A few days ago I cooked Crepe Suzettes for friends. The verdict: "Awful. Soggy, sticky sweet, almost cloying in the sweetness and almost wet in their sogginess. This had to be user error somewhere along the way, but I can’t figure out where. I followed the recipe to the letter, so who knows. We ended up eating a few, then throwing the rest away." I used quotation marks because I got that description off the net and it was so apt that I simply had to steal it. The night was a disaster, what can I say?
It's horrible when you're the chef and you have to face a room full of disappointed people who are all trying to avoid looking at you. I watched them silently and lethargically nudge the creation around their plates while struggling to think of something nice to say. It was nice of everybody to try to spare my feelings, but I wish they'd just vented and released the frustration. As it was, a spiked black ball of anxiety hovered above the table for an hour and you can be sure some pets were kicked when people got home.
And there was another thing about that dinner...the crepes simply refused to cook, even on high heat. I mean it, they just sat there looking pale and wet, no matter what. Doesn't that violate some law of physics? Didn't Newton have something to say about that?
My analysis of the problem? I didn't use the right tools. To make Crepes Suzettes you have to use a crepe pan. That's a wide, circular iron pan with extremely low sides. The sides are low so you can slide your ridiculously long and flat crepe spatula under the crepe for the purpose of turning it over. It helps to have a crepe spreader, too. That's a "T' shaped wooden dohickey that you drag along the top of the crepe to give it a uniform thickness. Or...use an index card.
Well, live and learn.
