1599. CREPES PARMENTIERE with SMOKED EEL, CRISPY BACON and HORSERADISH

serves six


100 grams unsalted butter
450 grams floury potatoes, cooked
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon milk
2 heaped tablespoons potato flour or plain flour
3 eggs
4 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons double cream
8 rashers oak-smoked streaky bacon
2 fillets smoked eel fillets, skinned and sliced into 5cm chunks
black pepper

For the horseradish cream:
150ml double cream or soured cream
fresh horseradish, grated
squeeze of lemon juice
salt

First clarify the butter. Melt it in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until foaming. Pour through a small muslin-lined sieve set over a small bowl. Set aside.

Now make the horseradish cream. If you want a stiffish result, whip the cream first. Stir in the horseradish a teaspoon at a time, tasting as you go. There is no going back! Add a spritz of lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt. Set aside while you make the pancakes.

Put the potatoes through the coarse disc of a mouli, or mash them by hand. Put them in a bowl with the milk, flour, eggs, whites and cream. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then whisk to a creamy batter.

Heat a tiny bit of the clarified butter in a crêpe pan over medium-high heat. Add a small ladle of batter, rotating the pan to form a thin circle. Flip the crêpe with a palette knife after a couple of minutes, once it begins to bubble and brown around the edge.

Transfer the cooked crêpe to a plate and keep warm in a low oven while you make the rest.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Throw in the bacon rashers and fry in their own fat until curled and crisp.

Place a chunk of eel on each pancake, followed by the bacon and a dollop of horseradish cream. Serve at once.


bacon recipe courtesy of: Tamasin Day-Lewis, Good Food Channel, UKTV