Saturday, March 16, 2013

Crape week

We are about to enter the Great Lent (the Easter this year falls on mid May in Russia). And traditionally this week is called Maslenitsa, which is when you make crapes and eat a lot of meat and milk products to prepare for over a month of fasting. I was fortunate to get a Tuesday off school, so I made crapes for my family. With the frying pan that my mother in law gave us it was so easy and they came out wonderful! I also conjured a couple of fillers like fried mushrooms, ground beef with onions, and ground strawberries with guava extract for desert. Traditionally the crapes were dipped in butter or sower cream or honey.
My husband also treated everyone to his home brewed beer, which had huge success!

Here is how I make them. It is my mother's in law recipe modified by my hubby.
You will need:
4 eggs
1 stick of butter
1.5 cups of flour
1/4 gallon milk
1 tbsp sugar
1tsp salt


Pour a cup or so of milk in a mixing bowl, add eggs, and melted butter, salt, and sugar. Gradually mix in flour with a whisk or a mixer to avoid clumps. When everything is mixed add the remainder of the milk and mix well. Then heat a frying pan (my special pan has a flat bottom and a heat dispenser disk on the bottom, but any flat pan will work, preferably non-stick). You DO NOT need to butter up the pan if it is non-stick, if you do the crapes might not come out nice, they will separate in pieces. Pour a thin layer or batter on a frying pan and maneuver it quickly to dispense the batter. Then leave it for a minute or so, depending on how thick you poured them - you want them to be golden brown, then with a spatula go around the rim of the crape to separate it from the pan then flip it. That is it! They are, as you can tell by the recipe, pretty filling and oh so yummy! You can fill them with anything you like - make desert or a main dish!
If they don't come out right at first, don't worry, it takes skill, we even have a saying in Russia - first crape always comes out in a clump (or something like that).

3 comments:

  1. ням-ням-ням) мы тоже эту масленницу дважды почтили едением блинов)

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  2. Wow! I am getting hungry now! Gotta make some blintz, too.

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  3. Thank you vey much for this warm nice dinner, it was great! Thank you and Jenya!

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