Stinque Recipe Challenge – Nana’s Blintzes
I watched my Nana make them many times as a child, and as a young adult she let me make them under her supervision. But like many grandmas, she never cooked from a recipe. I wrote down what she did sometime in 1982, but that piece of paper is buried somewhere in my mom’s house. Nana died in 1984, so I had to suss it out, and here’s what I came up with:
For the batter:
2 eggs
1 cup milk or water (milk makes a more tender shell)
3/4 cup sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
Beat eggs well and add salt. Add flour slowly and beat it in. Add milk gradually and beat to a smooth batter. This will make a very thin batter, but it works.
My friend Michelle gave me her extra crepe pan (you want something 7 to 8 inches diameter at the bottom) so I’m using that. Lightly butter the pan, add batter, then my grandmother’s trick was to pour the excess back into the raw batter after a few seconds – this makes a nice, thin crepe.
For the filling:
1/2 pound of small curd cottage cheese
1/2 pound farmer cheese
1 egg yolk
Mix it all together.
Assembly – Nana always made them on a towel, so who am I to argue? Here are the photos:
If you have the tab of dough produced by pouring out the excess batter, put it at the top, and use it as a sort of tuck-in piece when you make the first fold:
Then fold in the sides:
Fold it over again, and finish:
And there they are:
Fry them in butter (although next time I’m thinking of using a higher temperature and canola and butter):
Nana served them with applesauce or sour cream (or both) but you can pretty much put anything on then – jelly, caviar, whatever.
Bon appetit!
Assembly:
6:39 pm • Sunday • August 15, 2010
Oy. I’d like to nosh on that.
One of these days I’m going to have to find a Toronto Deli that serves authentic Jewish food like the food I had when I visited New Yawk so long ago. My Korean parents are rather amazed that I’m comfortable with so many different cultures foods unlike many of my fellow Koreans who get upset if the food doesn’t come with kimchi.