Savoury crepes with mushrooms and ham

by | Jun 25, 2021 | Noodles

In Hungary homemade crepe-like pancakes are usually served for lunch as a second course after a thick soup. The filling is almost always something sweet, homemade version is filled with fruit jam, cottage cheese, cocoa or chocolate hazelnut cream, in restaurants you will certainly find Gundel crêpes on the menu as well.

Crepe is generally associated with sweet flavour, but you can enjoy savoury fillings wrapped up in a thin pancake too. Hortobágyi palacsinta is the best known Hungarian savoury crepe, but the options for filling savoury crepes are nearly endless. The following recipe includes a combination of mushrooms, ham, onion, garlic and parsley – all enriched with heavy cream, cheese and sour cream.

Savoury crepes with mushrooms and ham
Savoury crepes with mushrooms and ham – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

For the crepes:

  • 125 g (~1 cup) flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 250 ml (~1 cup) milk
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

For the filling:

  • 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 300 g (~2/3 lb) mushrooms, sliced
  • 100 g (~3 1/2 oz) smoked, boiled ham, diced
  • 200 ml (~3/4 cup + 2 tbsp) heavy cream
  • 1 tbsp parsley leaves, finely chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 3-4 tbsp sour cream
  • 100 g (~3 1/2 oz) grated cheese

First make the crepes. In a bowl mix together eggs, salt, flour and milk until smooth. Finally mix in the vegetable oil. Let the batter rest for 30 minutes. If the batter becomes too thick, add some milk to it before making the pancakes.

Heat a crepe pan until very hot, then laddle some batter into the pan and tilt it around so the batter spreads out to make an approximately 18 cm / 7 inch pancake. When the first side is brown, turn and brown the other side. The batter makes about 8-10 crepes depending on the size of your pan.

In a skillet heat some oil, add finely chopped onions and garlic and sauté until translucent. Add sliced mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. A few minutes later add diced ham and cook until all the liquid boils away. Stir in heavy cream and finely chopped parsley leaves and cook for further 1-2 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 392°F.

Fill the crepes. Spoon some mushroom filling in the middle of a crepe, scatter a pinch of grated cheese over it, then fold the pancake to make a triangle. Place the filled pancakes in a greased baking pan overlapping each other. Spread sour cream on top and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over it. Put in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes or until top is golden brown.

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Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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