Crêpes with Seafood and Mornay Sauce

Since I had a leftover of clams and shrimps from last night’s meal (Spaghettini con Vongole) I had to come up with some recipe that will utilize them. As I wrote in my Crêpe post, I came across my crêpe pans and idea for our dinner started to jell. After I made the crêpes all I had to do was make the seafood filling and Mornay sauce. The filling was a cinch; I just added some pink salmon to clams and chopped shrimps and reheated it in their own juices. Then it was on to Mornay sauce which is basically just a Béchamel sauce with cheese. I used Fontina and Gruyere cheese. Also, when I melted the butter for Béchamel I sautéed chopped shallots till soft then added the flour and when light roux was made I poured in the heated milk and chicken stock (no clam juice or fish stock on hand) in 1:1 ratio. When the sauce thickened I whisked in grated cheese until smooth. Salt, white pepper and freshly grated nutmeg seasoned the Mornay sauce.

Then it was to assembly and final prep. Assembly is very simple: put a tablespoon of filling in center front of crêpe, 2 tsp. of sauce on top and roll like taco. Place in buttered baking pan and when all crêpes are placed in pan, cover with aluminum foil and bake in 350°F for 15 – 20 minutes, basically just to reheat it. To serve, pour some sauce on preheated plate, place crêpes on top and then pour more sauce on top. Garnish with shrimps sliced along spine in half, sprinkle chopped parsley and enjoy. It is (was!) so good!

Start Béchamel with butter and shallots.

Add flour and make roux. Finish by adding milk and then cheese. 

Heat clams, pink salmon and shrimps. Now it is on to assembly. 

Place in buttered baking pan and when all crêpes are placed in pan, cover with aluminum foil and bake in 350°F for 15 – 20 minutes, basically just to reheat it.

Notice the arugula garnish on left side of plate. I grew it in my cold frame till first big snowstorm first week of December when it was harvested and stored, unwashed, in Ziploc bag in an unheated garage that had a constant temperature of about 5 °C. Four weeks and it is still as fresh as when it was picked! Incredible green.

Crêpes

Few days ago when I was reaching for my favorite stainless steel frying pan I spotted my French made 20cm black steel crêpe pans. I bought them while attending George Brown College (Chef School) back in 1978-79 and they are perfectly seasoned. I did use them a lot back in Toronto but haven’t touch them since moving here. Out came my school recipe for crêpes and it was just like if I made them on weekly basis. Again, the recipe has to be adjusted by pretty much everybody because every bag of flour has different moisture content and even milk differs. On top of it to tell you how long to cook the first and second side of crêpe batter is impossible because every frying or crêpe pan is different and so are the burners.

Basic recipe, makes about 24 crêpes (20cm diameter) :

3 eggs, large

2 cups 3.25% milk (or more)

1/2 t. salt

1-1/2 cup flour

Beat eggs, milk and salt until smooth. Add 2 cups of milk and beat, again until smooth. Test if the batter is light. It should have a little thicker consistency then 35% cream. Adjust accordingly (too thick, add milk; too thin, add flour).

The crêpe pan should be hot but not too hot. When you pour in batter it should just set but not bubble right away.

Perfect consistency.

My set up is ready: butter with brush and batter in a 30 ounce measuring cup.

Perfect (for me) crêpe pan temperature is 280°F and 290°F. I love my infrared thermometer.

This is largest burner on my stove at very low. Perfect setting.

Time to turn over: edges are free and small pinholes in center have formed.

Well cooked crêpe. 

My crêpes are ready for all sorts of fillings like seafood (clams, pink salmon and shrimps) in Mornay (cheese) sauce. That will be next post.