For a touch of indulgence, try the classic – but very easy – French dessert crêpes Suzette. Microplane graters have virtually replaced old-fashioned citrus zesters, but I prefer long thin strips of orange zest in my crêpes Suzette sauce (also called beurre Suzette); zesting the oranges over the pan means you collect all the aromatic oil from the skin as well as the zest. So who was Suzette? While we know this dish of crepes in an orange-flavoured butter caramel sauce appeared in French bistros around the end of the 19th century, who crêpes Suzette was named for is more uncertain. It may have been a Parisian actress, Suzanne Reichenberg, whose stage name was Suzette. But the more popular story is that crepes Suzette was created by French chef Henri Charpentier in 1895 at the Café de Paris in Monte Carlo. It’s said Chef Charpentier accidentally set a sauce on fire with liqueur while preparing a dish tableside for the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII). The future king enjoyed the theatre and the flavour, and asked that the dish be named in honour of a young woman in his party, Suzette. If it’s true, these crêpes cooked in beurre Suzette wouldn’t be the first famous dish created by accident. Perhaps the Prince and his friends were drinking Champagne, I find a slightly sweet, lightly sparkling moscato – such as Michele Chiarlo Nivole Moscato d’Asti – is a great wine match for crêpes Suzette.
Serves 4
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