CHRISTMAS MENU #4: ARTICHOKES AND TALEGGIO CREPES WITH LEEKS AND POTATOES CREAM

“At least you’ll never be a vegetable, even artichokes have hearts.” The fabulous world of Amèlie

 

I don’t tell you lies… It isn’t one of those easy & fast recipes. But it will give you so much satisfaction that the time devoted thereto will pass into the background. It’s not that difficult, however, as most of the big things, it take time. Well spent time. In short, I like the idea of finding a first course that, at least at Christmas, could satisfy the tastes of everyone. I imagine a table with the vegetarian cousin, the aunt always on a diet, the celiac sister and the lactose intolerant mum. How to make everyone happy? Here’s my fantastic solution for your inner peace.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 8)

For crêpes:

• 70 gr. of chickpea flour
• 70 gr. of plain flour
• 300 ml. of dairy free milk
• 3 eggs
• Salt and turmeric q.s.
• Margarine to grease the pan
• Grated Parmesan q.s.
• Chives q.s.

Tip: I wanted to use half a dose of common wheat flour and half of chickpea flour. Obviously, if some of your diner is celiac, you have just to use only chickpea flour, or lighten its flavor with rice flour instead of wheat one.

For the stuffing:

• 5 fresh artichokes
• A clove of garlic
• White wine to simmer
• Olive oil and salt q.s.
• 100 gr. of margarine
• 100 gr. plain flour (or rice flour)
• 500 ml of dairy free milk
• 500 ml of rice milk (trust me, it’s great with artichokes)
• 150 gr. of Taleggio cheese
• Salt q.s.

For the cream:

• 4 big potatoes
• 1 leek
• Stracciatella or burrata cheese (or, as an alternative for people that like me can’t eat anything containing lactose should, lactose free mozzarella cheese. You can find it at the deli counter in specialized supermarket)
• Vegetable stock cube
• Olive oil and salt q.s.

Matching soundtrack: Family of the year – Hero

PROCESS

Start by filling, and so, the artichokes. We wash them, cut the stems and eliminate all the outer leaves, more tough and fibrous. Peel off the outside of the artichoke’s heart and reduce it into small pieces, now cut in half the artichoke and remove the internal beard. Reduce it into small pieces and proceed as for the remaining (preparing you to see your fingers become gradually more and more brown, don’t panic: a bit ‘of water and lemon and everything goes away). Now, pan on the fire, about three tablespoons of oil and a clove of garlic, we wait for it to heat and pour the artichokes. Add salt and simmer over high heat for a few minutes then deglaze with a little ‘white wine. Now add water and let cook for at least an hour.

We now come to the preparation of the bechamel sauce. Heat the margarine and melting, add the flour, stirring with a whisk, I would recommend do this off the heat. As soon as you create a uniform compound let it brown on low heat for about a minute and then gradually add the milk – previously heated – stirring constantly. When the sauce has reached a creamy consistency (after about a few minutes) add salt, turn off the heat and add the taleggio cheese.

We just have to finish the filling pouring half of the artichokes in bechamel sauce, mix all together with an immersion blender and then add the remaining artichokes. Put aside and prepare the cream.

Wash and chop potatoes and leek, place them in a saucepan and cover with water. Adjust with vegetable stock cube and cook for a half hour or so, or at least until the vegetables are well cooked. At this point we turn off the heat, pour the extra virgin olive oil and emulsifie directly into the pan with the immersion blender “mounting” the cream with vertical movements. Also this preparation is ready and we can set it aside.

We come to the crepes themselves. In a boule stir the milk with flours and, then, add the eggs one at a time. Salt it, color with turmeric and we can cook them! Heat the pan for crepes and anoint slightly, pour a ladle of batter and rotate rapidly as the mixture has evenly to the edges. We wait a few seconds and turn the crepe (I help with a wood chopstich), so we proceed untill the batter has finished.

The last step is to form the little bundles of crepes: place the in the center of the crepe the stuffing with artichokes, close gently to form a bag and stop it with a chive. Place the baking paper on an oven dish where you are going to lay the dumplings. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and put 15 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees until they become au gratin. Dial the plate in this way: the hot potato and leek cream in the bottom, the stracciatella cheese in the middle with over the bundle, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and you have (finally) done!

Good to know: besides the single portion, if you have many guests, it might be more comfortable having the dish directly in the pan. An additional surplus of this agile “maneuver” is the fact that so you can prepare everything the day before and, when necessary, you’ll need only to bake it. Just pour in the bottom of the pan a bed of leeks and potatoes cream, place above it the dumplings (or triangles or cylinders, the form that you prefer) of crepes stuffed, stracciatella spoonfuls and finally a sprinkling of grated Parmesan; bake it in the oven and serve!

Good to know 2: obviously the choice of ingredients is designed to meet the needs of the growing number of relatives/friends “victims” of food intolerance. If this is not your case, you just have to replace flour and dairy free ingredients with more traditional one, maintaining stable doses. In fact, you’ll notice that I have used the wheat flour because I don’t have celiac disease in my family, on the contrary I din’t use ingredients that contain lactose. It’s up to you to calibrate the recipe according to your needs (and your taste).

Photography: Sara Cartelli.
© Immagini The Eat Culture.