[Crêpes with Orange Butter, Flambées]
...Julia says that "
Every chef has his own recipe for crêpes Suzette; of the many we have tried, we find this one especially good. Obviously if you plan to perform in public with a chafing dish, it is a good idea to practice on your family until you become adept at folding and flaming. Crêpes 4 to 5 inches inches are a convenient size..."
...so...you need two bright skinned oranges...
...we'll be juicing those...but first you want to grate just the orange part...
...and then put your sugar in the food processor...a "new" appliance to Julia...and she also gives instructions for rubbing the oranges with sugar cubes and then mashing in the orange peel...
...it's a lot of sugar...so these are going to be very very sweet...give it a whizz...
...then start adding in your vegan butter...I'm using Earth Balance...so by spoonfuls...
...until everything is all nicely creamed together...
...then add the juice from the oranges...and the orange liqueur if you're using it...I did not...
...and then you're supposed to "
place the orange butter in the chafing dish and heat alcohol flame until it is bubbling."..but I don't have a chafing dish...so I got out my old-old fondue stand...
...and set a pie pan on top of that...improvisation...you know...and lit a candle underneath...Julia suggests an alcohol flame which would have been hotter...but this set up worked fine...
...and then turned out the lights...more dramatic...you know...but it's Daylight Savings Time now...arghhhh...so not too dark...
...then you dip both sides of a crêpe in the orange butter...
...Julia says to fold it...with its best-looking side out, fold it in half and in half again, to form a wedge...
...then sprinkle the crêpes with the sugar...I used powdered sugar...
...and then pour over them the cognac...avert your face and ignite the liqueur with a lighted match...not quite as dramatic as I thought it would be...but the few times that we've flambeed something (always a Julia Child recipe...haha) it has been a little bit anticlimactic...
...but they really are delicious...
Substitutions:
Vegan Butter...we used Earth Balance...
Recipe here:
Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 650-651
I thought it was pretty dramatic. That was cool. I don't think I have ever done that before. Love, K
ReplyDeleteHey K,
ReplyDelete...that's funny...this is the first time I've ever flambeed anything without Our Airman striking the match...haha...
Love,
T