A ficelle picarde is a savoury crepe, from, yep you’ve guessed it, the Picardie region. This a great way to use your crepe batter when everyone has had their fill of sweet crepes ! There are a lot of similar recipes in France that use a béchamel sauce but the real Ficelle Picarde doesn’t. I discovered this recipe when living in Picardie 🙂
Ingredients :
- 6 crepes (pancakes), you’ll find the recipe here
- 6 slices of ham
- 500g button mushrooms
- 400g shallots
- 25g crème fraîche
- 3 tablespoons wine (if you do not wish to use wine you can use some chicken stock instead)
- 50g grated emmenthal (or any hard cheese)
- Salt & pepper
Methods :
- Make a duxelles* – clean and chop the mushrooms and the shallots very finely
- Melt the butter in the pan, add the shallots and sauté for 5 minutes until soft
- Add the mushrooms and cook over allow to cook for at least 20 minutes until all the liquid has evaporated
- Pour in the white wine and continue to reduce until the liquid evaporates again
- Remove from heat and add 2 tablespoons of the crème fraîche
- Season with salt & pepper
- Put a slice of ham on each crepe and then place 2 tablespoons of the duxelles mixture down the middle of the crepe
- Roll the crepe and place in an oven proof dish
- Repeat with the over crepes and place them all side by side in the dish
- Spoon the remaining crème fraîche over the crepes and top with the grated cheese
- Bake for 10-15 minutes at 200°C
- Serve hot with a green salad
*Duxelles is a very finely chopped mixture of mushrooms and shallots that are sautéed in butter and reduced to a paste. Famous chef François Pierre La Varenne, chef for the Marquis d’Uxelles created this preparation in his honour in the seventeenth century.
