Ingredients
Ingredients
Method
- Make crêpe batter with 150 g flour, the three whole eggs, half the milk and a pinch of salt. Leave the batter to rest, then cook twelve crêpes and reserve.
- Soften shallots in 50 g butter. Add mushrooms, salt, pepper and nutmeg; cover and cook gently 20 minutes.
- Make a roux with 30 g butter and remaining 30 g flour. Cool, then incorporate the remaining milk, boiling hot. Add 100 ml cream and combine with mushrooms.
- Spread sauce on each crêpe, add half a ham slice, then a little more sauce. Roll and arrange in a buttered gratin dish.
- Pour remaining cream over the rolls, sprinkle with Emmental and dot with remaining butter. Grill 8 minutes and serve immediately.
Equipment
Mixing bowl; Crêpe pan; Sauté pan with lid; Saucepan; Gratin dish; Grill
Notes
- Crêpes and portions: make the original twelve crêpes for four people. The published serving count and crêpe count are both retained.
- Allow for the batter: it must rest before the crêpes are cooked, but no rest interval or individual cooking time is given. The source does not make clear whether the 65-minute headline covers every untimed stage.
- Filling: give the mushrooms and shallots their gentle, covered cooking with nutmeg and white pepper before adding them to the sauce.
- Making the sauce: cool the roux before incorporating the remaining milk, boiling hot. Add the stated portion of cream, keeping the rest for the topping.
- At the finish: cover the rolled crêpes with the reserved cream, Emmental and remaining butter. Grill for the stated eight minutes and bring the dish to the table immediately.
Photos
1 photo
About this dish
A meal for local notables at the Amiens fair gave Picardy one of its best-known dishes. In the 1950s, chef Marcel Lefèvre prepared filled crêpes for the gathering at La Hotoie. Ham, mushrooms, shallots and cream, finished with a cheese gratin, became the combination associated with ficelle picarde.
Regional versions differ in how they bind the filling. A cream-bound mushroom duxelles appears in the local tourism office’s recipe; Pierre Marchesseau uses a béchamel enriched with crème fraîche. His mushrooms are thinly sliced and cooked gently with shallots, butter, nutmeg and white pepper, then combined with the milk sauce.
The roux thickens that sauce so the crêpes can hold a generous filling. Half a slice of ham goes into each one, with sauce beneath and above it. Cream, grated Emmental and butter cover the assembled rolls before their short turn under the grill. Homemade crêpes give the dish its soft layers, with the golden topping providing the finish.
Recipe and cooking notes adapted from Recettes et Terroirs.