Crêpes

Crêpes are definitely amongst the most famous French foods. It can be eaten as a main dish or as a dessert, and be filled with many various ingredients - everybody likes it ! Crêpes are a great symbol in the French imagination: it's believed that if you make them "jump" on Chandeleur (2nd of February, commemorating the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple), with a coin in your hand, you'll be rich for all the year on. We also prepare crêpes for Mardi Gras (literally "Fat Tuesday" - better known as Carnival, the last day before the Fast period) and have a famous melody :

"Mardi Gras, t'en va pas, J'f'rons des crêpes, J'f'rons des crêpes,

Mardis Gras, t'en va pas, J'f'rons des crèpes et t'en auras!"

In Bretagne (Brittany), for the main dish crêpes, they use whole flour instead of all-purpouse flour, and drink cider with those crêpes.

Ingredients:

• 250g flour
• 4 eggs
• 1/2L milk
• 2 ts water
• 1 pinch of salt
• optional : 1 tablespoon sugar and/or rum for dessert crêpes
  

1. Mix the flour and the eggs together
2. Add the milk and the water little by little
3. Add the sald and the sugar (if necessary)
4. Leave the mixture for one or two hours
5. Warm the pan before cooking the "crêpes" (pour about 1/5 glass for one crêpe)
6. Cook each crêpe about 1 minute on each side. Traditionally, you have to make it "jump" to turn it from one face to the other, but you can use a spatula.

If you didn't use sugar for the paste, you can put eggs, bacon and cheese on your crêpes and serve it as a main dish. For dessert ones, use your imagination: sugar, jam, chestnut cream, chocolate, chantilly, fruits, ice-cream, etc ...