It's been nearly a month and a half since I wrote my last post. I'd been almost flat out with my work and cooking and shopping for my teenage son who was preparing for his exams. It was the exams which determine his university entrance, so I wanted to give him the best and his favourite food. I totally believe in 'you are what you eat'. The result of the exams come in about 10 days, and whichever way it turns out he's done his best (I hope) and I've done best in my bit.
Then I went away to Japan, my home country, to see my family and friends. I took my mum to Kyushu where her family grave is, went to Osaka to see my old friends, and went to Kyoto where my father's family grave is. Why graves? It's more of a spiritual rather than religious reason, and it's kind of important for me to pay my respect to my ancestors. Then I had a fantastic trip to Hokkaido with a friend of mine.
I got back to London about two weeks ago, and then helped my son move out. He moved his stuff bit by bit, but after he took his bed away I was in floods of tears for about 10 minutes. Mild form of empty nest syndrome, I guess. A huge amount of memories flooded back in my mind. We've lived in this tiny flat on and off all his life (18 years), and all those moments of tears and laughter suddenly became alive. Ten minutes later I started to work out how to fill up this empty space with my own stuff :)
Then the London Olympics! It's SO exciting to watch those extraordinary athletes competing against each other. It's hard to believe that anatomically they have the same physical structure as yours and mine. Power of mind is what makes the difference. I didn't buy any tickets, but all these road races are happening where I normally cycle or walk around. Do I bother to go out and watch the races? Nope.. I'm sat here in front of telly. What power of mind?
This gratin is absolutely delicious. What I do is to make crêpes, put a sheet of greaseproof paper in between each sheet, and freeze. I can take out as many sheets as I need for savoury or sweet recipes.
(for the crêpes)
25g butter, melted
100g flour, shifted
2 eggs
300ml milk
(for the filling)
200g spinach
4 slices of cooked ham (about 15-20cm in diameter)
200g Gruyère cheese, grated
100ml double cream
Make the crêpes first. I use a non-stick crèpe pan. Mix all the ingredients well in a bowl and leave the batter for about half an hour, if you can. Heat the pan, add a knob of butter, and pour a ladleful of the batter. Quickly swirl around the pan for the batter to cover the surface. Flip over when the surface looks dry. This batter makes about 10 crèpes. You only need 4-5 sheets, so freeze the rest for another time.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
What I always do with spinach is to boil a pan of water, add the spinach, and turn off the heat. If it's young spinach I would drain it straight away. If not, leave just one minute and drain. Squeeze out excess water. If it's not squeezed tight the gratin would become soggy.
Spread one crèpe on a plate and lay a slice of ham. Then lay about a scant tablespoon of cooked spinach and a pinch of grated cheese on your end of the crèpe. Fold once from your end, fold your right and left edges, then roll the whole thing into a fat cigar. Do the same with 3 or 4 more crèpes.
Lay them on a gratin dish and drizzle the double cream all over. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese and bake until brown (about 25 minutes).