Doctor's Kitchen Monday: From Julia Child to Arkansas

THIS is one of my favorite recipes in the whole world. I first ate it at Dairy Hollow House in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in the 80's.  It's the same country inn I worked for owned by cookbook author Crescent Dragonwagon. This was a fairly common and very beloved appetizer served at the Inn's six course Prix Fixe dinner.  It's called a crepe torte and is designate by how you build it, be it "garden", "Italian", or "Mediterranean" in Crescent's The Dairy Hollow House cookbook, available from DragonZ books. 

Now, I have a bit of a funny story to tell.  I had no idea until Sher of What Did You Eat?  and I were talking about it and she mentioned that it sounded familiar, that this recipe was originally created by Julia Child. With a little research into her Julia cookbooks, Sher found the recipe as Julia created it, after enlisting the help of her assistants, including a young Sara Moulton. The dish was specifically to be vegetarian and Julia was always very generous with giving her assistants credit with its creation. 

Now, how to phrase this correctly?  I'm not saying Crescent didn't give credit where credit was due most times, but I had a good laugh over this one. Not once do I remember it being mentioned the whole time I worked at DHH that this recipe came from Julia Child.  AND, no where in the DHH cookbook is it mentioned that this came from Julia Child, even though the recipe, down to the layers of carrots, mushrooms, and okay, green pea/zucchini instead of Julia's broccoli, are the same.  Unlike Julia, Crescent made hers in a cast iron skillet. That's the one difference I can find. 

It's not a huge thing, but it amuses me. I always thought that Crescent made this up all by her little lonesome.  Hmmm...come to find out the inspiration for this recipe was remarkably well put together...and by someone much more famous than Crescent.  Maybe I should be embarrassed that I don't know every one of Julia's recipes by heart but c'est la vie.  I admit it bothers me a bit that this was not openly acknowledged to be a Julia Child recipe when Julia herself very openly gave credit to her assistants for helping her creat it.  But hey, just one more disappointment in life to find out one of my heroes was made of clay.  The story of my life. :-)

On with the show.

The recipe, whether from Julia or Crescent is fabulous. Fab-oh-lust!  This recipe is sooo good that when I took it into work, one of the gals looked at it and thought it was pretty. Then I told her it was all vegetables and her comment was that she hates most vegetables. Then she tasted it. She loved it.  I happened to have a few extra servings because I'd wanted to share with a couple of foodies at work and she ended up eating one of them. A whole serving. I was so proud of her. That's a big compliment for someone who normally doesn't eat/like many vegetarian or vegetable dishes.  Personally, I think I could eat it every day and never get tired of it, for the taste, the prettiness, and because there are so many fresh vegetables in it that it's got to be good for you, vitamin-wise, even if there is quite a bit of cheese (meaning fat) in it.

I've made this three times in the last week. The first time was basically (as much as I can follow a recipe without my inner Glenna tweaking) Crescent's Italian version. That was wonderful and the version I took to work to share. The second version was an experiment lumping all the veggies and binding cream together inside a top and bottom crust made of egg roll wrappers just to see if it would work. It was okay, but just barely average. I'll never make it that way again. The third time was the winner.  I still used mostly Julia/Crescent's layers and the idea of how the whole thing together, but I left out a good part of the cheese, subbing light tofu, and subbed skim milk for the whole milk or cream of Crescent's version. The results were very good.  The final nutrition counts are a little higher in protein and a lot lower in fat. The protein is important to me, being chronically anemic. I know I've mentioned it before but not being a huge meat eater it's something I constantly must keep on top of so I don't have to go back on the icky iron pills.

Replete with basil, oregano, parsley, and garlic, this is my week's entry in Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen's Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Kate of Thyme for Cooking.  Check in next weekend for her roundup of herbed cooking!

I'll walk through the recipe with photos.  Mind you, pay close attention to this next thing I'm going to say. This is VERY CLOSE to Crescent's recipe in The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook but not ver batim. I'm going to walk you through it the way I make it because those are the photos you'll be looking at, and this version is the one with the tofu/lower fat, higher protein numbers I give as the nutrition counts at the end. 

Crepes seem kind "out" right now but they've always been a great standby for me, diet-wise. They give me a feeling of luxury, a taste of bread, and that great soft, rich mouth feel that I crave when I'm being very conscientious about counting calories.  There were a lot of dishes for a while that substitute tortillas for pasta because the counts can sometimes be lower, but to me, both tortillas and egg roll wrappers are too thick and substantial.  Crepes give the right delicacy to dishes like this that salve my lasagna and other pasta dish cravings. Not that pasta is bad.  I admit I'm really tired of hearing low carb! Low carb! shouted from the rooftops, mainly because they're my favorite go-to food group. It's like dissing my best friends.  So, while I am more of a moderation in all things kind of dieter, rather than a massively all carb or all fat cutting kind of dieter, there are times (can you spell p-l-a-t-e-a-u?) when I feel the need to cut back in both areas.  This is a wonderfully presented, vegetarian (but not vegan) dish, my diet and my entertaining (how many times can you say both of those things about any recipe) go-to dish. It never fails to please.

I'll warn you right now that this is an afternoon project. Putting the whole thing together takes about an hour or maybe even a little more if you're making your own crepes.  After baking, you let it set on the counter for about 15 minutes in the casserole dish, then flip it out onto a platter and let it set for another hour before you even think about cutting into it or the whole thing will spill out in a gooey mess.

Like this, or worse:

Don't worry.Even at the end of an hour it will still be warm.  I actually prefer eating it room temp or even cold anyway. If I absolutely think I must have it hot, I usually cut it into the beautiful wedges and then warm it slightly in the microwave.

So this is not a slap together project, but I promise, promise, promise you that if you put the work into it you will do it again and again. This is a gorgeous dish, both in looks and taste. As a dish to entertain with, either as an appetizer or entree, it's primo. Seriously impressive.

Vegetable Crepe Torte

Make a stack of crepes or buy a stack from Amy's like I usually do.  Sure, I can make them and I have many times but it takes about an hour to put this together anyway, and with the hours I'm working right now I chose to buy them instead of making them homemade. I love a quote from Nigella Lawson in her Feast cookbook where she says about buying crepes that although she would love to spend hours in the kitchen every day and enjoy every minute of it, when it comes down to a choice between making things like crepes homemade or spending time with her children, the choice is obvious. I agree.  I also choose to buy the produce and create a lovely, wonderful recipe that's very good for us, but to take an obvious shortcut that gives me extra time with my husband.  Guess what?  At the end of my life I'll never say to my husband, "Gosh, honey, I wish I'd spent less time with you and more time making homemade crepes, especially when a good substitute was available for working shmoes like us."

However, when I made this yesterday I'd forgotten to buy crepes and it was easier to throw them together:

In a blender, whiz together for about 30 seconds:

3 eggs

3/4 cup unbleached white or all purpose flour

1/3 cup skim milk

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp melted butter

Let batter rest in fridge for about a half to one full hour so the flour and liquids will combine well.  In a crepe pan or large flat skillet that heats evenly, spread out just enough batter to barely cover the bottom. Funny, this looks much less batter looks much less even in the photo than it did in real life so don't let the photo scare you.  It isn't that hard tomake nice crepes (see next photo) and even if they're not perfect, they're overlapped so many times in this dish that no one will be the wiser if you're a crepe novice.

Cook that side until the top side appear mostly dry and the bottom, when lifted at the edge is golden brown or dotted with golden brown (it's the butter in the batter that browns). Flip gently and cook on the other side for about 30 seconds or until that side browns as well.  Cook one at a time, stacking with waxed paper dividers. Makes about 10 crepes. Set aside.

Okay, so one batch crepes. And for the south beachers, Crescent does specifically say they can be made out of of whole wheat pastry flour...

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

You 're going to make three fillings to go in layers and a custard binding sauce:

In the first version of this I made last week I used a zucchini filling but the one I did yesterday had an asparagus/mushroom filling in it's place. Of course I forgot to photograph that but the design of the torte is the same.

The tomato filling:

1 Tbsp olive oil, rosemary infused works very well

1/2 medium onion, diced

2 cups fresh tomato, diced OR 1  14.5 oz can petite chopped tomatoes, drained

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp fresh basil, minced or 1/2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp fresh oregano, minced or 1/3 tsp dried oregano

1 Tbsp fresh parsley, minced or 1 tsp dried parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: In a heavy skillet over medium heat, saute the onion in the olive oil and then add tomatoes and rest of ingredients.  Cook until water is evaporated.  Set aside

The ricotta/tofu filling:

1 cup fat free ricotta

1/2 12 oz brick of light tofu, drained

4 oz fat free cream cheese

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup shredded parmesan, swiss, or (my favorite) asiago cheese

Directions:  Whisk all ingredients together.  Set aside.

The OTHER filling:

The first two layers are pretty standard for me, but I've made this layer out of zucchini or green beans like Crescent, or broccoli like Julia, but this time I made it out of asparagus, mushrooms, and red pepper. 

1 Tbsp olive oil, rosemary infused works very well

1/2 medium onion, diced

1/2 cup red pepper, diced

2 cups fresh mushrooms, cleaned and diced

2 cups fresh asparagus cut into 1/2" pieces

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp brown sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:   Place chopped asparagus in microwave dish and cover with about 1/2 cup water and microwave, on high, for about 3 minutes to blanch.  Remove from microwave and pour off water.  Saute the onion and red pepper in skillet over medium heat.  When onions are translucent add the mushrooms, and after a few stirs, add the asparagus.  Heat through, cooking until any moisture is evaporated and mushrooms are softened. Set aside.

Custard binding sauce:

In a blender, whisk the following until smooth:

3 eggs

other half of 12 oz light tofu block

4 oz fat free cream cheese

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp seasoning salt

1-2 tsp chinese red pepper hot sauce, Louisianna hot sauce, or 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Assembly:

1.  In a 2 quart casserole dish, layer 4 crepes around overlapping each other and hanging over the side of the dish. 

Lay 1 crepe in the center bottom of the dish.

2.  Spoon in tomato filling and tamp down slightly with spatula.  Lay on 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese and pour over half of the custard binding sauce.

3.  Lay down one crepe to cover filling.

4.  Spoon in ricotta filling. Cover with one crepe.

5.  Spoon in asparagus/mushroom layer and tamp down slightly with spatula.  Lay on last 1/4 cup of shredded cheese, and pour over last half of custard binding sauce.

(Imagine the photo is asparagus.)

6. Fold crepes from sides over onto this filling and then top with final 2 or 3 crepes. 

7.  Spray a large piece of foil with cooking spray and gently lay over top of crepe torte.  Place casserole dish onto a baking sheet and place into pre-heated oven.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Turn oven up to 400 degrees and bake for another 10-15 minutes, still covered.  When taken out of the oven, the torte should be puffed up and browned nicely.

8. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before inverting onto serving platter.  Allow to cool minimum of 1 hour before cutting or all of the insides will spill out onto platter.  After 1 hour, torte will still be warm, not cold. 

Serve warm, room temp, or chilled. Makes 8 servings entree sized, or 12 servings as an appetizer.

Nutrition counts for 8 servings.  Per slice:  Calories 282.  Protein 20.  Carbs 20.  Fat 12.

Comments

[sher]

Yes, that is the Julia recipe (before you changed it). It looks so delicious and it's great that you figured out how to make it healthier, without sacrificing the delicious factor! I always wanted to make this after I first saw it many years ago in one of Julia's cook books. Great post!

[Ed Anderson]

Check out this new automatic crepe/pancake machine.

[Katie]

This is beautiful! I can see it becoming a summer garden staple. I can make it early evening before going back out to the gardens, then enjoy it on the terrace with a glass of rose as the sun sets, which is about 10:30 where I live. And, our supermarket just started stocking pre-made Bretagne crepes made with buckwheat flour.
Can't wait 'till summmer.

[Glenna]

Sher--thanks! And you should try it, definitely this summer as your garden comes in. You'll love it!

Katie--thanks so much! And yes, definitely a summer garden treat. Once you make it, the next time it goes togethr much more quickly so it would be perfect to put together in the morning and since it's so lovely at room temp you wouldn't even have to waste a lot of evening time in the kitchen.

[Willa]

How funny- I was just reading Crescent Dragonwagon's Passionate Vegetarian cookbook today.

This looks delightful. I wonder if I can find Amy's crepes here. It seems too fiddle-y to make my own.

Willa

[Glenna]

Willa-- I have that cookbook too and I really like it. I always find new stuff and old favorites from the Inn in it. It really is a fantastic recipe. I hope you try it. LOL about making crepes. They're not hard, they jsut take time but that's the one commodity none of us have and if there's a great sub alreayd availalbe from a really nice company, why not use them? Good luck!

[Helene]

That looks great and is a must. thanks for the story accompanying it. Since I´m always on the lookout for new veggie recipes it´s on my list. Thanks for step by step explanation.

[Glenna]

Helene--Thanks so much for the comment. This is one of my favorite dishes too. I took some to work just the other night and enjoyed it so much that I forgot I put tofu in it.

[Kalyn]

Oh baby! This looks just amazing, no matter who created the recipe. I love that you made it a bit healthier. Great job.

[Glenna]

Kalyn--thanks! I appreciate that. Give it a try, it's fantastic. Like you said, no matter who created it. :-)

[Colon Cleanse Geek]

I have got to get my hands on that cookbook but thanks for sharing the recipe with all those great pictures. Love your blog, keep taking those iron pills:-)