Crepe variations

Crepe bar lends itself to many variations. I had quite a bit of ground lamb curry leftover from the curried lamb w/ curried spinach pizza I’d made Kevin for Valentine’s day, so I decided to turn that into classic Sri Lankan mutton roll filling. (Confusingly, ‘mutton’ rolls are often (generally?) made with goat meat in Sri Lanka, because it’s easier to source, presumably, but lamb does work just fine too.) It’s my absolute favorite party food, but so labor-intensive that I only get to eat it a few times / year.

Dice some potatoes small, sauté them in oil with mustard seed and cumin seed and salt, when they’re mostly cooked, turn in the leftover ground lamb curry and stir it in.

It came out fine, and Kev and I had a couple of crepes that night like this, but the lamb & potato curry filling was a little lacking in oomph. I ended up amping it up even more yesterday — I diced an onion (MOAR ONIONS), sautéed that, added some more seeds + cayenne + ketchup + salt, and turned the meat and potato mixture into that, stirring to blend. THAT was finally perfect. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get something right.  I filled twenty crepes with that filling and froze them.

One KEY thing that I think I have to add to the roll recipe in Feast if I do a second edition is that you *can’t* make the crepes, refrigerate them, and then try to roll them at a later date. I’ve tried that twice now for big parties, and both times, it was disastrous, because the crepes just kept tearing — once they’ve cooled down, they lose the elasticity they need to make a tight roll. SO FRUSTRATING, esp. in the midst of a big party and after days of prep. Never again.

Making batter and refrigerating it is fine. But once crepes are made, fill and roll immediately. Then you can freeze! (Stephanie, please add this note to the revision notes for Feast’s second edition — thanks!)

The next time I have a small party, I can pull those out, dip them in egg and bread crumbs and deep fry, and it will be delicious.

(There was a bit of filling left after I’d used up all the crepe batter, and I’ve been eating that with toasted pita for breakfast, lunch, snacks. SO GOOD.)

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