Crepe Casserole

Updated to add cost breakdown below, as well as tips for making this for less than 5.00 :

My menu plan here is pretty much a bust.

There are three reasons.

1. Life interfered with several things when Granny Tea went into the hospital and The Dread Pirate Grasshopper and his Mama got sick
2. The FYG went through the freezer for me and made a list of the things we had on hand.  I used that list to make my menu plan.  Only... one of us made a big mistake.  I've lost the list, so can't be sure, but it was probably me.  I thought she wrote down a lot of packages of frozen broccoli, but what we have is frozen, organic peas and carrots.  NOT the same thing.
3. The oven broke, and, living where we do, that means at least two weeks without it before it gets fixed.  IF it gets fixed, she said darkly.

Looking over that menu, snafu number 2 was the biggest problem- because I planned a meal of broccoli and cheese crepes on a night when we were feeding company (happily before the oven broke!), and because of some major disruption to my day (not caused by relations, which I only mention because the relations worry), I did not find out until approximately one hour before the company was supposed to arrive that I had NO BROCCOLI for the broccoli and cheese crepes- and no adequate substitute.

So, terribly pinched for time, I invented a ham and mushroom crepe casserole.

Here's the original recipe.

Here's what we did instead:

• 12 eggs 
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 2-1/4 cups freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tablespoon sea salt

Pip combined the above in a blender in about three batches, and poured each batch into a bowl.  We let it set for at least 15 minutes.  

• FILLING:
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour
• 6 cups milk
• 4-6 cups shredded co-jack cheese, divided
• 3 tablespoons brown mustard
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1-1/2 teaspoons pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 9-12 cups frozen chopped broccoli, thawed diced turkey ham and sliced mushrooms combined ( really wish I'd had something extra, grated zucchini, potatoes, spinach... but this is what I had).

We added some extra stuff, but I can't remember all of it right now- onion powder, garlic, chives, that sort of things.

1. In large saucepan, saute onion and turkey ham in butter until onion is tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Reduce heat to low. Stir in about 3 cups cheese, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and salt until cheese is melted. Stir in mushrooms. Cover; keep warm.

Now at this point I realized I was not going to have time to make individual round crepes into which I would gently spoon filling down the middle, roll them carefully, put them neatly in a greased baking pan, top with artfully arranged grated cheese, and bake for a few minutes.   Instead, I heated up my electric skillet, put some oil in it, and poured about 1/8 cup, maybe more, batter in the center and then I tilted the pan to make one large, flat, retangular crepe:

A really big crepe- really big. I cooked it in the usual way- until the top looked dry, and then I flipped it and cooked the other side almost half a minute more,

maybe a little less.

Then I lined the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish with two or three of these large crepes, one of the Progeny spooned sauce over all of it, and sprinkled cheese over the top of that while I made some more crepes, and then  put on another layer of large, rectangular crepes.

This layer is only half done to show you what I mean.  Once I finished this top layer, one of the Progeny spread more sauce over this, sprinkled with more cheese, topped with another layer of crepes, sauce, and cheese, and then I baked it all at 350 for about 20 minutes.

We served two panfuls of this, along with a large green salad and some fresh asparagus tossed in oil and herbs and roasted alongside the crepe casseroles.  I would have loved asparagus in the crepes, but didn't know about the guests (for this reason, one pan of crepes had no mushrooms, either).

Now, it was okay, but that was all.  However, the next day I had some leftovers, and WOW!  This is a dish that could really benefit from some extra time for the flavors to blend and mellow.  I am thinking of making this again, or some similar version, and freezing it for baking later.

The difference between this pan cooked the same hour it was made, and the flavor a day later was just incredible.

This post linked in Tuesdays at the Table 
Also at five dollar dinners - the less cheese in your sauce and the more other things, the cheaper this meal will be. IT's very versatile.
Linked at Pennywise Thursdays

COST BREAKDOWN- remember, this is for two large 9X13 pans that more than fed 12 people ages 11 and up and one toddler (who had seconds)- so if this dinner goes over five dollars, that's to be expected, as most people would be serving about 1/4 this number- but watch:

• 12 eggs- I usually buy my eggs from a friend with hens, but for this recipe I used a coupon at the local store and got a dozen eggs for 1.00
• 2-1/4 cups freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour- we buy our organic whole wheat berries in a 25 pound bag and grind them as needed.  I don't want to be dogmatic about breaking down the cost of a little over 2 cups of wheat berries, but my best guess is that, at .84 a pound, this is probably approximately  a dollar's worth of wheat berries, too.
• 1 tablespoon sea salt- I buy this in bulk at the co-op, too- either a one pound or a five pound bag (depends)- if a Tablespoon of salt is about an ounce, then this is about .09.

• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons butter- I bought butter, real butter, for 1.89 a pound at Aldi's, so let's call this .36 cents.  Obviously, you could make this more frugally with margarine, or even more frugally AND more naturally by using fat saved from your cooking- bacon grease, or the fat skimmed off the top of a pot of chicken bones you've boiled, for instance.
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour- let's round this off at .20
• 6 cups milk- I got an unbelievable deal on milk the week I made this- in fact, that's one reason I chose this recipe, because I had a gallon of very cheap milk in the freezer!  The HG scored a gallon of milk AND a package of bread together  for .99 for us at Walgreen's (marked down because it expired that day, but milk is still perfectly good a few days after the expiration date)- so for me this was less than .40, but most of the time in this area I can get milk at 1.89 (Aldi)- that would be .70  If you pay 2.50 a gallon, this is .93.
• 4 cups, or one pound shredded co-jack cheese- I stock up on cheese when I can get it for 3.00 a pound or less- that is my target price- and this time I had scored some cheese for 2.50 a pound
• 3 tablespoons brown mustard- I have a jar of brown mustard from a store that buys out the remains from truck accidents, grocery stores going out of business, and so forth.  This cost was negligible.
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1-1/2 teaspoons pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 cups diced turkey ham and sliced mushrooms ( or any other food you have on hand that was on sale- grated potatoes, browned ground beef, grated zucchini, asparagus and spinach from the garden diced chicken and broccoli... you name it- use what you have on hand, two items that work well together, and that were inexpensive).  In my case the mushrooms were on sale for .99 a package, and the turkey ham is 1.79 a pound- so for me, the turkey ham and mushrooms came to 5.58, and the total came to just under 12.00 for the two large pans-  but remember, this is for two huge pans that served 12 adult appetites generously with plenty of leftovers for about 1.00 a serving.  If you can duplicate these prices, one smaller pan serving 5 people would cost: five dollars- use a cheaper filling than turkey ham, and you reduce the price even more.

Alternative frugalities for other crepes:
Use less grated cheese, and melt in a package of cream cheese (.89 at Aldi right now) into the sauce

Possible Fillings (you want between 1/2 and 1 cup of filling per person- it depends on the filling and the person) :
spinach and mushrooms
peppers and onions
sausage and grated potatoes
Chicken and... whatever is on sale- asparagus, artichokes, olives,
browned ground beef and potatoes, or grated and steamed cabbage with dill in the sauce
Grated squash- zucchini and yellow squash, with onions and peppers
Spinach, bacon and mushroom
Tuna or salmon mixed with cream cheese and olives
Leftovers
 

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