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:
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.
Excellent technique. Some delis seem to think it’s an enchilada.
@ManchuCandidate: Find your way here, and I’ll take you to 2nd Avenue Deli – my treat.
@Dodgerblue: Nana’s were more rectangular, not like spring rolls. I have to practice, practice, practice.
Oooooohhhhh!!!!!! Mmmmmmmm!!!!!
My mouth is watering. But you made me think of blinis. When we first came here the OH insisted we go to the Russian Tea Room to eat them (he’s even more hoity-toity than I am if that’s possible) with sour cream and caviar. Mmmmmmm. Mind you, it was a lot cheaper and better food in those days. Still part of the old New York of the theatre. Agents and producers all had their own table.
Blintzes!!!!!! Mmmmm!!!!!! Lower East Side. Ratner’s in the 60s. Veselka for mushroom barley soup. The Kiev for stuffed cabbage. I’m kvelling. Thanks for the memories.
And plus they’re so slimming! Maybe 50 calories in the whole thing. Tops!
@Dodgerblue: Understandable given who is working in the kitchen in most of the delis in LA, verdad?
@Benedick: Maybe 50 calories per bite …
@SanFranLefty: Si, como no?
Okay — I MUST MAKE THESE! Maybe this weekend. Mebbe for Jr’s birsday. They look great, and I’ve never had one.
@blogenfreude: Bring your ass down to Philly soon for burgers and beer at The Good Dog. Or we can do lunch at one of the Garces places (it’s like $12.50 or sumtin’).
VISIT, dammit!
Okay, Imma make some sort of blueberry, apple, and strawberry sauces for these bad boys. I am SO stoked!
@JNOV: still tuning, but if you make the recipe I posted, it’ll be pretty damn good. Just be careful not to tear the crepes.
BRIEF NUDITY ON MAD MEN TONIGHT.
No, don’t know who. But we’ve been warned.
I gots no teevee. :-(
@nojo: David Hasslehoff.
@Benedick: Might as well have been. The nudity wasn’t worth the warning.
@nojo: Nudity warnings screw up the shock value. At least in email.
@JNOV: That’s the problem with basic cable. HBO wouldn’t think it worth mentioning.
@nojo: Did they even warn us about the BDSM business a few weeks ago? That was certainly more interesting and probably more disturbing than some flesh flash.
@JNOV: Well, you know, America — sex is dangerous, violence is entertainment.
@nojo: ::nodding::
ADD: But what do you have when you combine the two? I thought is was really interesting that they brought that aspect in.
@JNOV: But what do you have when you combine the two?
A Polanski movie.
Looks like an empanadita.
on food. this weekend one of my neighbors gave me a giant bag of fresh tomatoes and I made two of my favorite things this weekend.
first bruschetta on saturday and yesterday gazpacho. both were heaven.
I have a giant thermos of gazpacho for lunch today.
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