Yum! Wild Mushrooms!

I found a recipe on a blog recently for wild mushroom crepes, and it's autumn in Oregon. Out to the Farmer's Market we went to purchase fresh wild mushrooms and try it out. I am a sucker for crepes!

I need to take some lessons in food photography--the photos never seem to capture the presentation very well...but here they are:

The kids are squeamish about mushrooms (who can blame them? I was as a kid, too), so I made a pan for them filled with leftover pasta sauce, made with ground turkey. They loved them! I took a risk and substituted spelt flour (because of our wheat sensitivities), and they turned out fine, akin to whole wheat crepes. (They probably would have been lighter had I used white flour.)

Wild Mushroom Crepes

for crepes:

1 ½ cup milk

2 tablespoon canola oil

3 eggs

1 ½ cups flour (spelt, in our case)

1/8 teaspoon salt

for filling:

1 teaspoon olive oil

8 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced

4 ounces oyster mushrooms, sliced

8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 cup chicken broth

1 4-ounce can tomato paste (I substituted tomato sauce because I didn't have any tom. paste)

1 tablespoon flour (again, used spelt)

1/2 cup (generous) part-skim ricotta

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan

1/2 teaspoon salt

dash of freshly ground pepper

for Parmesan sauce:

3 tablespoons flour (spelt)

1 1/4 cup low fat milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

1 14-ounce can petite diced tomatoes or pureed tomatoes (I used fresh tomatoes instead)

fresh Parmesan for topping

freshly chopped parsley for topping (forgot this part!)

To make crepes, mix all the ingredients and whisk well until smooth. Using a little non-stick spray in the pan, pour several tablespoons of batter into the pan and tilt to cover the bottom. Cook over a medium-high heat for a minute or two before loosening edges with a spatula and flipping to brown the other side.Once browned on both sides set aside to cool and repeat for the rest of the batter.

For the filling, saute the mushrooms and garlic in the olive oil over a medium-high heat. Cook until the mushrooms have shrunk and turned dark brown. Add oregano and cook 1 minute more, then add broth and tomato paste and whisk to combine. Add the flour, whisking well to prevent lumps, then simmer until sauce is thickened. Remove from heat, stir in ricotta, Parmesan, salt and pepper.

For sauce, gradually add the milk to the flour in a small saucepan, whisking until well blended. Stir in salt and nutmeg then bring to a medium heat and cook until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan until melted.

To prepare: spoon 1/3 cup mushroom mixture into the center of a crepe, roll up and lay with the seam side down in a lightly greased baking dish. Repeat with the rest of the crepes then spoon the Parmesan sauce over the top and with the tomatoes. Sprinkle with Parmesan then bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Garnish with parsley.

Bon appetit!