Mushroom crepe gratin recipe
In this dish, the crêpes are filled with a comforting mushroom stuffing (called a ‘duxelle’) and topped with a wonderful béchamel sauce and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese before being gratinated. A mound of chopped, wilted spinach makes the perfect bed on which to serve the crêpes. There are four elements that make up this recipe: the duxelle, the crêpes, the sauce and the garnish. If you break it down into these components, you won’t go too far wrong. You need to cook down the duxelle so that the mixture left in the pan is almost dry – but don’t let it burn! At the same time, you can have the milk infusing with the onion, bay leaf and peppercorns, which will then be added to the roux for the béchamel sauce, along with a touch of cayenne and nutmeg. This gratin dish makes a lovely family supper.
Ingredients
- 250 g Plain flour, sifted - for the crepes
- 300 ml Whole milk - for the crepes
- 2 Eggs - for the crepes
- 2 tbsp Melted unsalted butter - for the crepes
- 2 tbsp Vegetable oil - for the crepes
- 50 g Parmesan cheese, grated - for the crepes
- 75 g Unsalted butter - for the filling
- 2 Banana shallots, peeled and finely chopped- for the filling
- 1 Garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped- for the filling
- 1 kg Button mushrooms, finely chopped- for the filling
- 2 tsp Finely chopped thyme leaves- for the filling
- 2 tsp Finely chopped flat-leaf parsley- for the filling
- 400 ml Whole milk - for the sauce
- 1 Bay leaf - for the sauce
- 8 Black peppercorns - for the sauce
- 0.5 Onion, peeled - for the sauce
- 40 g Unsalted butter - for the sauce
- 20 g Plain flour, sifted - for the sauce
- 1 Pinch of salt - for the sauce
- 0.5 tsp Cayenne pepper - for the sauce
- 0.5 Freshly grated nutmeg - for the sauce
- 500 g Baby spinach leaves - for the spinach
- 1 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil- for the spinach
Details
- Cuisine: French
- Recipe Type: Main
- Difficulty: Medium
- Preparation Time: 10 mins
- Cooking Time: 40 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6.
- To make the crêpes, sieve the flour into a large bowl and gradually mix in the milk, 300ml of water, eggs and butter, then whisk until smooth.
- Heat a medium-sized non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add a little of the vegetable oil. Then pour in a ladleful of the crêpe batter and swirl the pan to spread out the batter and form a thin crêpe. Cook for 2 minutes, flip the crêpe over using a spatula, fish slice or palette knife and cook for a further minute on the other side. Slide the crêpe out of the pan on to a plate to one side and place a sheet of kitchen paper on top to stop the crêpes from sticking together.
- Repeat with the rest of the batter, one ladleful at a time and adding a little more oil to the pan between cooking each crêpe, until you end up with a pile of 8 cooked crêpes interleaved with sheets of kitchen paper.
- To make the mushroom filling, place the butter in a medium-sized sauté pan over a medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the shallots and cook for 2 minutes until they are soft, then add the garlic, mushrooms and thyme and cook for a further 8-10 minutes, until the moisture from the mushrooms has evaporated. Remove the pan from the heat, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle on the chopped parsley. Set aside.
- To make the béchamel sauce, place the milk, bay leaf, peppercorns and onion in a medium-sized saucepan and warm over a low heat but do not let the milk boil.
- In a separate medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over a medium heat then add the flour to make a roux. Cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes.
- Strain the warmed milk, discarding the aromatics, and gradually pour the milk into the roux, whisking all the time. Cook for a further 5 minutes until you have a smooth, thickened béchamel sauce, then season with salt, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. Take 2 tablespoons of the sauce and mix into the mushroom filling to bind that together.
- On a clean work surface, lay 2 crêpes overlapping one another to give a large surface area and spread a quarter of the mushroom filling evenly over the crêpes. Taking the end nearest to you, roll up into a Swiss roll shape. Cut the roll into 2cm-thick pieces. Repeat with the remaining 6 crêpes and the rest of the filling.
- Heat a medium-sized frying pan over a low to medium heat, throw in the baby spinach and drizzle over the extra virgin olive oil. Cook for 2 minutes until the spinach leaves have wilted.
- Place the wilted spinach in the bottom of 4 x 5 inch/13cm round or oval individual gratin dishes, or use one large dish. Pour a little béchamel sauce over the top and then place a quarter of the slices of filled crêpe roll on top, overlapping the slices slightly. Pour the remaining béchamel sauce over the top and sprinkle on the grated Parmesan.
- Place the 4 gratin dishes on a baking tray and put in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes until the gratins are golden brown on top.
Recipes extracted from 'Cookery School' brought to you by Channel 4, is published on the 3rd March
Published by Penguin HB