This week, I’m sharing two recipes that can work together or separately, as you wish.
I’ve been playing around with crepes recently, as an alternative wrapper to fill with something savory.
Tucsonans are familiar with tortilla-wrapped dishes, of course – burritos and chimichangas, flautas or taquitos among them. Whether wrapped in corn or flour tortillas, such dishes are often baked or fried to crisp them up. These are hearty, filling and delicious, to be sure. Occasionally, however, I want something lighter.
That brought me to crepes, which offer a delicate covering for whatever fills them, and need no further cooking after filling. They seem “dressier,” somehow, to me. In the last week, I’ve made crepes filled with machaca, shredded chicken and carnitas, just to see how I liked them. All pleased me greatly and offered a nice change from the more familiar tortilla. You could also fill these crepes with shredded cheese, plain or mixed with green onion, greens such as spinach or cooked kale, and herbs for a showy meatless version.
Classic French crepe batter is made simply with eggs, milk, flour and melted butter. But you know me: I’m always going to give something a southwestern spin, so I seasoned my crepe batter with chili powder, cumin and fresh cilantro.
Make all the crepes at once, up to two days in advance. Freeze them for longer storage; I stacked the fully cooled crepes with little squares of parchment paper between them to make them easier to separate when thawed.
By the time I’d made these several times, I realized that I wanted some kind of sauce to go with them. So I developed the second recipe that I’m sharing with you this week: A roasted poblano-tomatillo-cream sauce.
The sauce suits the crepes well, and it’s also a fine complement to grilled or roasted chicken, fish and pork. It can also function as a salad dressing if you need it to do so, although you may wish to thin it with a little olive oil for that use. It can be served hot or cold.
As practice for a special dinner coming up, I laid some crepes filled with shredded chicken left over from a rotisserie bird in a shallow buttered baking dish, nestled shoulder-to-shoulder so they wouldn’t crisp. You could also treat the crepes like little flour tortillas and fold them around the filling as you would for a burrito.
A little of the sauce, ladled down the middle, gave them a pop of bright color. I slid them into a preheated 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes so everything could heat through, and they were just right. For guests, I would likely serve these with some quartered limes to squeeze over the top at table. With a simple salad alongside, this would be an elegant yet simple dinner.
Southwestern crepe batter
A bit of chili powder and cumin, plus fresh chopped cilantro, remakes the classic French crepe batter into something more suited to Arizonan palates. Fill these with any kind of shredded beef, chicken or pork.
Ingredients
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
¼ cup water
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
¼ cup finely chopped cilantro
½ teaspoon each chili powder and cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
Butter, for coating the pan
Preparation
Combine eggs, milk, water, flour, melted butter, cilantro, chili powder, cumin and salt in the container of a blender and blend on medium speed for 10 seconds.
Refrigerate the batter for 1 hour to allow bubbles to subside so crepes are less likely to tear during cooking. You can make the batter up to two days in advance.
At cooking time, heat a small non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Place some parchment paper on a cutting board or counter near the stove. Add butter to the skillet to coat. Ladle one ounce (about 2 tablespoons) of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook for 30 seconds and turn. Cook for another 10 seconds and remove to the cutting board. Lay the crepes out in a single layer so they can cool.
Continue until all batter is gone. After they have cooled, the crepes can be stacked and stored in zip-top plastic bags in the refrigerator for several days, or in the freezer for up to two months. Allow frozen crepes to thaw completely before peeling them apart.
Roasted poblano-tomatillo-cream sauce
Makes about 1 ½ cups
This versatile sauce, with its light, bright flavors, suits grilled or roasted chicken, pork or fish, and can serve as a salad dressing if you’d like — thin it with a bit of olive oil if it’s too thick for your taste in that use. It will keep, refrigerated, for about a week.
Ingredients
3 roasted poblano peppers
6 large tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut in half
½ cup chopped cilantro
2 cloves garlic
8 ounces sour cream
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Juice and zest of 1 lime, about 2 tablespoons juice
Salt and pepper, to taste
Preparation
Rinse the roasted poblanos under running water to remove charred bits and skins. Remove the top, split the poblanos lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Add the peppers to a blender or food processor work bowl.
Add the tomatillos, garlic, sour cream, cumin and lime zest to the blender. Process in bursts until the mixture is well combined.
Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the lime juice.
Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately or refrigerate until serving time.
