Chicken soup for the soul? No way! I’m all about desserts and other distractions.

After a day that is convoluted and not a little unusual, it’s so nice to come home to an email asking for a recipe for last night’s dessert. I don’t normally post such things, but tonight I will make an exception. Some people knit, some watch TV to unwind – me, I sing the virtues of food.

First though, an update to the post below: what does one do when two good friends are in a car accident thanks to the fact that they are rushing to pick you up, and both are somewhat injured (to say nothing of the destroyed car)? You watch a DVD together afterwards, just as a distraction. What would three women (+ obligingly tolerant son of one) select? SERIAL MOM. What the heck is that? Here’s a one sentence summary:
a wickedly funny--and nasty--comedy starring Kathleen Turner as the ultimate suburbanite: a woman so obsessed with suburban perfection that she kills a neighbor for not separating her recyclables.

BTW, minutes ago I dropped off the passenger in the accident, at her house. The theme of the evening had been that this is a *wake-up call.* We need to drive even more carefully, we said. This could happen to anyone. We need to drive like we were newly-minted, we need to take every precaution. So after these heartening thoughts, I then proceeded to back the van out of the passenger's driveway right into a snow bank. Eventually I shoveled my way out. Eventually.


Now for the food comment: there is no one place that deserves credit for the chocolate crepes with sautéed strawberries. I pulled together several threads from several sources. Chronologically, you should begin with making the crepes because the batter for crepes should always rest in the fridge for a while (one day would b e great) before you use it.

My version of the chocolate crepe is a direct steal from Pierre Hermé – my favorite French pastry chef. The strawberries are from Cucina Italiana – a food publication that I pretty much devour when it hits the stands six times a year.

CHOCOLATE CREPES

2/3 c all-purpose flour
3 ½ tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder (Valrhona is best, but not available here so I use Droste)
1 ½ tbsp sugar
2 large eggs (room temp.; hey – this is easy – just put them for a few minutes in a bowl of hot water)
! c whole milk (room temp)
3 tbsp beer (room temp)
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Sift flour and cocoa, then whisk in the sugar.
In another bowl whisk eggs and milk, then whisk in the beer, then melted butter.
Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk well.
Pour batter ideally into Pyrex measuring cup, cover and refrigerate – overnight would be great.

Know how to make crepes once you have the batter? You should use a crepe pan. Spray GENEROUSLY with canola or other oil – you have to have the pan well greased or else the damn crepe will stick.
Pour in some batter, swoosh it around the pan and you can actually pour back the excess into the Pyrex cup.
Let it cook for a minute or two – until it looks cooked throughout . Flip. This part is hard, but if you practice with one or two, you’ll definitely get the hang of it: loosen the edges with a knife and then scoop it out with a thin wide blade (use your hands – it’s not hot!!) and turn it over. Cook for another minute – until it feels done.
I like to stack them, with wax paper between crepes. They can be refrigerated or even frozen. Since they are easy enough to throw in the pan, I just use all of them as I make them.

SAUTEED STRAWBERRIES

5 pints of strawberries, hulled
olive oil (I use enough so as to not have the berries stick: 2 tbsp is a good guess, but feel free to add some if you find your berries starting to stick)
sugar (the recipe says ¾ c of sugar or vanilla sugar; I think that’s too much: if you use half, you should be fine)

Take the berries and cup them up. Medium berries mean that you should cut them into thirds. I like to preserve the nice pointed tips, so I stop there, but I bet you no one will notice the shape. Just make sure that your pieces are big enough o hold shape and small enough to soften. One strawberry typically turns into maybe 4 pieces.

Heat olive oil in large skillet. Add berries and sugar. Cook over high heat, stirring– this takes maybe two – three minutes or so – no hard rules, taste!
Cool to room temperature.


I think it would have been terrific had I remembered to sprinkle powdered sugar over each served crepe. But then, how you serve the crepe is entirely an individual preference thing. Had I time, I would have also stuck a spoon of chocolate mousse inside each 'pancake.' Or, if I were desparate for time, I would have served the crepe plain, unadorned, perhaps with a drizzle of orange liqueur such as Grand Marnier.