Shrimp crêpes with chili pasilla sauce

I have been experimenting with savoury crêpes over the last few weeks, and they are providing me with an endless gastronomic flavour palate. This is another one of those crêpe recipes that is just spectacular.

This is a contemporary Mexican dish of a very traditional recipe that highlights the wonderful Mexican pasilla chillies. They are one of the basic Mexican chillies forming the holy trinity of chilli peppers with the Ancho and Guajillo. Pasillas are long, very dark, almost black, wrinkled dried peppers with a mildly acidic, spicy-sweet flavour. They are generally used in moles, but can also be used stuffed. I personally love the taste of these chillies; they add a wonderful depth to any dish. More on pasilla chilis here. Recently, pasilla chillies have been mislabeled and sold as Ancho chillies; they are very different in every sense. The Pasillas are long, and the anchos are squat and round.

This dish highlights the full flavours of the pasilla chillies. The sauce is wonderfully smoky and flavoured with a hint of heat. This is a rich dish, thanks to the sour cream, so if you serve it as an appetiser, follow it with a light and fresh salad. If you choose to serve it as a main, follow it with a very light dessert. This is not a hard dish to make, but your guests will love the presentation and the flavours.

Diana Kennedy is literally the queen of Mexican cuisine. She has received numerous awards, including the Order of the Aztec Eagle (highly regarded in Mexico) and a James Beard Foundation Award (highly regarded in the culinary world). In 2002, Prince Charles visited Kennedy at her home to appoint her an MBE for “furthering cultural relations between the UK and Mexico.” Every cookbook of hers is massive, filled with fantastic recipes and keeps me very happy in the kitchen. This is just the cookbook you want to get into some serious Mexican cooking.

For more recipes from The Cuisines of Mexico cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

For the crêpes (makes 12-15):

1/3 cup corn flour

2/3 cup all-purpose flour (maida)

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups

1 1/2 cups whole or skimmed milk

1 tablespoon butter

1 lb medium or small shrimp

Salt, to taste

Lime juice

6 pasilla chillies

1 1/2 lb tomatoes

Salt, to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 onion, cut

3 tablespoons peanut oil

1 cup sour cream + a few dollops for garnish

1 1/2 cups Chihuahua cheese or sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Cilantro, minced for garnish

To make the crêpe batter, mix all the ingredients and whip well with a whisk. Ensure the batter is smooth, with no lumps remaining. Allow the batter to sit on the countertop for 1 hour.

To make the crêpes, heat a non-stick pan on medium flame. Brush lightly with butter. Pour 1/4 cup, or less for a smaller crêpe, of the batter into the hot pan in the centre and swirl the pan around to cover the bottom with the batter. Swirl slowly to get an even, thin layer without holes. Cook for about 1-1 1/2 minutes, at which time the bottom and edges will be lightly golden and the edges will release from the pan surface. Flip and cook for an additional minute. Remove on paper towels, layering a paper towel between each crêpe so they do not stick to each other. The crêpes can be made ahead and kept sealed in a Tupperware container or wrapped with cling wrap so they do not dry out and become brittle.

To cook the shrimp, mix them with salt and lime juice, then add them to an oven-safe Pyrex dish. Bake at 375° F for 25 minutes till cooked through. Alternatively, you can pan-sauté them till cooked.

Set the oven on broil mode.

To make the pasilla sauce, broil the tomatoes in a single layer in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until they are charred on the outside and cooked all the way through. Turn the tomatoes 1-2 times during broiling to cook all sides evenly. Remove and cool.

While the tomatoes are cooling, toast the pasilla chillies in a pan until they are coloured and toasted. Cool and remove the seeds and veins, as the sauce will become too spicy otherwise.

Add the pasilla chillies, cooled tomatoes, onion, salt and sugar to a small blender and purée till smooth.

Heat the oil in a small saucepan and add the chilli-tomato paste. Cook on a low flame till the sauce smells aromatic and has thickened, about 12-15 minutes. Stir frequently, as the sauce tends to stick to the bottom of the pan. Taste for salt. Careful, this sauce will splatter and stain everything, including your clothes.

When the sauce is ready, remove it from the heat and add the sour cream, mixing it in. The sour cream will dissolve into the sauce. Do not heat the sour cream; it will curdle.

To assemble the crêpes, take about 1/4 of the pasilla sauce and mix it in with the shrimp. Lay a crêpe on a flat surface and add 1/8 of the shrimp to the centre of the crêpe. Roll up and lay into a Pyrex dish. Repeat with the remaining crêpes, packing them tightly in the Pyrex dish. Layer the remaining sauce evenly over the crêpes, tucking some sauce into the sides. Grate some of the cheese on top and add dollops of the sour cream to the corners of the dish.

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Bake the dish for 15-17 minutes till the cheese on top has melted and the dish is bubbling. Serve immediately, garnished with cilantro.