Kale and Leek Buckwheat Crepes

UPDATE: The Market will be closed this Sunday September 22. Come visit next Sunday September 29 for all your fall produce.

At the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market this Sunday, held between 10 am - 2 pm on the corner of Agate and 19th Ave., you'll find fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm and pastured meat and poultry from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm. 

The brilliant green kale and leeks inspired a quick post-market brunch of buckwheat crepes along side pan seared potatoes, onions, and peppers. If you prepare the batter ahead of time, this meal can come together as quickly as omelettes for a weeknight dinner. 

Kale and Leek Buckwheat Crepes

for the batter
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
3 large eggs
2 cups milk
1 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
a pinch of salt

for the filling
1 bunch kale
1 leek
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp tomato paste
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
several handfuls of grated cheese such as aged cheddar or gruyere.
butter

1. Prepare the batter. Combine the ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. The batter should have the consistency of thick cream; add a little more milk if needed. It's best to let the batter rest for an hour or so before you use it. You can make it in the morning or even the night before your crepe dinner and if the butter separates out, just give it a quick mix.

2. Prepare the kale and leek filling. Rinse the kale leaves, strip the leaves from the stems, and roughly chop the leaves into 1/2 inch pieces. Cut the green part from the leeks (save for stock), trim off the root end, and slice the white part lengthwise. Rinse the white parts while separating the leaves to remove any dirt. Cut widthwise into 1/2 inch half moons. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and when the heat radiates to two inches above the pan, add the olive oil, the leeks, and a pinch of salt. Saute until glassy. Add the kale, season with salt and pepper, and continue cooking until the kale starts to soften and becomes bright green. Add the tomato paste and saute for a minute while it starts to caramelize. Remove from the heat and add the balsamic vinegar. Taste and season as needed.

3. Make the crepes. Heat a medium sized skillet over medium heat, melt a thin slice of butter and swirl to coat the pan. Pour in the crepe batter slowly while you swirl the pan so that it is just coated with batter. Cook until the batter loses its pale color and develops permanent bubbles. Secure a spatula under the crepe and flip with confidence. As the second side cooks, spoon a thin layer of the kale filling over half of the crepe and sprinkle over a thin layer of cheese. Flip the naked half over the filling half and slide onto a plate. Eat while hot.

Fava Bean and Summer Squash Chickpea Flour Crepes

At last week's Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, Camas Swale Farm brought a bounty of spring vegetables, including delicate summer squash and fat fave beans.

Fava beans are best when shelled from their pods

and then released from their slightly bitter and tough skins. Peeling fave beans  is a true labor of love, and after all that investment of work they should be treated with reverence.

I decided to pair them with lightly sautéed summer squash and fresh herbs as topping for chickpea flour crepes as a stovetop version of farinata. 

The batter is simply chickpea flour and water with a bit of salt and olive oil. I found that I needed to keep my crepe pan quite hot and use plenty of olive oil to prevent the crepes from sticking, but once I mastered this, the crepes proved to be the perfect canvas for the fava beans, and a delicious post-market treat.

Chickpea Flour Crepes with Fava Beans and Summer Squash

makes about 4 crepes

Crepe batter

1 cup chickpea flour

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil for batter and more for cooking

Crepe toppings

handful of fave beans

1 or 3 small summer squash

1 Tbsp olive oil

salt to taste

aleppo pepper or red pepper flakes to taste

chopped fresh herbs such as chives and thyme

1. Whisk together the batter ingredients into smooth. Let rest for at least half an hour, or overnight in the refrigerator.

2. Prepare the fave beans. Boil a small pot of salted water. Remove the fave beans from the pods. Blanche the beans in the boiling water for 1 minute and then strain and run under cold water. For each blanched bean, use a paring knife to make a small incision in the outer skin and pop out the bean from the casing with your fingers.

3. Cut the summer squash into 1/4 inch thick half moons or other pieces. Heat a crepe pan or nonstick skillet over medium hight heat. Add one Tbsp olive oil, the summer squash, salt and aleppo or red pepper flakes to taste. Sauté until the summer squash has a bit of brown blistering on its surface but is not yet mushy. Transfer the squash to a bowl.

4. Return the crepe pan to medium high heat. Add a generous amount of olive oil. When the oil is shimmering, pour in about 1/2 cup crepe batter and tip the pan in a circular motion to spend out the batter. Allow the batter to cook until it darkens in color slightly. Then use a spatula to flit the crepe  and cook briefly on the second side. Cook the remaining crepes. 

5. Top the crepes with the sauteed summer squash and fave beans sprinkled with chopped fresh herbs.

Buckwheat Crepes

We are in countdown mode, counting down the days left in the school year, the hours left of grading exams, and the minutes until the sun will finally come out and start to ripen our summer fruit. Although the last of these is hard to pin down, one date you can count on is June 19 as the start of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market. Come down to the corner of Agate and 19th between 10 and 2:30 to hear some laid back Gypsy jazz from Manouche Noir, and pick up some farm fresh produce from SLO Farm. Also this year there will be locally grown beans and grains (garbanzos, lentils, wheat berry, and flour) from Hunton Family Farm and Camas Country Mill, as part of the Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain project. Here's a great video about this project.

One locally grown grain is buckwheat, which makes a great cover crop, but apparently has a limited market. My favorite use for buckwheat is in savory crepes. The buckwheat gives a heft to the crepes which makes them entirely different from dessert crepes and allows them to stand up to any number of filling one can scrounge from the fridge and pantry. Their versatility makes them a great weeknight dinner, and they are almost as quick to whip up as an omelette, especially if you make the batter in advance. We eat them in shift: whoever finishes the first round gets up to make the next. This time I used a buckwheat crepe batter recipe from thirschfeld at food52.

Prep your fillings before you start making the crepes. Here we sauteed apple slices in butter with some pieces of prosciutto, and grated some aged cheddar.

Pour the crepe batter into a well-heated, buttered pan, and swirl to coat.
 

When the batter has cooked so that it loses its pale color and develops permanent bubbles, flip the crepe and add the fillings. To accompany the crepes, I prepared a variant of another food52 recipe, this one from Amanda Hesser, of green beans with apricots and serrano ham. Because there was ham and apples in the crepes, I left these out of the bean dish and added some toasted almonds. I'm especially pleased to feature these food52 recipes because this week the site highlighted my recipes in their cooks spotlight. And I'm pleased to promote a local grain that deserves more followers.

Buckwheat Crepes with Apple, Prosciutto, and Cheddar

for the batter
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
a pinch of salt

for the filling

I apple, sliced

a few slices of prosciutto

several handfuls of grated cheese such as aged cheddar or gruyere.

butter

1. Prepare the batter. Combine the ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. The batter should have the consistency of thick cream. It's best to let the batter rest for an hour or so before you use it. You can make it in the morning or even the night before your crepe dinner and if the butter separates out, just give it a quick mix.


2. Prepare the apple filling. In a crepe pan or skillet, saute the apple slices in ~1 Tbsp butter until they start to brown. Tear the prosciutto slices and saute with the apple for a couple more minutes and transfer to a bowl.

3. Wipe out the pan, melt a thin slice of butter and swirl to coat the pan. Pour in the crepe batter slowly while you swirl the pan so that it is just coated with batter. Cook until the batter loses its pale color and develops permanent bubbles. Secure a spatula under the crepe and flip with confidence. As the second side cooks, sprinkle a thin layer of cheese and apple and prosciutto toppings on one half of the crepe. Flip the naked half over the filling half and slide onto a plate. Eat while hot.

Fresh Fruit Crepes

SLO Farm had a glorious selection of berries at the market last week. With berries as delicate as these, it seemed a shame to cook them, so I decided to incorporate them in some fresh fruit crepes. I used Julia Child's crepe batter recipe (from The Way to Cook) and an iron crepe pan (a much appreciated gift from my sister-in-law).

For one batch, I layered in lightly sweetened sour cream, sliced nectarines, and blackberries.

These made for a delicious brunch.

Late that evening, my husband use the remaining batter to make some dessert crepes, which he sprinkled with semi-sweet chocolate chips and raspberries.

There's nothing more decadent than warm melted chocolate and fresh berries.

Fresh Fruit Crepes
makes 10-12 crepes

For the crepes

1 cup flour 

1 1/3 cup milk

3 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp melted butter

1. Blend batter in a blender or with an immersion blender until very smooth.

2. Melt a pad of butter in a nonstick pan, and when the butter foams, pour in a small ladle-full of batter, swirling the pan so that it just coats the pan.  Cook until the white batter has all turned a more golden color.  Flip with a spatula.

3. Layer in fillings on one half of the crepe as the second side cooks. Fold in half and slide onto plate.

Filling ideas

1. Sweetened sour cream (~4 Tbsp sour cream with 1 tsp sugar), sliced nectarines, and blackberries.

2. Semi-sweet chocolate chips and raspberries.

3. Nutella and pear slices.

4. Raspberry jam and sliced peaches.

5. Apple slices sauteed in butter with a sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar.