At this time of year, leftovers are a source of anxiety. I hate to waste food, but there are only so many ham sandwiches I can stomach in a short space of time! One night this week I had ham to use, and leftover chilli. The solution came to me in moments – crepes!
Crepes are a clever way to package and present leftovers as a new dish. Growing up, my mum often made crepes when we had leftover spaghetti sauce – she’d stuff the crepes with sauce (and sometimes even leftover pasta), roll them up and grill some melted cheese on top. I tried to ensure we had leftovers whenever we ate spaghetti, just so we could have crepes later in the week.
When it came to finding a recipe for crepes, who else would do but Julia Child? She wrote the book on French food (literally!). This recipe is adapted from her classic. One thing worth noting, you need to plan ahead as the crepe mixture needs 2 hours resting time.
We ate our crepes stuffed with chilli, or stuffed with ham and grated pecorino cheese. And the other beauty of crepes? Instant dessert – several crepes were enjoyed drizzled with lemon juice and sprinkled with sugar.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Cold water
- 1 cup Cold milk
- 4 large Eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/2 cups Flour
- 4 tablespoons Melted butter
- Additional butter to butter the pan
Directions
- In a bowl or food processor put water, milk, eggs and salt.
- Add the flour, then melted butter.
- Blend, process or beat on high for 1 minute. Scrape down the side of the bowl for any flour. Blend again briefly.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Once rested, head a large frying pan on moderately high heat. Rub the pan with butter.
- Using a ladle to measure out your batter, pour a ladleful of crepe mixture into pan and tilt pan in all directions to run the batter over the bottom of the pan in a thin film.
- Any excess batter should be poured back into the bowl.
- Return the pan to heat for 60-80 seconds. When you toss the pan slightly the crepe should start to come away on its own.
- Flip the crepe - either with a clever flick of the wrist or, if this is beyond you (as it is me) with a spatula.
- Brown lightly for about 30 seconds on the other side. Slide onto a plate and begin your next crepe, re-buttering the pan each time.
- You can keep the crepes warm in a low oven or reheat when you're ready to eat.
- Wrap the crepes around a filling of your choice, roll up and enjoy.
I recently read this post and stored it away in my “to do” file. And of course, I had to make felafel to enjoy with my labne. For those not in the know (like me until I read this post) labne is a middle eastern cheese made with a yoghurt base. It’s tangy and pairs exceptionally well with felafel.
This is a recipe for felafel, slightly adapted to my tastes, that I found whilst scouring the web. I do feel like some crucial spice or ingredient was missing, so I welcome any suggestions for additions.
I love felafel and I think it’s a great example of how satisfying and tasty vegetarian food can be. I think even raging carnivores might be able to appreciate a felafel wrap!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup Flat leaf parsley finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons Fresh coriander, chopped
- 1 clove Garlic, minced
- 1-2 teaspoon Cumin
- 1 teaspoon Paprika or red pepper flakes
- 3 tablespoons Water
- Olive or canola oil
Directions
- Soak the chickpeas overnight.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
- Add the chickpeas and all remaining ingrediants other than water and oil to a food processor.
- Process until a coarse paste. Add water if necessary to bring together.
- Roll the paste into balls.
- In a medium saucepan, heat 2 inches of oil to medium high - so that the balls immediately start to fry once in the oil.
- Fry the balls in small batches until browned and crisp. Alternatively you could try baking in the oven.
- Drain on paper towels, then serve on pita bread or wraps with salad, tabbouli, hummus and labna as you prefer.
I was lucky enough to have a week long holiday in Cairns and surrounds with J and a few friends. It was a lovely break, if a little short, and we managed to have some fantastic meals whilst away.
After we flew in on our first day, we borrowed PJ’s car (a friend who is currently living in Cairns) and took a road trip up to Port Douglas. We hit a bit of traffic on the way up, and spent about half an hour stop-start on the highway. Fortunately, we had JJJ and PJ’s mints to amuse us and stave off the hunger pains. Port Douglas struck me as a lovely coastal town. It is clearly targeted to tourists, and I felt it had a similar vibe to Noosa (which I also enjoy). Being the foodies that we are, our main priority was to find a venue for lunch. A quick stop at the tourist office and we had several recommendations – including Salsa Bar and Grill, Bistro 3 and Billy’s by the Sea. However, after a perusal of the menus we weren’t quite sold, and then Harrisons caught our eye.
It had a cool vibe, a beautiful restaurant and best of all a menu du jour! 2 courses for $29.50, or 3 for $34.50? Sold!
The boys both ordered the harissa spiced calamari with a salad of daikon and corinder with minted labna. I acquired a few pieces, for quality control purposes of course. The calamari was beautifully tender, and the salad was light and refreshing.
I skipped straight to the main course, and I was glad I did because the serving was enormous! I loved my risotto primavera, with spring vegetables (asparagus, fennel and peas) and truffle oil. The fennel added a subtle depth of flavour to the dish, and the stock used was obviously lovingly prepared. The boys were suitably impressed with their orders of crispy duck leg confit and fish of the day (salmon).
Finally, dessert. By this time I was feeling a little bit uncomfortable, but I pushed through the pain and managed to make room for Harrisons’ home made icecreams with glass biscuit and creme chantilly. The flavour du jour was limoncello and delightfully tart. It was very refreshing on a humid day, and paired nicely with a raspberry reduction. One of my dining companions enjoyed the tarte du jour, which was lemon meringue, and again the lemon packed a real punch.
Harrisons is doing traditional French/Italian style dishes with panache. They are taking advantage of the region’s fabulous produce and creating food that sticks to your ribs and makes you want to come back for more. The service is consistent, without being overbearing and the restaurant itself is beautiful. If you’re in tropical North Queensland it is well worth setting aside a few hours for a long lunch.
Harrisons Restaurant
22 Wharf St
Port Douglas, Queensland
P: 07 4099 4011
Web: http://www.harrisonsrestaurant.com.au/home.html
Treacle is a cafe/restaurant that prides itself on using the freshest and most seasonal produce. Executive Chefs and Owners Richard Gardner and Shenyia Laverack have put together a Modern Australian menu and have focused on using some of the excellent Queensland produce at their fingertips.
Breakfast is beautifully presented and the menu has a great variety of sweet, savory, gluten-free and vegetarian options. The coffee was very good and the meal sizes are generous. I enjoyed my breakfast but I think perhaps my dining companians made better selections.
I ordered roasted field mushrooms on sourdough with grilled haloumi cheese and roasted tomato. It was enjoyable, but I felt my mushrooms were a bit plain and I would have preferred if they had more flavour to them.
One dining companion ordered herb-roasted potatoes, oven baked with baby roma tomatoes served with spinach and poached eggs and toast. Her eggs were perfectly poached – breaking them open the yolk ran out onto the toast and potatoes.
My other companion dislikes eggs, so she ordered the zesty avocado on sourdough with bacon, roast tomato and rocket. She opted to add haloumi as well. The avocado was generously slathered on the toast and I think the addition of haloumi was inspired (but then, I think cheese makes nearly everything better).
On a separate occasion, I visited Treacle for lunch with J and friends who were visiting from Sydney. The lunch menu seems to stay pretty constant year around, although they do have daily specials which seem to have a more seasonal focus. I was hoping to have something reasonably light as we were going out for dinner the same night. I ordered the Thai style rice fish cakes which are served with a side salad and dipping sauce. The flavour of this dish was lovely, but I didn’t realise the cakes would be deep fried. I think they might have been left in the a fryer a bit too long also, as they were a bit crispy for my liking. I think I probably would have enjoyed this dish a bit more if there had been several smaller cakes, rather than two enormous ones. However, overall I still enjoyed my meal, and ate with gusto.
J ordered one of the specials – lamb ribs in crispy breadcrumbs with a sticky Asian dipping sauce. Our server informed us that one of the secret ingrediants in the sauce is actually Coca Cola. I am not a big ribs person (I find them too fatty), but J loved this dish. I was impressed by the dish, particularly as it was something really different that I haven’t seen on a menu elsewhere.
Overall I enjoyed my Treacle dining experience, and I will probably be back before too long – hopefully for a wine matching night they are having in May! I’m always keen to support local businesses with sustainable practices when the owners are passionate about what they do.
Treacle is located at Grange and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sundays.
Treacle
Shops 2-3 Days Rd
Grange
Ph: 3352 4144
Web: www.treaclecafe.com.au
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