Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Breakfast: It's what's for dinner


I generally make a nice meal on Saturday and Sunday, but during the week I eat simply - salad, a fried egg, some potatoes, yogurt and fruit. It just doesn't seem quite worth it to make a full meal just for myself. But of course before the Eat Local project, I would sometimes get a hot meal at work or pick up sushi on the way home. So I've been feeling the need for real meal. Of course, my favorite real meal is breakfast, so that's what I made for dinner.

I thought I might be able to convert cheese blintzes to my whole wheat-honey ingredient list. I used 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup apple cider, 2/3 cup milk, and 1 cup whole wheat flour from Maine, plus a pinch of salt. These proportions are from Julia Child, but I replaced some of her water with cider, because I thought the acidity might help keep the crepes tender. So many whole wheat things are rubbery. I let the batter sit for two hours; a good idea with any crepe batter, but essential here, because whole wheat takes longer to absorb moisture than white flour does. When I returned to my batter, it was far too thick, and I had to add another 1/4 cup of water. That made it thin enough, but note! if you try this, stir the batter before pouring each crepe. The batter tend to separate just a little. But the crepes came out fine, very tasty even on their own.

So crepes were done, and then I needed a filling. I mixed cottage cheese with honey in the blender, since I had it out to mix the crepe batter anyway. This was a mistake, but not a big one. The batter became too thin, and filling the crepes was a bitch. They didn't come out pretty and plump, but somewhat flattened. Didn't matter, though; they were delicious. I drizzled some maple syrup, topped with blueberries, and enjoyed my dinner thoroughly. Posted by Picasa

3 comments:

Ariel said...

My roommate just emailed me your post because you are our virtual twin, having started your eat local project in Cambridge at exactly the same time we did at our house... in Cambridge. I feel like we're reinventing the wheel reading your posts, and so i hope we can compare notes. or blogs that is. and let me make an offer - we're driving to Gill, MA (88.8 miles) this weekend to get some winter wheat flour from a farmer. Can we bring you back some? Anyway, cheers on our like-mindedness! Here's my blog which I'm a little behind on...
http://locavoresunite.blogspot.com/.

The Jeff Next Door said...

You might try it with whole wheat pastry flour, although I don't know if they produce it local to Cambridge. I find that it makes baking with whole wheat easier.

Stacie said...

Yum! My kids love it when I make b-fast for dinner! Great tip on the cider vin. I have been baking with locally ground whole wheat flour, alas, I have not camoe across any locally grown... but I'll have to try the cider tip! Thanks!