I’m on vacation this week, but I made the blini last week and hopefully (if I can figure out the delayed post feature on blogger!) I’ll still be able to participate in FFWD this week. I’m not sure if I’ve ever had blini before; I’ve definitely never made them. I have made - and really enjoyed - buckwheat crepes so I had a good feeling that I’d like the flavor of these. We rarely have the time or energy for fancy appetizers in our house, though, so I decided to serve these alongside another appetizer (Sara Moulton’s jalapeno mini-quiches) and some braised greens and call it dinner.
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Monday night dinner
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These seemed pretty time consuming for a weeknight, so I started them on the weekend. On Saturday I put the batter together and let it rise in the fridge overnight. On Sunday I let the batter warm up for a while, and then started to fry the blini. Did anybody else’s batter have the consistency of Silly Putty? I’ve never made anything with that consistency before and I was pretty worried, but I just kept going. We have a griddle now (yay wedding presents) which makes frying big batches of things go much faster, but I’m still learning to regulate the temperature and had some trouble with these. My first batch took way too long so I turned the heat up, but I guess I turned it up too much because the next batch was sort of burned. Oh well, I just served them upside down! I do need to get better at this, though.
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| More blini |
Anyway, I refrigerated the cooked blini so that on Monday night all I had to do was warm them up and top them. (Are blinis supposed to be warm? I wasn’t sure. I tasted them cold and didn’t like them, but wasn’t sure if they were actually supposed to be warm, or just at room temperature.) We had them with smoked salmon and creme fraiche and really liked them (I didn’t spring for the caviar). We had a bunch left over - I was surprised that the recipe said it only served 6 as an appetizer, we both ate it for dinner and lunch the next day as essentially our main course and still had leftovers - so I served them for breakfast on my birthday topped with creme fraiche and mango. I liked them this way too. I think I just really like the buckwheat flavor. (I, coincidentally, was actually served regular blini the following night, and didn’t like it nearly as much without the buckwheat.)
I had a hard time regulating the temperature, too. They seemed to burn pretty easily, and my stupid electric stove is very slow to cool down when I try to lower the temp. Oh well! Glad you enjoyed them!
ReplyDeleteLucky you! I've been eyeing electric griddles for a while now. All your variations sound great, especially mango + creme fraiche.
ReplyDeleteYour post made it up on time. I haven't figured that one out yet. It looks great.
ReplyDeleteThis was a first for me as well, they were very tasty but a bit fancier than we are used to. As for a couple of your questions, I have read that blini should be served warm, but to be honest, I don't know if that always hold true. I mean, they are typically served as finger food at cocktail parties right? In that case I don't know how they could possibly be served above room temperature. And as for the griddle, it's good to let it get good and hot before you start to add the batter, and since the first batch notoriously NEVER comes out well, I would suggest making only 1 or 2 at first until the heat is right.
ReplyDeleteYeah, these made me realize I'm not a great pancaker .... lol all that aside, they were sure tasty and something I would make for a sunday breakfast or something :)
ReplyDeleteThe creme fraiche and mango topping sounds delicious! I also had some for breakfast but with the creme fraiche and seedless raspberry jam.
ReplyDeleteThe batter before adding egg would be a bit "putty-ish".
ReplyDeleteHang in there, you will get the griddle down... We would have never known, since they look good!
Enjoy your vacation.
Making this recipe made me want to get an electric griddle - hang in there with the temperature, it's worth not having to cook multiple batches on the stovetop!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of the advice about the griddle! Mine goes right on the stove top, although now I'm wondering if an electric one would be easier. Next time I'll try starting with only 1 or 2 - I definitely need to learn to be more patient when I'm cooking!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one that also ate these for breakfast :-) I like the jam idea