Makes 4 servings
2 cups buckwheat flour
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup melted butter plus more for cooking crêpes
1½ to 2 cups whole milk
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large bunch Swiss chard, well-rinsed and chopped into
½-inch pieces
1 pint mushrooms (I used Baby Bella), sliced
Zest of ½ lemon (divided use)
¼ teaspon freshly grated nutmeg (divided use)
Sea salt and pepper
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
Make the crepes: A day before you want to make these, make your batter—it needs an overnight rest. Whisk together the flours and salt. Add the beaten egg, melted butter and enough whole milk to create a pourable batter, one that’s on the thin rather than thick side. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Butter a 10-inch skillet and turn the heat to medium. If your batter has thickened, add as much milk as you need to thin it out again.
When the skillet’s hot, add ½ cup of the batter, using your spatula to make sure it’s evenly and thinly spread to the edges of the skillet. Cook as you would any pancake—waiting first for bubbles to appear, then flipping to the other side to finish the cooking.
Note: I slightly undercook my crêpes because I cook the entire batch of batter, stacking the crêpes on a plate to the side. Then, when I’m ready to fill them, I take them one at a time and reheat them in the skillet, with a little more butter, just like they do in France.
Make the filling: Put 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the Swiss chard, and cook only until it begins to wilt—you don’t want to overcook it because it’ll continue to cook once you stuff it in the crêpe. Add half of the lemon zest and nutmeg, along with sea salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and into a bowl to stop the cooking.
Put the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the mushrooms, along with sea salt and pepper, and the rest of the lemon zest and nutmeg. Continue to cook until browned on both sides. Remove to a bowl.
When you’re ready to serve the crêpes, lightly butter the same large skillet you used to make them in initially and turn the heat to medium. Place 1 crêpe on skillet and top with ¼ of the cooked Swiss chard and mushrooms, along with about ¼ cup of shredded Swiss. Fold over one half of the crêpe and cook until the cheese melts and the ingredients have warmed through. Repeat with the remaining 3 crêpes. You may refrigerate the leftover crêpes and simply warm through on the skillet with butter.
Ellise Pierce is the Cowgirl Chef and author of COWGIRL CHEF:
Texas Cooking with a French Accent (Running Press). Read her blog
(www.cowgirlchef.com), follow her on Twitter (@cowgirlchef) and Instagram
(cowgirlchef)
