From the book Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan
These are called farçous and are a staple throughout southwest France, where all the moms have their own way of making them. In French homes, farçous are a robust main course, most often served with a salad. This makes a lot of pancakes, but they freeze perfectly. If you think this is going to be too much for you, cut the recipe in half and use 1 egg and 1 yolk.
2 cups whole milk 2½ cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs 1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 shallot, coarsely chopped 2 garlic cloves, split, coarsely chopped
Leaves from 10 parsley sprigs 10 fresh chives, snipped
Salt and freshly ground pepper 5 large chard leaves, center ribs removed, washed and dried
About ½ cup grapeseed, peanut, or vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 250º. Line a baking sheet with foil, and line a plate with paper towels. Put everything except chard and oil in a blender or food processor, making sure you season mix generously with S&P, and whir until batter is smooth. (If your machine won’t handle this quantity, work in batches.) Little by little, add chard to the mix and whir to incorporate. There’s no need to pulverize chard — having some strands is nice.
Pour ¼ – ½” of oil into large skillet and place over medium-high heat. When oil is hot (a drop of batter should sizzle immediately), spoon in a scant ¼ cup batter for each pancake. Don’t crowd pan; depending on size of pan, 4 pancakes is probably max per batch. Cook pancakes for ~3 minutes, until underside is nicely browned and edges are browned and curled. Flip pancakes over and cook another 2 minutes or so.
Transfer pancakes to paper-towel-lined plate, cover with more towels, and pat off excess oil. Place on the foil-lined baking sheet and keep warm in oven while you make more pancakes, adding oil to pan as needed.
Serving: Traditionally, farçous are served with a salad as a main course, but you could serve fewer per portion as a starter or omit the salad and serve them as a side dish. If you want to serve the farçous as an hors d’oeuvre, you might want to include a dipping sauce or topping of crème fraîche or plain yogurt.
Storing: You can make the farçous a few hours ahead, keep them covered at room temperature, and reheat in a conventional oven or microwave before serving. Or you can pack them airtight (make sure to separate them with small squares of wax or parchment paper) and freeze them, then reheat as needed.
