Back to my 'Retro' roots ....tinned Pink Salmon blintzes!

‘COOKINGWITHMAVIS’ #27    Back to my ‘Retro’ roots  ….Salmon blintzes 

So! You thought you knew EVERYTHING ! ...huh ?

 Ahhhhh, but can you make  Salmon Blintzes  ?

 A while back,  when devoid of any endth of culinary  creative ideas,  and scrambling to impress dinner guests , ‘COOKINGWITHMAVIS’  scanned the  “ Jewish  Traditional ”  sections of some of  “ The Mother ‘s ” steadfast  favourites,  only to stumble across  ‘ BLINTZES ’ !

Gee-wizz ! -  only  “ The Mother ”  … and    "Ouma Flo" could make such delectable dishes, thought I , until I  learned how amusingly simple it is to impress….

... And amazingly easy to create these …..…

So?  You ask….what ARE  bloomin’ Salmon blintzes?

...simply, they are thin pancakes (“crepes”) filled with a filling … for  THIS   recipe,  filled with a thick  pate made from tinned Pink Salmon and mayonnaise ! 

FRIED BLINTZES

But just for fun, I’ll translate that into modern “ Fusion Cuisine ” language…the type of description you’ll find on a menu  card….

…“ Individually-created   pockets-of-crepes   made   from   the  purest  flour  and   twice-distilled   mountain-stream  water,  gently  crafted   in  a  moderate   pan ,  then  filled   with   a  brine-cured   salmon  mayo….”

Mmmm… Doesn’t  that sound marrrrvellous  in modern “Fusion Cuisine”  language...

In other words:

Plain & simple , splendidly “retro”…

  SALMON  BLINTZES !

SALMON BLINTZES BAKED  IN CREAM

Serve them as a warm hors d’oeuvre, or even as a tempting main course with a fresh green salad ….serve them lightly fried, or baked in cream.

“Blintze” or “Crepe” - leaf  recipe :

The blintze leaves / crepes, can also be used for sweet  ‘Crepe Suzette’ too.

And so to SALMON BLINTZES…

INGREDIENTS   :

3 extra large/ or jumbo eggs

2 cups water

1 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoons sunflower oil / vegetable oil

½ teaspoon baking powder

A pinch of salt

INGREDIENTS FOR CREPES / BLINTZES

To make the crepes:

METHOD  :

1) Beat eggs and water well with whisk or electric beater

2) Add flour sifted with salt and baking powder

3) Beat till smooth

4) Heat a small frying pan on medium-high…( I use both a heavy-based as well as a non-stick pan), and add a drop of oil / or use ‘Spray‘n Cook’ to grease the pan.

5) Pour batter in, to thinly coat the bottom of the pan – about 3 tablespoons full,  very quickly swirling it around to coat all the bottom and slightly up the sides.

6) Cook till dry, and begins to slightly come away from the edges of the pan….mine take about 2 minutes ..or less!

7) Quickly remove pan from heat and invert …the ready crepe should  drop onto a waiting plate…if completely cooked, the crepe should come away from the pan easily…you may need to tempt it with a slight prod of a spatula!

8) Repeat this process, placing each crepe onto the previous one

9) This amount of batter should make approximately 26 crepes …of which you will use 16 to 18 for your  ‘starter portion’ salmon blintzes

….or 9 to 10  for a ‘mains’ portion.

*** The remaining crepes you can keep to make Crepes Suzette….

Note   :

If, after cooking the first few crepes, (“ blintze leaves ”), they start sizzling, or cooking unevenly, it means the pan is too hot, so either lift the empty pan off the heat, and wave a few times, in the air, to cool…or put the heat of the stove plate a little lower. The crepes should not brown!...but remain a pale creamy colour, and should be a flexible, thin, rubbery texture.

WHISK THE EGGS AND WATER

MEASURE THE FLOUR , SALT AND BAKING POWDER

ADD FLOUR MIX TO EGG MIXTURE

ADD OIL AND WHISK TILL SMOOTH

THE RESULT - A PERFECT CREPE (BLINTZE LEAF)

Salmon filling   ..…

Ingredients  :

2x 415g tins pink salmon in brine

5 generous heaped tablespoons mayonnaise

Salt and pinch of black pepper, and  white pepper to taste

INGREDIENTS FOR SALMON FILLING

Method  :

1) Easy – remove  pink salmon piece whole from the tin, gently open it lengthwise in half, to carefully remove the central spine of soft bones from the tinned salmon, as this would turn out “crunchy” if blended…and not the nicest texture!

2) Blend in a food processor, or you can mix all ingredients thoroughly with a fork till combined as a paste –leave the skin on.

To assemble salmon blintzes …

1) Lay individual crepes flat, on your clean work surface

2) Place 2 generous tablespoons of the salmon-mayonnaise filling in the centre, in the shape of a rectangle.

3) Fold left side and right side ‘side-to-side’,  over onto the filling, towards the centre, slightly covering the ends of the filling – okay if the filling does not stretch from side to side.

4) Fold the bottom of the crepe ‘up-and-over’, to cover the whole of the filling

Lastly , fold the remaining top section down, over the previous fold.

Now you should have a filled, sealed rectangular ‘blintze’.

5) Set aside on a lightly floured baking sheet, or you can place on Clingfilm.

FOLDING & FILLING step 1

FOLDING & FILLING step 2

FOLDING & FILLING  step 3

Yield:

- You should have at least 16 filled blintzes - as “starter” hors d’oeuvre portions.

* As a main meal portion:

Fill each crepe (blintze) with 3 spoons filling to yield about 9 to 10 blintzes.

Cooking:

***  Then you have a choice…

Choice  #1  

Either - to fry:

- Use 2 tablespoons butter for gently shallow frying a few at a time.

- Heat a fryingpan to medium heat, add butter and gently fry, turning over, till lightly golden brown on both sides, still remaining soft, not crisp!

CHOICE 1 - FRIED BLINTZES

Choice  #2   

Or - to bake in cream :

- Preheat the oven to 200*C

- Place prepared, lightly fried, filled blintzes, neatly in rows, packing closely to each other, into a greased ovenproof baking dish.

- In a separate bowl, whisk the 2 cups of cream, with the 3 eggs, a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper, and pour this mixture over the neatly placed rows of salmon blintzes, to cover.

- Bake at 180*C for about 20 minutes (depending on the size of the dish)….just enough time to set the egg + cream + salty,  custard sauce.

CHOICE 2 - PLACING BLINTZES  IN OVENPROOF DISH
 TO BAKE IN CREAM

INGREDIENTS FOR CREAM SALTY CUSTARD

POUR CREAM/EGG MIXTURE OVER
 GENTLY FRIED BLINTZES TO BAKE

MOUTHWATERING BLINTZES BAKED IN CREAM

Oi! Vey!...and WHAT TO DO  with the remaining crepes?...make delicious ‘Crepes Suzette’ of course! Mmmmmmmmmmmm………

I'd love to know if YOU have tried some of "... 'Mavis's " dishes...why not email to:  cookingwithmavis@gmail.com  !  

‘till next time......

'COOKINGWITHMAVIS’