Antonia, Jeremie and Pierre grew up eating crepes in France. Then they learnt to make crepes properly in Brittany. Luckily for Mumbai, their next step was to land up here and set up a downtown creperie called Suzette. Even more luckily for me, I was one of the first few to read the mail when Brown Paper Bag announced a crepe making class at Suzette. Looks like hundreds of people wrote in and I was one of the first 16 to sign up!
So 16 of us descended on Suzette this afternoon to be greeted by the three owners and the ever charming Mansi from BPB. Once we'd met the other "strangers" and had our first round of coffees, we were introduced to bilig - the cast iron griddle they use to make crepes. Antonia also showed up the wooden tool they use to spread the crepe batter. All of that requires tons of practice though so they had set up non-stick mini crepe making stations for us instead.
The class began with a lesson on making the crepe batter. They use the plain flour and egg batter for sweet crepes in Suzette and an eggless buckwheat flour batter for savory crepes. Since the flour batter is versatile and can be used for both sweet and savory versions, that's the one we set to make. A few minutes of frantic mixing and whipping later, three pristine bowls of batter were put aside to rest.
In the meantime, we made cream of tuna - one of the four crepe fillings we were to try. Then crepe making started in earnest. The crepe pan was wiped with a little bit of oil and the batter was poured in, spread out thin and cooked on both sides. My first crepe turned out to be a bit too thick, and others had too thin crepes but once we'd tried a few, most of us could proudly made perfect crepes.
And we did end up trying more than a few. First there was the one with cream of tuna. Then, another one with olive tapenade. The sweet versions came out next. The suggested combination was thinly sliced bananas with nutella and coconut. But I know I overdosed on nutella and forgot the rest of the plan. Then, because we were being so nice, Jeremie and Antonia brought us some dark chocolate ganache and a heavenly salted caramel sauce.
Finally, Antonia showed us her favorite. The simplest crepe, yet the best - sprinkled with caster sugar, topped with a squeeze of lime juice and left to caramelize on the griddle. All this while, the room was filled with chatter of people getting to know each other, but mainly getting to know each other's interest in food.
All in all, one of the most enjoyable afternoons I've had in a while.
So 16 of us descended on Suzette this afternoon to be greeted by the three owners and the ever charming Mansi from BPB. Once we'd met the other "strangers" and had our first round of coffees, we were introduced to bilig - the cast iron griddle they use to make crepes. Antonia also showed up the wooden tool they use to spread the crepe batter. All of that requires tons of practice though so they had set up non-stick mini crepe making stations for us instead.
The class began with a lesson on making the crepe batter. They use the plain flour and egg batter for sweet crepes in Suzette and an eggless buckwheat flour batter for savory crepes. Since the flour batter is versatile and can be used for both sweet and savory versions, that's the one we set to make. A few minutes of frantic mixing and whipping later, three pristine bowls of batter were put aside to rest.
In the meantime, we made cream of tuna - one of the four crepe fillings we were to try. Then crepe making started in earnest. The crepe pan was wiped with a little bit of oil and the batter was poured in, spread out thin and cooked on both sides. My first crepe turned out to be a bit too thick, and others had too thin crepes but once we'd tried a few, most of us could proudly made perfect crepes.
And we did end up trying more than a few. First there was the one with cream of tuna. Then, another one with olive tapenade. The sweet versions came out next. The suggested combination was thinly sliced bananas with nutella and coconut. But I know I overdosed on nutella and forgot the rest of the plan. Then, because we were being so nice, Jeremie and Antonia brought us some dark chocolate ganache and a heavenly salted caramel sauce.
Finally, Antonia showed us her favorite. The simplest crepe, yet the best - sprinkled with caster sugar, topped with a squeeze of lime juice and left to caramelize on the griddle. All this while, the room was filled with chatter of people getting to know each other, but mainly getting to know each other's interest in food.
All in all, one of the most enjoyable afternoons I've had in a while.
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