A Special Dinner Surprise!

Yesterday I decided we needed a little pick me up, something different and special for dinner and I had a taste for shrimp.  When I went food shopping on Friday I had picked up a 2 lb bag of shrimp at Doschers for $11.99.  Now, those of you who know Charleston and The Low Country know that there is a strong shrimping industry here and like in other parts of the country and the world there is an emphasis on eatting local.  I would love to do that with shrimp but frankly, I just can't afford it so it's imported farmed shrimp for me.  I suspect the local ones taste better, goodness knows they are fresher but...until we get our shrimping license (which you can do here) and figure out how to cast the net, it will be imported for me.

So back to our dinner!  If you have never made crepes, they are amazingly simple and can be very impressive!  This recipe is from http://www.gretchencooks.com/.  I of course had to make a few changes to it cause thats the way I roll.  Since we are on lower fat diet we used skim milk in place of heavy cream and just to off set that, I added about 1/4 cup freshly grated parmasean cheese in place of the dill.  There was enough sauce to put some over the crepes before baking.  The recipe makes 6 crepes but the filling was only enough for 4. This was really a winner!

Shrimp Filled Crepes

Crepes
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. butter, melted

Filling
1 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 lb. shrimp
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. heavy cream (whipping cream)
1 Tbsp. dill, chopped fine
3/4 c. grated cheese

Directions:

Whisk flour, water, and milk into a batter. Beat in eggs, salt, and melted butter. Let stand 30 minutes.

Spray a skillet with nonstick spray and heat it over medium-high heat. Pour 1/4 cup batter into skillet to make a thin, delicate pancake. It will cook quickly. Watch it - the moisture will cook out towards the middle. When the crepe top is dry, remove it from the pan.

Now do it again, until the batter is all cooked into crepes. Set aside.

Now for the filling.
Clean and peel the shrimp.
In a saucepan, heat butter and flour. Stir in water and cream with a whisk. Cook gently a few minutes. Add shrimps. Heat without boiling. Stir in dill.

Lay a crepe in a baking dish. Put a portion of the shrimp mixture in the crepe, roll it up. Repeat with the other crepes.

Sprinkle the crepes with grated cheese.

Bake at 375°F for 20-25 minutes, until cheese is melted and golden brown.

Submitted by Gretchen Grant
Contributed on: Friday March 31st, 2006