Hungarian Crêpes: Palacsinta (recipe)

Last night we made some Hungarian Palacsintas. It's pronounced "PAL-a-Chin-ta"  (Palacsinták plural for the other Hungarians among us) They're light little crêpes. They're simple to make with ingredients that you probably have already. They're easy to make and you can have them as a main course with a savory filling or a desert with a sweet filling.I've made these a bunch of times and they always turn out great. They're different from my grandma's, but it's hard to say how. These turn out a bit thicker and fluffier. My grandma's always had a slightly crisper edge. It might just be that she probably used lard.In this case I tried a nice cast iron pan. I had the regular non-stick on standby in case it didn't work. It's nice and well seasoned so it worked perfectly! It actually worked better than our conventional non-stick pan. As an added bonus I didn't have to feel worried that I would scratch it up. Cast iron is almost indestructible!

Hungarian Palacsinta

Makes around 12-16 pieces.

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup club soda
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla (I don't measure -- it's a small splash)
• Butter for the pan to cooking

Preparation:

1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk and water. Stir in flour, salt and vanilla to form a smooth batter. At the last minute add the soda water so you don't loose all the bubbles. (It's what makes it light)
2. Heat a teaspoon butter in an 8-inch skillet. Use small ladle to add enough batter to coat bottom of pan in a thin, even layer, rotating pan as needed to cover.
3. Cook for 2 minutes on the first side and 1 1/2 minutes on the second side or until it's lightly browned. Remove and keep warm. Add some more butter and keep going until you're all out of batter.
4. Stash each one on a cookie sheet or something in the oven to keep them all warm.

When filling I put a bit of whatever I'm filling it with down the middle and just roll it up. It makes it nice and neat. You can also fold it into quarters and make it more crêpe suzette style. No matter how you do it it tastes great!In our case Ennie made some Lebanese-style beef. But I'll let her blog about that one![smugmug url="http://vec.smugmug.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=12010670_sSZma&format=rss200" imagecount="100" start="1" num="100" thumbsize="Th" link="lightbox" captions="false" sort="true" window="true" smugmug="true" size="L"]First the prep of the savory filling, then the palacsinta. Finished savory ones. Then the desert ones!Yum!