Crêpe Suzette!

HoHoHo

Happy dinners!

It is the time of the year when everybody fattens up! There is no denying it!

Dinner here, dinner there, seems like there are dinners everywhere.

 I went to four Christmas dinners... four I tell you! And believe me when I say that is a lot of food!

It started the 22nd with gourmet, you know the little pieces of meat you grill yourself and the slices of cheese you melt?! Delicious. The day after, I was the cook at my mothers house. Aperitif and cava, "Terrine" from marinated tuna and mozzarella *see instagram*, followed by lam rack (which had gone bad, and luckily we still had duck breasts in the freezer!) with seasonal vegetables and crêpe suzette for dessert! On Christmas eve it was at my girlfriends house: loads of aperitif, 3 versions of coquille, mussel soup, deer filet with all sorts of veggies and to end a smooth "moulleux au chocolat". And last but not least a feast with the family on Christmas day with food... loads of food.

After all this Christmasfood my stomach has had some time to settle down before another food-fest: New year's eve!

Oooh yeah... it is coming! Tomorrow evening we celebrate from 2013 to 2014!

If you still haven't decided what you are going to make for dinner, here are some ideas:

• For aperitif:
• The healthy dip: Humus
• As a starter:
• Salmon & Avocado tartare
• or some Yakitori (also great for aperitif!)
• As Main course:
• Lamb with Blue Cheese-Risotto
• Or maybe you like a Seafood Pasta...
• Or you wane go easy and prepare some "Gentse stoverij"
• And as dessert: 
• Crêpe Suzette

Well look at that... I haven't got any desserts on this blog! Time for my first dessert recipe!

Crêpe Suzette

This is a dessert everyone likes! Nice thin crêpes with a grand marnier and orange sauce. Delicious with some vanilla ice cream or just on its own! It is a classic in the French cuisine and supposedly invented by French actress Suzanne Reichenberg. 

I learnt this in cooking school... and I had to make it at the table in from of the customer. (well, except the crepes. We had to make those in advance) 

Some advice: There is flambéing involved. Make sure you feel good about doing this!

Ingredients:

For the Crêpes:

• 200 gr white flour
• 500 ml milk
• 30 gr white sugar
• 1 package of vanilla sugar 
• 4 eggs
• some butter

For the sauce:

• 3 tbs white sugar
• 3 tbs unsalted butter
• about 25cl fresh orange juice
• 10cl grand marnier (you may add more, but watch out with flambéing)
• orange wedges from 2 oranges
• orange zest

How to make is:

Start by cutting thin strips of orange zest. Zest is the upper part of the peel of an orange. Try not to get any white peel onto the zest because that will give off a bitter taste! The zests will still have a slightly bitter taste. If you want to get rid of this you have to parboil the zest a least 2 times a few minutes in fresh water.

Now continue by cutting the wedges from the oranges, and set them aside. Try to keep the spilled juice and press some more oranges until you have the required quantity of juice.

Crêpe baking time!

Take a large bowl and sieve the flour into it. Add the sugar and the vanilla sugar. Make a little hole in the middle and slowly mix in the eggs and the milk until you have a smooth, running dough. Melt some butter (do not make it hot! just melt it) and add it to the mixture. Bake the crêpes in a hot, greased pan. A thin crepe is a good one! Fold them in triangles (Fold in 2 and again in 2) and set aside.

Now the fireworks!

Take a large pan and melt the butter on high heat. When the butter has melted add the sugar and let it caramelize. When the sugar has a slightly brown color pour in the orange juice while stirring. Now add the crêpes and the orange zests.

Add the grand marnier and flambé the whole thing! 

How to flambé?

The correct way to do this is by pulling your pan slowly towards you with a slightly upward motion so the alcohol comes near the edge of your pan and the damps can catch fire from your stove. As soon as the pan is on fire, put it back and let the fire go out by itself.

If your stove is electric or induction use a lighter with a long neck or a long match to flambé, otherwise you could burn yourself! 

And do not, i repeat, DO NOT keep you head over you pan to get a bird's-eye view on the show, because you'll end up without eyebrows!

If you want to try flambéing other things in the future, e.g. banana or pineapple flambéed with rum, keep in mind it has to be with strong alcohol, which contains at least 40% alcohol.

Serve the crêpe suzette hot with the orange wedges and some vanilla ice cream!

Enjoy!

December 30, 2013