When the little dough from Savoie meets a Top Chef, it could only cause sparks. On the occasion of the 7th Toquicimes festival sponsored by chef Yannick Alléno, which was held in Megève on the weekend of October 18 and attracted no less than 30,000 gourmands, Hugo Riboulet who has just released his first cookbook “All in a crust”*, delighted the public’s taste buds by offering live no less than two savory recipes and one sweet one based on crozets.
Among all its proposals: an anti-waste dish, the crozets frittata, on an Italian base, in which the pasta, replaced by crozets, is combined with porcini mushrooms, all refreshed with parsley pesto. Another idea to remember is the artichoke crozets risotto. Finally, the chef offers a recipe in the form of dessert, crozet au lait, in which pasta replaces the classic rice.
But the most emblematic dish still remains the croziflette. A delight for cold days that will delight young and old gourmands alike. If the preparation seems extremely simple – the crozets are simply mixed with onion, raw ham or bacon, crème fraîche and reblochon cheese, then the whole thing is cooked in the oven – the Top Chef still lets us know some advice.
Tips from Top Chef Hugo Riboulet for cooking crozets
- The choice of products. “Today, I used plain and buckwheat crozets already mixed. Buckwheat brings more flavor than a classic plain crozet. »
- Cooking. “Cooking crozets is exactly the same as pasta, you have to cook them al dente. If you make a croziflette or something else, you always have to remember to undercook them because they cook again in the oven. We don’t necessarily think about it but it’s double cooking. For a croziflette, you need to cook the crozets for 9 minutes in water. And then 15 minutes in the oven at 190/200°C. »
- Rinsing. Even for a gratin, once the crozets are cooked, we rinse them before putting them in the appliance, so that they are less doughy when they come out of the oven.
- Vary the proposals. “If you’re lacking inspiration, work the crozet like a dough, and use seasonal products. Also, you should not mix 36,000 flavors in a dish. Use 4-5 ingredients maximum to feel everything and not let it go in all directions. »
© Anne Reverdy
The original croziflette recipe
For the record, the croziflette recipe is a recipe which was registered with the INPI (National Institute of Intellectual Property) in 2002 by the Alpina brand. While all variations are imaginable and welcome, here is the classic recipe, created by the brand, and declined many times since then.
Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
For 4/5 people
150 g of Alpina Savoie buckwheat crozets
150 g of Alpina Savoie natural crozets
1 onion
4 or 5 slices of Savoie raw ham or 250 g of bacon
350 g of Reblochon (¾ of a Reblochon)
50 cl of crème fraîche
Cook the crozets for 15 minutes in a large volume of boiling salted water (10 times the volume of crozets, or approximately 3 liters).
Preheat the oven to 180°C/th. 6.
Slice the onion. Cut the raw ham into thin strips or brown the bacon. Cut the reblochon into cubes. Brown the onion.
Drain the crozets.
Pour them into a large gratin dish, add the strips of ham or bacon, the onion, half the diced Reblochon cheese and the crème fraîche. Mix, then distribute the remaining Reblochon cubes on top of the dish. Bake and brown for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with a salad.
*Release of Hugo Riboulet’s book “Tout encrust” (ed. Albin Michel), October 30, €19.90
