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Sophia and Rimma were serving at the Russian food stall during the Port Phillip multicultural festival in November 1999. This is a recipe is passed down from generation to generation. "My grandmother (babushka) passed it down to my mother . . . This recipe is at least 200 years old but in our tradition there is always room for the imagination."
Blinni are usually served on an oblong dish with fruit as decoration rather than a fancy decoration. Usually sour cream is served as well. There are different kinds of blinzes, e.g. apple, cinnamon, cheese. This is a dessert recipe, however there are savoury blinni with fillings of vegetables and meat. Every woman of the family cooks this food, and everyone likes it. My five year old grandson loves this dish with lemon and sugar.
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juice of 1 lemon
1 cup flour
2 apples
pinch of salt
salt and sugar to taste
1 egg
1 cup water, at room temperature
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Filling:
Peel apple and cut into small pieces. Put into a saucepan, add lemon juice, a little bit of sugar and salt, and cook gently.
Batter:
Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Lightly beat the egg. Gradually add the egg and water to the flour, mixing continuously until all the liquid has been added. Mix until the batter is completely smooth. It should be the consistency of cream.
Frying the blintzes:
Use a very heavy fry pan. (In Russia a certain fry pan may be set aside and used only for cooking blintzes.) Brush the bottom of the pan with oil or butter, just to cover. (Olive oil is not recommended because of its strong taste.) Pour in some batter, just enough to make a thin pancake, and tilt the fry pan so it covers the bottom. Cook over low heat until bubbles form. To tell when the blintz is done, gently shake the pan. If done, the blintz should move by itself. Only fry on one side.
When done, turn the blintz out on a tea towel with the cooked side up. Reheat pan and add more batter until batter is finished. Only add oil/butter as necessary. The blintzes should not be greasy.
Filling the blintzes:
Put a spoon of filling in the centre of each blintz (on the cooked side) and fold into the shape of a triangle or envelope. Return each blintz to fry pan and cook on both sides until golden brown, adding butter as necessary. Serve immediately.
Notes:
Sometimes two eggs are used instead of one for a thicker batter, or sparkling mineral water is used to replace at least part of the water for a lighter batter. Blintzes should not be reheated. The cooked pancakes and filling can be frozen for a short time, either separately or with the filling rolled in the pancakes.
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