Here’s a blast from last year’s past – my Shrove Tuesday posts. Who’d have thunk I’ve passed a year blogging already?!! Time flies when you’re having fun 
The pancakes in our house would probably be better described as crêpes – light, fluffy and delicious. However, this means they can eat more, and boy, can my brothers eat more. And my Dad too. They will literally put away ten in one sitting, while my poor Mum becomes one with the stove. All evening long. Luckily, I’m not into desserts or too many sweet stuffs, so I’m one less hungry mouth to feed full of pancakes.
However, when I was young, broke and ‘studying’ in France (read: studying the back of wine bottles mostly) I discovered Galettes. These are a delicious Breton dish, which are essentially savoury crêpes. They’re just the trick for a light lunch or bit of supper, especially washed down with a lovely crisp Muscadet from the region (I studied very hard as you can tell!). I learned this recipe from my fellow students, as it was a cheap, easy meal that could be prepared in advance and reheated easily at 2am, after two or three of said bottles of Muscadet.
So, for the sugar fairies among us, Mum’s posting her recipe above, and for the salt fiends like me, here goes nothin’;
- 1 1/4 cups buckwheat flour + ½ cup plain flour (makes 6 galettes)
- 2 eggs
- 2 ½ cups milk
- ½ tsp salt
- Fillings – cheese, ham, onions, chorizo, tomatoes, etc.
- Pour both flours, eggs, milk and salt into a large mixing bowl and whisk.
- Pop the batter into the fridge for minimum two hours, ideally overnight.
- Bring wide pan to medium heat and rub with butter. Spoon one ladle of mixture in and tilt pan to fill. You want them to be thin, more crêpe-like than pancake-like. Flip over if you feel it needs it, but as they’re so thin they’re often cooked through just from the bottom up.
- Fill one side of the galette with your chosen filling, fold over, press down, and remove from pan. Pop into pre-heated oven (about 180-200C) and allow to crisp up, melting all the nyummy cheese inside. I like to serve with salad to distract from the copious cheese calories inside.
Cheats:
First One: Top tip from Gastromama, which applies to both sweet and savoury – don’t be put off by the mishapen ball of sad stringy dough that the first one looks inevitably like – this will season the pan beautifully for the next one, which will be a lot better, trust us.
Flour: Because I was last-minute-Mary as usual, I shopped in Tesco for these ingredients, where myself and two helpful ladies couldn’t find any buckwheat. So I made mine with spelt flour. Not orthodox no, but did the trick just fine! Must. Call. To. Health Food Store. Soon.
Filling: The most popular way I’ve seen these served is filled with ham and cheese, but feel free to get as creative as you like. As I had baby tomatoes, Irish ham, Spanish chorizo, goat’s cheese and gouda in my fridge, that’s what’s been filling mine, but I’d be more imaginative if my fridge was better stocked!