Charleston Dungeness Crab Crêpe

Crêpe Filling
• Meat from two 2lb. crabs
• 3 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 finely chopped small onion
• Juice from ½ lemon
• 3 TBS Unsalted butter
• ¾ cup Dry White Wine
• ½ Bay Leaf
• ½ tsp. Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• ½ tsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. Fresh chopped Tarragon (or ½ tsp. dry)
• 2 tsp. Fresh chopped Parsley
• ½ tsp. English Thyme (or regular Thyme if you don’t have English)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
Melt butter over low heat in 12″ skillet. Add onions and cook until they are translucent. Add mushrooms, lemon juice, spices and ½ cup of wine. Cook on high until liquids reduce to a thick sauce. Add cream and ¼ cup wine over low heat. When you have a thick sauce add the crab. Cook until the crab is just warm. You should end up with a filling that is moist but not wet.
Crêpe Batter – you can cut this in half
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup milk
• 4 eggs
• ½ tsp. Salt
• 2 cups flour
• ½ cube butter
Put eggs, milk, water and salt into a blender jar. Measure flour and set aside. Melt butter over low heat. If the butter browns it won’t work! Add the flour to the blender and then the melted butter on top. Blend on high for 30 seconds. Some flour will stick the side of the jar. Take a rubber spatula and scrape the side of the jar to loosen the flour and blend on high for 1 minute. The batter should have the consistency of light cream, just thick enough to coat the spatula. If it is too thick, blend in a little water. Refrigerate for 3 hours before using. Blend on high 1 minute before using.
Putting it all together
• 12 ounces grated Swiss cheese (a good one like Tillamook or Jarlsberg)
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1 package Knorr Hollandaise Sauce
• Fresh chopped parsley
• Crisco
The best way to cook a crêpe is in a crêpe pan. If you don’t have one, a cast iron skillet will work but you will need to use slightly less batter. The amounts above will fill 3 12″ crêpes (1/2 cup batter each) or 4 10″ crêpes (1/3 cup batter each).
You can make the Hollandaise sauce from scratch, but we have been very happy with the package mix from Knorr and it’s a lot easier. Prepare the Hollandaise and keep warm and make sure the crab filling is warm.
You want to have all the ingredients ready and next to the stove then make sure you have the sequence figured out because when you cook the crêpes things move really fast and a lost moment means a burned crêpe.
Season your pan: Take a paper towel and grease the skillet with Crisco. Place on high heat. When the Crisco has melted and just begins to smoke, wipe out grease with paper towel.
You’re ready to boogie!
1. Reduce heat to medium high. Get a fresh paper towel and lightly wipe skillet with Crisco. It should immediately begin to smoke lightly.
2. Pour ½ cup batter in pan.
3. Roll pan so batter evenly coats bottom of pan.
4. Take a metal spatula (I use a long one like short order cooks use) and work around edge of crêpe to free from pan. On most stoves, you will have to move the skillet around over the fire to get the crêpe to cook evenly.
5. As the crêpe cooks, little air bubbles will work through the batter and it will change color. Flip the crêpe with the spatula. Side one should be a golden brown. Side two is done when it has golden brown spots.
Now throw the first one away, it just seasons the pan 😉 If you didn’t get it right don’t worry, there’s plenty of batter. I feed the losers to the chickens, they love ’em.
Now let’s do it for real!
Cook side one as explained above in a freshly greased pan. After you flip the crêpe, spread evenly 1/3 of the cheese over ½ the crêpe. Add 1/3 of the crab filling on top of the cheese. Fold the unfilled half of the crêpe over the filled side so you end up with a half circle shaped crêpe. Immediately flip the crêpe over and cook for about 30 seconds. Take your spatula and slide the crêpe out of the pan onto a dinner plate.
Spoon about 2 Tsp. Hollandaise sauce onto the crêpe and garnish with scallions and parsley.
Serving suggestion: Add a fresh Caesar salad