Ficelle Picarde Recipe (Crepe Gratin)

Ficelle picarde, which literally translates to "Picard string" in French, sounds like a fancy dish, but really, it's just a savory crêpe gratin filled with sautéed chopped mushrooms (called duxelles). It's a specialty from the region of Picardy, located in the North of France. The authentic dish is made with ham but I replaced it with soy chorizo to make it vegetarian. First, mushroom stuffed crêpes are rolled, then placed in a casserole dish, covered with Mornay mushroom cream sauce and sprinkled with Gruyère cheese. The last step is 5 to 10 minutes in the oven until bubbly and golden.

Crêpes are a fairly frequent dish at our home. The batter can be prepared in advance and you could also store pre-cooked crêpes in the freezer for faster assembly time. Whether they are served as a savory dish or as a dessert (or both!), we always find a new way to pair them with interesting combinations of flavors.

Blueberry Crepe Recipe

As I told you yesterday, I made crêpes as an experiment to see how well they keep in the freezer. Unfortunately, the crêpes haven’t been able to make it to leftover status, and here's a big part of  the reason why. After making savory crêpes filled with beets and goat cheese, we filled the remaining crêpes with blueberries, vanilla whipped cream and guava sauce. Needless to say, they went fast!

Crêpes are a quick and easy dessert if you can manage to store some in the freezer. If you are looking for a sweet way to end dinner, just pair crêpes with fresh fruits, chocolate sauce, other fruit preserves and whipped cream (or yogurt). You just can’t go wrong.