Blini Pancake

TasteRussian's Note:

Russian bliny. Pancakes but actually not exactly… Now here’s the recipe of traditional Russian blinchiki or bliny as promised. Blinchiki or bliny (blini) Russians usually cook for breakfast and eat with sour cream or jam but blinis are also good as an appetizer . In this case Russians make different fillings for blinis - the most popular fillings are meat, mushrooms, cottage cheese etc. etc. Foreigners know our Russian bliny in their Royal variation – with caviar but telling you the truth Russians are hardly ever eat bliny (blini) with caviar, just in case to impress somebody! There are also many blini recipe variations, somebody make blinis batter with yeast but I prefer to cook them without adding yeast. Taste is pretty similar but it’s just about to save time. Blini recipe as well as ingredients are almost same as pancakes recipe but has some difference in preparation.

• Total Time: 22 mins
• Prep Time: 7 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 4-5

Yield: 15.0 blinys

• 200 ml kefir
• 250 -300 ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda slaked in vinegar
• 2 -3 tablespoons vegetables (refined) or 2 -3 tablespoons sunflower oil (refined)
• 4 -5 tablespoons flour

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl whisk kefir, eggs, salt and sugar, 1-2 minutes would be enough, just to blend the ingredients.Add 4-5 tablespoon flour and blend well. Measure a teaspoon of a baking soda (may be a bit less, not a big deal) and pour it into a tablespoon, slake baking soda with a vinegar (about a half teaspoon) and add fizzy mixture to batter. Whisk just a little bit. Mixture should have a sour cream consistence.Now add milk and whisk well (2-3 more minutes), pour 2 tablespoon oil, stir by spoon or whisk and the batter is ready. It should be a bit stiffer as milk/kefir consistence. Heat the frying pan with 1-2 tablespoon of oil, ladle (usually 1 non full soup ladle per one blinchik) the batter and pour into hot pan. Tilt the pan rapidly to spread the batter out evenly. It’s OK if there are some places here and there on the pan left uncovered , it’s much worse if you ladle more batter. Your blinchik should be VERY thin!When the edges are crisp looking (1-1.5 minutes approximately) slide a spatula carefully under the blin or just hook the edge of blin with a knife and flip it over by hands. Cook for about 1 minute on the other side. Eat the first one by yourself as it usually looks unattractively :) As the saying goes, you must spoil before you spin!
2. There is a saying in Russia as the first blin is always poor, the second one you should give to your friends and only the third one is yours. When all of your blini are fried and if any of them are still left uneaten you may serve them with sour cream or your favorite jam! Enjoy!