The Yellow House

I should start this off by admitting that I’m not a “crêpe person”. You know who you are, crêpe people. Crêpes were your favorite street food in France, and you’re already a little annoyed with me for calling a buckwheat crêpe a crêpe at all, because everyone knows that in France, buckwheat crêpes are called galettes. (I myself, despite David Lebovitz‘s best efforts to educate me, did not know until after I had already made these.)

So, I’m sorry in advance, devoted crêpe people. I didn’t even really set out to make these crêpes very purposefully. Instead, they were the result of having too much of several ingredients–eggs, milk, and a lot of herbs.

We’ve had a really wet spring, followed by a week of intense heat. The herbs in my garden have decided that this weather is analogous to the end of summer, shooting up quickly only to start flowering and going to seed. For me, it means that it’s so hot out that the only cooking (you know, with heat) that I will do is on a grill, between the hours of 9 and 10 PM (strategically planned to be as late (read: cool) as possible while still taking advantage of remaining light and lack of mosquitoes).
But it has finally, blessedly, cooled off. And I am left with an excess of herbs needing to be cut and used as well as milk and eggs, because clearly I haven’t been baking during that one hour timeframe when I allowed myself to use the grill. These crêpes were the solution. Savory crêpes are versatile for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or, if you’re me, even dinner. The herbs and buckwheat are flavorful enough that they don’t need much more than a smear of crème fraiche to elevate them to greatness.


The best part about infusing the crêpes themselves with the herbs, though, is that you’ll intuitively know what toppings/fillings go best with each herb. The dill crêpes seemed distinctly Scandinavian, like a buckwheat blini, almost—I wished I had smoked salmon to put on top. The rosemary version, though, was calling out for a sprinkle of fine-grain sea salt and a squeeze of lemon to brighten it up. I only used thyme, rosemary, and dill here; I’m sure you’ll find similar complements for whichever herbs you include in your crêpes.

Tagged Buckwheat flour, Crème fraiche, Dill, Rosemary, Thyme

§ 4 responses to Herbed buckwheat crêpes

• Katherine
  4 June, 2011 at 10:27 am

  I’m a pseudo crepe person. I enjoy them greatly when presented with crepes, but wouldn’t call myself a crepe snob or connoisseur. I do own a crepe pan (thank you wedding registry!) but it’s at home in storage. These look absolutely delightful. I can’t wait to try them!

  Reply
• Verity Sturm
  25 July, 2011 at 12:26 pm

  These look a-maz-ing. I been into crepes this past six months and found that th ines that I made are too sweet and oily. We grow herbs on our patio, but where wold I find buckwheat?
  Also, I stumbled onto this site and thought you would like it. There are many non-sweet and savory cupcakes :)
  http://mingmakescupcakes.yolasite.com/
  Love,
  Verity

  Reply

  • Sarah
    25 July, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    Verity! So glad you’re stopping by :) Buckwheat flour is available at well-stocked grocery stores in the baking goods or dry goods section. As for being too oily—maybe try less butter/oil in the skillet. You really only have to add it after every third or fourth crepe you make; there’s a lot of residual oils in the skillet.

    Reply