Blini Blinchiki Food

BLINI (RUSSIAN PANCAKES)

Steps:

• Beat together the milk and the eggs. Stir in the salt and the sugar and mix well. Add the baking soda and citric acid.
• Blend in the flour. Add the vegetable oil and pour in the boiling water, stirring constantly. The batter should be very thin, almost watery. Set the bowl aside and let it rest for 20 minutes.
• Melt a tablespoon of butter in a small frying pan over medium-high heat. Pick the pan up off the heat. Pour in a ladleful of batter while you rotate your wrist, tilting the pan so the batter makes a circle and coats the bottom. The blini should be very thin.
• Return the pan to the heat. Cook the blini for 90 seconds. Carefully lift up an edge of the blini to see if it's fully cooked: the edges will be golden and it should have brown spots on the surface. Flip the blini over and cook the other side for 1 minute.
• Transfer the blini to a plate lined with a clean kitchen towel. Continue cooking the blini, adding an additional tablespoon of butter to the pan after each 4 blini. Stack them on top of each other and cover with the kitchen towel to keep warm.
• Spread your favorite filling in the center of the blini, and fold three times to make a triangle shape. You can also fold up all 4 sides, like a small burrito.

EASY BLINI (RUSSIAN PANCAKE)

Steps:

• Combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.
• Whisk 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk, egg, and 1 tablespoon melted butter together in a separate bowl. Mix into the flour mixture until batter is fully combined.
• Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Drop batter, 1 tablespoon at a time, onto the heated skillet. Cook until bubbles form, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Flip and continue cooking until brown, about 1 minute more. Lay on plate lined with a paper towel to help soak up excess butter. Repeat with the remaining batter.

BLINI RECIPE (Блины)

Steps:

• Using an electric mixer, beat together the eggs, milk, water, oil, sugar and salt. Add the flour and continue to mix until it's completely smooth and has no lumps. It should have the consistency of a heavy cream, not runny like milk.
• Use 2 nonstick frying pans, so you can cook the crepes twice as fast. You'll get the rhythm, trust me. Grease the pans with oil and heat over medium high heat. Pans must be hot before you start.
• Using about 2/3 of a ladle, quickly pour into a tilted pan, and quickly spread it covering the surface of the frying pan. This needs to happen quickly, or you will have a thick, oddly shaped blinchik. The first few will always look wonky, it gets better as you get your rhythm going. If you have any holes in your blinchik, then fill with more batter. The goal is to make thin blini.
• Cook the blinchik for about 2 minutes until it is lighlty golden, and the edge starts to separate from the side of the frying pan. Using your fingers, (or a spatula) pick up the edge of the blinchik and flip it over and cook for about 2 minutes until golden brown.
• Place the hot blinchik on a plate, and smear the top side with the stick of butter. This is to prevent the next blinchik from sticking to each other. You will make a blini stack.
• Repeat this process, greasing pan with oil, until all the batter is gone.
• Best served warm with light sour cream and jam or honey.

BLINIS

Steps:

• Whisk milk, 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons flour, eggs, and sugar together in a bowl. Add 1/4 cup melted butter; whisk well. Let batter sit, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add beef; cook until no longer pink, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain. Chop the boiled beef finely until even in texture.
• Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion and cook, while stirring, until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Increase heat to medium and add the chopped beef, salt, and pepper. Cook and stir filling until flavors combine, about 10 minutes.
• Heat oil in a nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Pour 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter into the skillet and quickly rotate the skillet to spread batter out in a thin layer. Cook until edges are brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Run a spatula around the edge of the skillet to loosen blini; flip and cook until the other side has turned light brown, about 1 minute more. Repeat with remaining batter.
• Spread 2 tablespoons beef filling on 1 side of each blini. Fold edges over filling and roll blini up. Repeat with remaining filling and blini.

BLINI PANCAKE

Steps:

• 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 consistency.
• 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!
• 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!