Crepe week: pork belly & wild mushroom crepes & {a GIVEAWAY!}

Hi y’all, and welcome to Crepe Week!

For those of you just stepping into this French inspired kitchen, eleven fantastic food bloggers and we are dedicating an entire week to nothing but the crepe. That’s right. We’re channeling our inner Julia Child and throwing ourselves into a pan full of melted butter, and dishing up a favorite sweet and savory crepes. Lookout Paris, if we run out of butter, we’re not afraid to use a little cream. As we mentioned last week, we have a special guest joining our crepe making team. Can we please give a huge round of applause to the one, and only, America’s Test Kitchen! They were so gracious to allow us bloggers to use their crepe recipe and showcase in this week’s crepe extravaganza. Now without further adieu, we want to introduce you to a tasty crepe, pork belly and wild mushroom. As we were researching what we could possibly produce that would be worthy of the taste buds of America’s Test Kitchen, we went back to the basics. We are a firm believer in less is more. We wanted to capture the flavors of simple ingredients, but still bring home the bacon. Excuse the pun, but that’s why we went with pork belly. In our opinion, it’s the better half of bacon. . With the star ingredient of this crepe secured, the rest was pretty simple. We sautéed a couple of mushrooms and shallots, added some herbs to the crepe batter, and voila, Julia Child approved savory crepes! But the fun doesn’t stop there, friends. The wonderful folks over at American’s Test Kitchen are sponsoring FOUR giveaways this week. Yeah buddy! Megan at Country Cleaver is giving away a copy of Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook. Kristen at Comfortably Domestic is giving away a copy of The Baking Illustrated Cookbook. Katie at The Hill Country Cook is giving away a copy of The ATKFamily Baking Cookbook. And yours truly is giving away a copy of Simple Weeknight Favorites Cookbook. Sa-weet!
(source Amazon) The Simple Weeknight Favorites Cookbook is packed with over 200 simple-to-make 30 minute recipes that are full of flavor, but don’t require hours spent over a hot stove! Seriously, this will become your new best friend. To enter to win a copy of the Simple Weeknight Favorites Cookbook (mandatory):

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED! Tell us – What’s your favorite meal to eat or cook? For additional entries (optional): Follow ATK on Facebook Follow ATK on Twitter Tweet the following! –> we love #crepeweek! We just entered to win the Weeknight Simple Meals from @TestKitchenFeed & @griermountain Follow Climbing Grier Mountain on Facebook Follow Climbing Grier Mountain on Twitter Follow Clmibing Grier Mountain on Pinterest Make sure to check out the other fantastic ladies of Crepe Week: – Kirsten @ Comfortably Domestic: Tuscan Crepes – Megan @ Country Cleaver: Grand Marnier Berry Crepes – Kat @ Tenaciously Yours: Southwestern Crepes with Cilantro Pesto – Jeanne @ Inside NanaBread’s Head: Lemon Cream Crepe Cakes for Two – Madeline @ Munching in the Mitten: Blueberry Ginger Crepes – Carrie @ Bakeaholic Mama: The “Vermonter” Crepe with Ham and Cheese – Katie @ The Hill Country Cook: Katie’s Sweet Surprise Crepes – Monica @ The Grommon: Prosciutto, Asparagus Crepes with Mango Cream Sauce – Mads @ Le Petite Pancake: Strawberry Crepe Au Lait – Allison @ Decadent Philistines: Savory Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Crepes – Anne @ our Sweet Hear: Red Velvet Crepes with Sweet Mascarpone Cream Pork Belly and Wild Mushroom Crepes (Crepe recipe from Americas Test Kitchen) (Filling adapted from Cook Street and Bon Appetit) Serves 4 Prep Time: 1 day Cook Time: 3 hours + 3 minutes Ingredients: for the crepes: 1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups whole milk 3 large eggs 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled *Also, please note in order to make these crepes savory, we removed the sugar and lemon. We added 1 tablespoon of chives and parsley to the mix instead. for the pork belly: 1 pound fresh, skin-on pork belly 3 cups chicken stock Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper for the mushroom filling: 5 ounces shitake mushrooms 1 small shallot, diced 4 teaspoons goat cheese 1 teaspoon chives, chopped (plus more for garnish) 2 cups spring lettuce crème fraiche, garnish Directions: for the crepes: In large bowl whisk together flour and salt. In separate bowl, whisk together whole milk and eggs. Add milk mixture to dry ingredients a 1/3 at a time, and whisk until smooth. Add butter and whisk to combine. Add parsley and chives and whisk to combine. Strain crepe batter through small strainer and let rest for 30 minutes. Place vegetable oil in large nonstick skillet or crepe pan and heat over low for about 10 minutes. With a paper towel spread heated oil around the non-stick skillet. Increase heat to medium and let skillet heat for about one more minute. Test heat of skillet by placing one teaspoon batter in center and cook for 20 seconds. If the small crêpe is golden brown on bottom, skillet is properly heated; if the crepe burns or does not brown, adjust the heat of the skillet to accommodate. Pour 1/4 cup batter into far side of pan and swirl gently until batter evenly covers bottom of pan. Cook crêpe without moving it until top surface is dry and crêpe starts to brown at edges, loosening crêpe from side of pan with rubber spatula, about 25 seconds. Gently slide spatula underneath edge of crêpe, grasp edge with fingertips, and flip crêpe. Cook until second side is lightly spotted, about 20 seconds. Transfer cooked crêpe to wire rack, inverting so spotted side is facing up. Return pan to heat and heat for 10 seconds before repeating with remaining batter. Place the done crepes on a wire rack to cool and allow steam to wear off. Continue process until all the batter is used. for the pork belly: Preheat oven to 275°. Season pork belly with salt and pepper. Place in a large ovenproof saucepan. Pour chicken stock over. Braise in oven until tender, about 3 hours. Remove from oven and let it cool. Wrap pork belly in foil and saran wrap. Transfer pork belly to a shallow dish. Place another shallow dish on top of pork belly and a 15-ounce canned good to keep it weighed down. Chill overnight. Bring pork belly back up to room temperature and dice about 1/3 of meat. Keep the other section of the pork belly in fridge and use for whatever your hear desires! Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and sauté until browned on all sides, about 4 minutes. Remove from skillet to cool slightly. for the mushroom filling: Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Sauté shallot and mushrooms. Once cooked, add the pork belly to heat through. Set filling aside. To serve: Place crepe on a plate. Put mushroom filling in the upper right hand corner. Add 1 teaspoon of goat cheese and ¼ teaspoon of chives on top. Then fold the lower half of the crepe over the filling then fold in half again making a fan shape. Place folded crepe on a ½ cup of spring lettuce. Dollop with crème fraiche and garnish with chives.