crepes in ruby's virginia kitchen

There are many cookbooks in the cupboard. If you are worried about the old and big ones falling apart, maybe try to find a sturdier one.

Just because a crepe recipe is in french doesn't mean it's the best. Especially if you can't read french.

What you need is some eggs. Take three and delayez bien avec un cuillier du bois. My best guess is that means beat the eggs with a wooden spoon. I also guess that you are to beat them in a bowl, and possibly remove and discard the shells first.

Then you need 125 grammes de farine de gruau. That's some kind of flour, but 125 grams? Sure, that's about five ounces, but what else is it? If you're in Ruby's kitchen, don't panic, just root through the cupboards until you find a magic container that gives the weight of all kinds of dry ingredients along the side.

Maybe you didn't know such a thing existed, because previously you always measured things in cups, recklessly unaware of the problems of compacted or sifted flour fucking with your recipes. Don't worry, surely in the "Conversions of weights and measures" section of some other cookbook (not the one in French) there is some clue about how much flour makes 125 grams.

I'm telling you, it's not an even measure. Like, maybe, just over seven-eighths of a cup. For g*d's sake, don't quote me on that.

So, ajoutez le farine peu a peu dans les oeufs. I mean, it might be lumpy when you add the first few spoons of flour, but if you beat it all in well the lumps will smooth out. Sometimes the flour just lumps because it is lonely, and needs more flour.

Then you gotta faites boullir 25 decilitres du lait, a cup of milk if you don't feel like looking it up. I don't know why else, but it sure helps to have hot scalded or boiled milk when you need to mettez-y le buerre hors de feu. Butter: 30 grams, a couple tablespoons but I'm not worried about that being exact. Should I be worried?

You need 5 grammes du sel fin, which should fit in a tiny pile in the palm of your hand.

Beat it all together, and if you know what it is, add 2 petites cuillerees a cafe d'eau et le meme mesure de rhum. Well, if you don't put rum in, put in total four teaspoons of water, or the batter won't be thin enough.

Ruby saved me at this point by waking up, and showing me how to run the crepe pan and the gas stove at the same time. Scoop up some batter in a ladle, pour it on the medium-hot ungreased crepe pan and tilt the pan all around quickly so the batter runs to the edges. Peel up the edges off the pan as they dry, so they don't burn, then turn the heat down and flip the crepe. Ruby would coach you on this too, and I tell you, it's easier than it looks.

If you have any feeling left in your fingertips at all, use a wide plastic spatula to take the crepe off the pan. If you have been working as a dishwasher or making chipathi or roti, you can just use your clean fingers.

But who has a crepe pan? Not you? Use cast iron instead, or even teflon, but for both you gotta put a small amount of butter or oil on the pan. When the fat is hot, spread it around the surface with that spatula. The first crepe will likely suck, because it will be too greasy, but the rest will be delicious.