Want to eat unusual pancakes… with a spring flavour…

The elderberry flower will give a very light sweetness to the crêpes. And hurry… the season of flowers elderberry flies (a good month of May and June).

You need two to three large clusters of flowers to put in the dough.

Ingredients
250 g flour
250 ml of beer (the same amount of flour)
500 ml of milk (the double )
4 eggs
Salt
Some alcohol of your choice
Mix everything and let it rest a bit.
Add the flowers in batter. Heat the pan. With some oil on a tissue, grease the pan each time you make a crêpe. Pour a ladle of batter. When the edges turm brown, turn it. Let cook a minute.

Place on a plate, sprinkle with sugar (which will melt with heat) and add so on your pancakes. Eat them when they are cold (the flavour of flower is light, when eaten warm, it does not taste as much !).

The elderberry flower gives a very nice and light sweet taste to pancakes. Season of flowers elderberry goes so quickly… then hurry ...

You need two to three large clusters of flowers that you will shell in the dough.

Ingredients

250 g flour
500 ml of milk (the double of flour)
250 ml of beer (the same amount of flour)
4 eggs
Salt
Some alcohol of your choice

Mix the ingredients and let rest the dough. Once the dough rested, shell flowers in batter.
Put on your stove. With an oily tissue, grease the pan. You will reuse it for each new pancake. Pour a ladle of batter. When the edges of the pancake turn brown, it is time to return it. Let cook a minute.

Place on a plate, sprinkle with sugar (which will melt with heat) and add so on your pancakes.

Read it in French : Recette de crêpes aux fleurs de sureau

In Brittany, depending on where you are, crêpes and galettes are not made the same way. There are differents types of crêpes: made with wheat or with buckwheat, and eaten salty or sweet. The breton pancakes made of buckwheat are called galettes in French and eaten in crêperies. But there are local differences ; the farther west you go, the thinner they are and they are made with wheat and the same batter is used for salty and sweet ones. Farther east they are prepared with buckwheat (in french we say black wheat because the flour is brown, galettes de sarrasin or de blé noir) for the salty ones, the pancakes are thicker and the sweet ones are made with wheat (crêpes de froment).




In Rennes and surroundings (Ille et Vilaine, Haute Bretagne), one of the specialities is the « galette saucisse » or even better « galette sauc’ » which is a sausage wrapped with a buckwheat’s pancake. You can eat it plain, wrapped with a double galette, with mustard, with grated cheese… it’s a breton hot dog !!!




You won’t find it in crêperies but at markets fairs and festivals.

In Rennes, during the famous marché des Lices, market that takes place on saturdays, you’ll see the residents of Rennes queuing for half an hour at lunch time to eat it.




A good « galette sauc’ » is made with a lightly grilled sausage wrapped around a smooth and warm galette.




You can also eat on those caravans at markets a « galette complète » which is also traditional : it is a buckwheat’galette filled with egg, ham and cheese. As a dessert take the traditional « beurre sucre » butter and sugar which is the best one.




Read it in French : la galette saucisse une spécialité bretonne à Rennes au marché des Lices

Everybody knows the french crêpes ! And what about the crispy dry ones ?

This crepe is extremely fine, crisp to perfection. Without preservatives or additives. Ideal for ice cream and water ice this summer.

The gavotte has changed since 1920, date of the beginning of its fame. It has different tastes : milk and dark chocolate, caramel with salted butter ...



As very often in the kitchen, the food's great discoveries are due to an error of the cook... who forgot an ingredient in the dough or cook it too long ...

The gavottes are part of those great culinary mistakes ... Here it is not a cook but a woman of Quimper, a Madame Cornic, who at the very end of the 19th century cooked too long his pancakes and the gavotte is born...

The crepe industry began at Quimper, (100 crepes an hour) in 1920. Success !! 30 years later 1500 pancakes were produced in 60 minutes. And as the success continues, a factory is created in Dinan.

Today the group Locmaria includes several brands of biscuit in Brittany. The company signed the Pact of the United Nations for sustainable development ... respect for human rights and environment. In short, a product in accordance with our planet ...

Read it in french : Gavottes ou crêpes dentelle : une spécialité bretonne

You can do it salty or sweet… It is an easy recipe, nice to do with children.
Several ways can be done : vegetarian with vegetables thinly sliced, with crumbs of tuna fish or sweet with fruits.

Ingredients :
50 g flour
2 yolks and 2 whites
150 ml milk
25 g melted butter
A large pan

Mix the ingredients. Add the whites softly.
Slice thinly your vegetables. Add them with a bit grated cheese.
Pour into a frying pan. 10 minutes for each side.
Eat it with a green salad.

The sweet recipe

Add 25 g of sugar to your dough. Slice thinly the fruits.
Add them. Same cooking time.

Read it in French : Recette de matafan végétarien à la mode de Bretagne

On the French side of my blog, I wrote a post about what it meant to be Breton in Brittany... But it is not really interesting for non French people...
So, I'll do it on my English side more worldwide : What does it mean to you being French? Lots of clichés, for sure... Same things about French manners ! How French man or lady act in society ?
Wide question !
Are you intested in learning more about the real way of life of a French or of a Breton... If you travel by car, you must cross Brittany, our small Britain. And you want to understand more about this wonderful place for sure...
By the way, as you probably know, Bretagne in French is either Britain or Brittany. Britain is for us the Great one (Grande Bretagne, Great Britain) and Brittany (Bretagne) is the French one. And Breton can be used for British and for Breton.
So, while travelling around, investigate the French way of life and the one of Brittany's people ! and compare ! French clichés for beginners ! !!!

About French table manners
French people like to remain at table for hours
If you don't sauce your dish with bread, you're out !
One hamburger is eaten while 9 baguette sandwich are tasted
365 cheeses on the French territory, one a day... with green salad !

The French way of life in the Breton cuisine
- Bretons feast in a creperie
- They buy only cauliflower "Prince of Brittany" (and produced in Brittany , not in Britain!)
- They enjoy oysters on the port of Cancale (and during good months ...)
- They only eat Plougastel strawberries ... (Plougastel is a city in the west of Brittany)

French feel French when
They speak loud
They criticize their administration
They strike all the time
The national sport : to steal tax

Bretons feel Breton when they ...
- dance in the Fest Noz! (fest noz is a breton word meaning night party where you dance to Breton music).
- swear that their grandmother wore a cap in the last century!
- punctuate every sentence with a Kenavo (thank you in breton language)!
- wear a sticker "A l'aise Breizh" on the car (means be confortable, man)

How French Parisians look at Bretons
- They wear wooden clogs
- They have discovered the frigde in the 2000's
- They're narrow minded,backward.... in short stubborn like a Breton
- Brittany, it is "province", there's nothing to do there...

How Breton look at Parisians
- Look how slow he is driving... Must be a Parisian on holydays...
- Look at those Parisians with their yellow raincoat and boots... Ah, Ah, Ah !
- Don't know how to eat pancakes : just two ingredients, more you won't taste the galette, ignorant !
- I do love Parisians ! No, no way, they're too arrogant and do not know anything about anything ...

See how the love story goes ! French unions are perfect !
I could go on (LOL) .... !!!! but I leave the pen! For Your opinion! About French manners, acting, speaking, eating...
And don't act wrongly now !

Buckwheat is nice for food allergy : gluten free is the flour and the recipe does not use milk (and lactose !). It is also a recipe vor vegetarians.

Ingredients

330g of buckwheat flour (Brittany produces organic buckwheat flour, you know !)
75 cl water
Salt
a bilig (or a pan)



15 minutes to a few hours

Pour slowly in a big bowl water into your flour. Mix with a wooden spoon and be careful with lumps.

You have to whip it 100 times with your wooden spoon. The more it will be whipped, the lightest it will be.

Wait 15 minutes to a few hours to use it.
In a pan, melt some butter and pour a laddle of your sauce.
When one side is done, grap the borders of the galette and flip it.
Add the fillings you want.

In Brittany, we don’t fill it a lot as we think we don’t enjoy the galette anymore when it has too much flavors.

Read it in French : Recette typique des galettes de blé noir en Bretagne

Easy recipe.
Cooking time : 20 to 30 minutes.

Ingredients

A whole fish with thick skin (bass, sea bream, salmon ...)
Coarse salt
A trickle of olive oil

Preheat the oven (T 240°C / 8).
In a dish for the oven, place your whole fish. Add olive oil and a generous handful of salt. Bake the fish and cook according to the size of the fish (20 minutes to 30 minutes).

Once cooked, the skin comes off really easily. The fish is perfectly salted. Not bad with new potatoes.

Read it in French : Recette de poisson au gros sel au four

Sloe or Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) is a small bush that grows in hedges in Brittany (France). It blooms between March and April. They can help against a difficult digestion or a light constipation.

No wonder as Blackthorn is the brother of the plum tree.



The fisrt recipe is done with fresh flowers.

Massage oil done with fresh flowers of Blackthorn (digestion).

Ingredients :
One third fresh flowers of Blackthorn
Two third of olive oil (better an organic one)
3 weeks

Once you picked the flowers, put them in oil. Open the bottle every day so that humidity will evaporate and the flowers won’t mould. Shake every day.
After three weeks, use it to massage your tummy when you have digestive disorders. You can use it for your children too.

Recipe of herbal tea with sloe flowers (constipation).

Once you’ve dried the flowers, you need : 2 teaspoons in simmering water. Let it infuse for 10 minutes. Drink it 3 times a day during a week.

Read it in French : Recette d'huile de massage et recette d'infusion à base de felurs de prunelliers

Green tomatoes left, what can I cook with them ? a nice chutney, a French recipe !!!



Ingredients for a small pot :
200 g of tomatoes (green and some redish)
1 tablespoon of honey
4 tablespoons of vinegar
Pepper
Ginger powder
2 tablespoons of Rum


Recipe :
Slice the tomatoes in small pieces, add rum and let macerate for an hour.

Put the sugar,honey, vinegar, pepper and ginger into a large pan. Bring to simmering point and simmer for almost an hour. It has to be thick and caramelized.
Eat it with strong tasty cheese such as roquefort or dry goat cheese. Or with poultry or foie gras. Pot them and sterilized them.




Read it in French : Recette maison de confit de tomates vertes et rouges

If you want an easy and quick recipe… here you are… with algae mustard…

Ingredients :

Fish fillets

The sauce :
- algae mustard (french strong mustard (moutarde de Dijon) is also ok, but don’t use sweet one !!!)
- double cream
- salt, pepper

an oven

Preparation time : 5 minutes
Cooking time : 20 minutes , oven to 7

Mix the same quantity of mustard and double cream. Brush the fillet generously with the sauce. Add salt and pepper. And bake for ... 20 minutes. It’s done.
Bon appétit.

Read it in French : Recette de poisson au four sauce moutarde aux algues