Basic crepes ratios

Crepes, savory or sweet, are a culinary wonder and should be practiced as often as feasible. I always have to look up ingredient ratios for no-egg crepes, so let us record them.

The trick is to blend the ingredients in a blender and pour them into a hot pan straight from the blender.

Oat crepes:

• 1 cup quick oats; use the blender to grind them
• 1/2 TBS ground flax seed
• 1.5 cups of liquid
• butter or oil for cooking

Buckwheat crepes:

• 3/4 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/2 TBS ground flax seed
• 1.5 cups of liquid
• butter or oil for cooking

Classic wheat crepes:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• pinch of salt, pinch of sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4-1/3 cup unsalted butter

Classic crepes a-la Jacques Pepin:

• 3/4 cup All-Purpose Flour.
• 2 large Eggs.
• 1/2 cup milk.
• 1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter, melted, plus 1 teaspoon for the pan.
• 1/8 teaspoon Salt.
• 1/2 teaspoon Sugar.
• 1/3 cup Cold Water.
• 2 tablespoons Canola Oil.

Salmon chowder with saffron

I am not sure I have ever had a really good chowder. Stuff one usually gets in restaurants is heavy and very thick. As a result I have been avoiding the chowder for quite some time. This changed today.

Jasna brought home a beautiful fillet of fresh salmon. It is the season, and we have been fortunate to have a good supply locally. I decided to hit the web in a hunt for ideas. Given that I am just coming over a bad cold, I thought a somewhat spicy fish stew would hit the spot. As I was poking around the recipes, a salmon chowder recipe seemed to stand out. It had no thickener in it! And it used 1/2 lb of bacon, yet it claimed it was light. I was not quite buying that!

I decided to lighten the recipe up substantially by skipping the cream and the bacon, and I enriched it by using miso paste. The result was a truly outstanding dish that we polished off with giant smiles on our faces. It was light, yet not too light. Spicy, yet not too spicy. Comfort food, yet it tasted and looked really fancy. Definitely a keeper recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 potato, about 1/2 lb, peeled, cubed to 1/2 inch pieces
• salted butter, 1-2 TBS
• 1 onion, diced; I used a red onion
• garlic - 1 tsp or so dry, or a couple of cloves, chopped
• red and/or  yellow bell pepper - between 1/2 to 1 cup, diced to 1/4 inch
• 1 ear of corn worth of corn kernels
• 1-2 dry bay leaves
• a pinch of gochu, Korean chili flakes, or regular chili flakes
• 3 cups or so milk
• 1 tsp saffron
• 1 TBS white miso paste
• salmon - about 1/2 lb or so, boneless, skinless, cut into 1 inch pieces, seasoned with salt and pepper liberally
• 2 green onions, chopped
• lemon juice to taste

Procedure:

• Boil salted water in a small/medium pan, and cook potatoes for 6 or so minutes, until they are just tender. Drain.
• In the mean while, melt the butter in a pot - I used a 3 quart chef's pan, which tends to be my go-to pot. I usually replace butter with cooking oil, avocado being my favorite.
• Once the butter bubbles, add onions, garlic, pepper, corn, bay leaf, and a pinch of gochu or cili flakes. I've even added a bit of cubed rutabaga. Cook on medium heat until it softens.
• Add the milk, miso paste, and optionally saffron. Cover, bring to boil, still on medium heat. Watch the pot because milk likes to boil over.
• If you want to lighten the dish even further, replace up to 3/4 of the milk with dashi or kelp water. That shoots umami through the roof and ligtens the soup considerably. In my opinion that is definitely an upgrade.
• One day I will test how the soup turns out completely without milk.
• Blend with immersion blender or in a stand-alone blender and transfer back to the pot. I prefer to use a blender because I like the smooth texture and the color that comes from saffron.
• Add the potatoes, bring to boil, lower the heat to a mere simmer, cover, cook for about 5 minutes.
• Uncover, increase the heat to medium, add the salmon and turn the heat off. The salmon will be cooked in about 3-4 minutes.
• Add green onions and lemon juice to taste, adjust the seasoning.

Eat with:

• I suggest a side of vegetables that one could also use as garnish. For example, I made blanched turnip greens sauteed with garlic and yellow bell pepper. It worked well.