Summer beetroot crepes
grownandgathered
You know what, food is not only meant to be nourishing, but it's also meant to be fun, it’s meant to make you happy, and you are meant to eat things that taste truly delicious.
To us, all of the food we eat is all of these things. Because it’s seasonal, it’s life – it’s waiting for the seasons to change, then taking what nature gives us each season, and creating what we can with it.
This is what makes us happy and makes us feel so well. And that is what this recipe is all about – look at those crepes!
I think with the new season (as we write this it is early summer) there have been lots of realisation for us. Somehow this season, things feel so much easier in terms of farming – and I honestly think it’s an acceptance. An acceptance of nature. I think we are becoming more and more used to living with the seasons – and with that is an acceptance of nature, that nature will do, what it does, when it wants to do it. We have absolutely no control of that. If a crop is destroyed by hail or frost, or birds eat all of your wheat crops - that is simply just nature, and that is the balance of things.
And until the day we die, we will still be learning the ways of nature – it will always win. And we are and always will be learning new ways to grow with nature, and also accept the wild parts of it.
This has made me reflect a lot on new farmers. There are so many people starting to learn and grow – which is absolutely amazing. I want to say to these people, to be patient with nature, and don’t be scared to learn it. I feel like in our modern world, people want to move so fast, and things are expected to be neat and ordered, that is just how things are - but that isn’t the way of nature. And don’t hurry the learning. We will all be learning until the day that we die.
But for now, it’s the ultimate summer time. The farm is planted, but not all of the crops are on (ready) – so we aren’t madly picking and things feel almost calm.
Lots of flowers are on, dahlias, zinnias; vegetables that are prolific are zucchinis, corn, and cucumbers - with a few root vegetables like beetroots, carrots and radishes. Things like tomatoes (which we may have over planted) are still green.
So this is what this meal is based on, what is abundant in the season at the moment. The crepes are earthy from the beetroot, and bright from the summer vegetables and fresh herbs. It's a quick summer meal - for long hot days, cool drinks and to share with friends. It's a fun one.
Field notes:
Why do we use white rice flour? Isn't it better to use whole-grains?
If we don't have time to ferment grains and prepare them properly, we actually prefer to use something like white rice flour and mill it fresh, as this is simply carbohydrates, whereas if you eat whole-grains that aren't soured/fermented, you are also eating enzyme inhibitors that will stop you from being able to absorb all the good stuff in your meal. So this is what we use for quick, spur of the moment meals.
Serves 4 // Time 30 minutes
Recipe
Ingredients
Crepes:
240g (2 cups) white rice flour
1 cup beetroot juice (you will need about 2 beetroots / 400g beetroot)
1 cup water
4 eggs
pinch of sea salt
Filling:
2 large corn cobs
spoonful of butter
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 dried chilli, chopped finely
2 (500g) zucchinis, peeled into thin strips
2 cloves garlic, crushed
juice of half a lemon
sea salt to taste
Topping:
8-10 cubes (100g) feta cheese
2-4 spring onion shoots, finely chopped
handful of basil leaves, torn
good olive oil
Method
Make up crepe mixture:
Combine all crepe batter ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until it has formed a smooth batter. Set aside.
Make up filling mixture & cook crepes:
Place corn into a pot and cover with salty water (salty like the sea), and boil until just soft (approximately 5 minutes). Strain corn and cut corn kernels off cob. Set aside.
In a fry pan, add a big spoonful of butter, paprika, black pepper, and chilli. Once fragrant, add corn kernels, zucchini, garlic and lemon juice. Fry on a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, or until the zucchini is just starting to soften - stir only once or twice in this time. Add sea salt to taste.
In the meantime, begin to make your crepes. Heat a heavy based fry pan to a medium-hot heat. Add a splash of olive oil and then with a ladle, mix the mixture and ladle a spoonful of the mixture into the pan - quickly roll the pan so that you end up with a thin batter – this should be one quick movement! Fry until super bubbly and flip - if it sticks at all, you have flipped it too early! This process should take around 2-3 minutes per crepe.
Place crepes in a tea towel to keep warm and soften, while you continue to cook the rest. You should end up with about 10-12 crepes.
Put it all together:
Lay crepes out, place filling in the middle, sprinkle feta cheese, spring onions and basil on top, drizzle a little olive oil and then fold.
