Creme fraiche isn’t something I often cook with; if it does appear in my fridge, it’s most often because there’s a syrupy cake that needs a touch of slightly sour creaminess on the side. This week’s theme, though, has convinced me that a pot of creme fraiche is so much more than a sidekick to sickly sweets... My tastebuds have travelled from France and Greece to South America and the Middle East, resulting in hugely varied recipes, all with boast-worthy results.
Mmarilena’s Greek syrup cake – spiked with aniseed – incorporates creme fraiche into the batter and is toothsome in the extreme, as are Clairetweet’s luxury scones. Serve these hot from the oven with plenty of jam and the rest of the tub of creme fraiche.
Used in savoury recipes, creme fraiche lends creaminess to a dish without the rich, heaviness of cream or white sauce – see Leftoverliz’s classic flammekueche, or tarte flambée.
Creme fraiche also lifts roasted veg to centre stage – try Marmaduke Scarlet’s sweet roasted carrots, or Fadime Tiskaya’s burnt spring-onion dip. But this week’s winning recipe – despite the list of somewhat disparate ingredients (peanut butter, fish sauce) – was transformed entirely by a generous dollop of creme fraiche. Proof indeed that this is a versatile tub your fridge can’t do without.
East Asian-meets-South American prawn curry
The creme fraiche makes a rich, creamy sauce and mellows the spice from the chilli. To mellow it further, remove the seeds from the chilli. The fish sauce stands in for shrimp paste and adds umami depth. This should be cooked gently throughout to avoid scalding the creme fraiche. Since the prawns are already cooked they just need to be heated through and flavoured. Ready all your ingredients before you start cooking and this will come together easily.
Sarah isDichohecho, GuardianWitness
Serves 2-3
A dash of sesame oil
3 spring onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
15g fresh coriander, stalks chopped and separated from leaves
1 red chilli, chopped
Salt and pepper
200g cooked prawns
2 tbsp desiccated coconut
¼ red pepper, sliced thinly
1 tbsp chunky peanut butter
2-3 large tomatoes, chopped
A handful of sugar snap peas or mange tout, sliced or left whole
1 tbsp Thai-style fish sauce
3 heaped tbsp half-fat creme fraiche
Juice of ½ a lime
2 portions basmati rice, cooked
1 Heat the sesame oil and soften the spring onions and garlic. Then add the coriander stalks and chilli. Season a little.
2 Next add the prawns, stirring so they don’t get boiled too much. Distribute the desiccated coconut evenly across the pan. It’s OK if it sticks to the prawns or toasts slightly. Add the red pepper and let it soften.
3 Stir in the peanut butter, making sure it doesn’t stick and burn. Then add the tomatoes and let the mixture simmer down until the tomatoes have lost most of their shape.
4 Add the sugar snap peas or mange tout, let them cook a little, then add the fish sauce and creme fraiche. Adding creme fraiche will lower the temperature so let it all heat up again. At the last minute, stir in the lime juice, then serve on a bed of rice with the coriander leaves shredded on top.
Roasted carrots with harissa creme fraiche
One of my favourite ways for using creme fraiche is as a dressing for roasted vegetables in a salad. It’s delicious with most roasted Mediterranean veg, such as aubergines or courgettes. But it really comes into its own with the humble roasted carrot. They compliment each other; sweet roasted carrots and tangy creme fraiche are the perfect partners.
Rachel Kelly, via email
Serves 4 as a side
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 kg small carrots, such as baby or chatenay, cut into strips
4 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
140ml creme fraiche
1 tbsp harissa paste
1 tsp runny honey
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Juice of 1 lemon (or 2 limes)
1 Toast the cumin seeds in a small frying pan. Once fragrant, grind with a pestle and mortar or a blender.
2 Blanch the carrots before transferring to a bowl of ice-cold water. Drain thoroughly. Toss with 1 tbsp olive oil, then sprinkle with ground cumin.
3 Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan, then cook the carrots for about 8 minutes, until browned and cooked through; you’ll probably need to do this in 2 batches. Transfer to a serving dish and season to taste.
4 Combine the harissa with 1 tsp of honey, 2 tsp lemon juice and the ground cinnamon. Stir through the creme fraiche. Spoon the creme fraiche over the carrots with a sprinkling of fresh lemon juice.
Burnt spring-onion dip with creme fraiche and herbs
This simple but really tasty dip transforms almost anything it is served with. You can have it on its own or on on some toasted or crispbread, or use it as a topping for cured meat, fish or roast vegetables.
Fadime Tiskaya, GuardianWitness
Serves 4-6
12-16 spring onions: choose thick ones
A large handful of fresh coriander and mint leaves, plus extra for garnish
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground sumac
6 tbsp creme fraiche
3 tbsp soft goat’s cheese
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Flat bread or crisp bread, to serve
Roast beetroot, cured meat or fish, to serve (optional)
1 If you have a gas hob, chop the green stalks off the spring onions, skewer the white parts on a metal skewer and cook on a high heat until the outer skin is burnt charcoal black. The inner layers will be soft and juicy. If you don’t have a gas hob, put them under a hot grill, or cook them on a hot griddle pan. Let them cool, peel off the outer skin and discard it.
2 Put the cooked onions, the fresh herbs, ground coriander and sumac in a food processor and blitz until it is pureed. Add the creme fraiche and cheese and season. Serve with toast or crispbreads.
Greek semolina cake (ravani)
This is my version of a traditional syrup-soaked semolina cake, called ravani. It is supposed to be a traditional Greek recipe but truth is that this kind of cake is found in almost every cuisine in the Eastern Mediterranean. There are a number of regional variations of this cake throughout Greece. Personally, I use creme fraiche to add richness to the cake and I also scent it with mastika liqueur. It is a very moist and fragrant, almost addictive, cake that gets even better the next day. Enjoy it with an extra dollop of creme fraiche.
Mmarilena, GuardianWitness
Serves 8-10
For the cake
180g semolina flour
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
5 eggs
140g sugar
200g creme fraiche (room temperature)
1 shot of mastika or ouzo liqueur
A large handful of flaked almonds
For the syrup
200ml water
350g sugar
30g glucose syrup
50ml mastika or ouzo liqueur
1 Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3, then grease and line a 24cm cake tin. Sift the semolina, the baking powder and the flour in a bowl. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs with the sugar for about 10 minutes or until the mixture doubles in volume and gets pale and creamy.
2 Whisk the creme fraiche with the liqueur and fold it into the egg mixture. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mix very gently until the mixture is just combined together.
3 Pour the batter into the tin, sprinkle with the almonds and bake for 30 minutes, or until cooked in the middle and golden.
4 While the cake is cooking, make the syrup. Put the water, sugar and glucose syrup in a saucepan over a low heat, then cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to high and boil, without stirring, for 4-5 minutes, or until the mixture thickens. Add the liqueur.
5 When the cake comes out the oven, cut into diamonds across the tin. Ladle the hot syrup over the hot cake, allowing each ladle of syrup to be absorbed, before ladling again. Allow time for the syrup to be absorbed, and then serve cold or at room temperature.
Flammekueche flatbread
Flammekueche, or tarte flambée, is a dish from Alsace (hence both French and German names.) It is like a pizza, but wafer-thin and crispy, topped with creme fraiche, smoked bacon and onions. You can make it with a pizza dough, or with a flatbread dough as in this recipe.
Leftoverliz, GuardianWitness
Serves 4
For the dough
250g plain flour
2 tsp salt
50ml vegetable oil
150ml warm water
Cornmeal, for sprinkling
For the topping
2 onions, thinly sliced
Butter, for frying
Oil, for frying
140g smoked bacon, cut into thin strips or lardons
200ml creme fraiche
1 Preheat the oven to 250C/475F/gas mark 9. Make the dough by combining the flour, salt and oil and adding the water bit by bit until you have a dough that is easy to handle.
2 Knead for a little while on a floured board until elastic and then roll out really thinly. Sprinkle some cornmeal or extra flour on a baking tray and lay the dough on it.
3 Fry the onions in some butter and oil until translucent and starting to turn golden, but not too dark. Then lightly fry the bacon strips once the onions have softened a little.
4 Spread creme fraiche quite thickly over the surface of the dough, add the bacon and onions, and bake in the oven until the bacon is crispy and starting to catch and the creme fraiche is beginning to brown. Delicious with a cold glass of Alsace white wine.
Luxury scones with creme fraiche
I had always baked the scone recipe my mother made. But they were a bit ordinary. So I have been trialling different ingredients and quantities and I have settled on this as my new “luxury scone”’. I like to make these quite small so you that you can break them open while they are still warm.
Clairetweet, via GuardianWitness
Makes 8-10
280g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
85g butter
2½ tbsp vanilla sugar (or add a drop of vanilla extract to the eggs)
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp creme fraiche
150ml milk
1 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, then rub in the butter, until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir through the sugar.
2 Put the egg yolk and creme fraiche in a measuring jug, then top up to the 170ml level with milk and tip the lot into the bowl with the flour and mix well.
3 Pull the mix together into a ball, then press or roll out to no less than 2cm thick. Cut out with a 6cm biscuit cutter, brush them with the remnants from the measuring jug mixed with a dash of extra milk.
4 Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly golden. It’s best to eat them the day you make them.
- This article was amended to remove the errant full stop pointed out in the comments.
