mushrooms and a little minced onion. I used the recipe here http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/how-to-make-classic-sauces-vegan/ 

Into the crepe went vegetables sauteed in olive oil with a little garlic and onion. I was trying hard not to cook Italian style vegetables so limited the garlic and put in corn, carrots and peas.

Dressed with the veloute sauce and parsley blossoms this turned out very well. The corn added a bit of sweetness that bumped the flavor up.

What I enjoyed about this, besides the food, was the ability to use my imagination. Something to remember is to consider adding a little acid like wine, fruit juice or a nice vinegar to push the flavor up and balance the dish. Especially with orange sauce it helps reduce bitterness.

So what else can I make with crepes?

Well I whipped up chilled coconut milk,

tossed some local strawberries in cane sugar,

and cooked up a batch of dessert crepes.

The end result.

I could have put whipped coconut on top, more strawberries but I really wanted to eat. So delicious!