Saturday, July 28, 2007

perfect, perfect blintzes and cherries.

It has been a while, and I apologize. I have been busy, like always, and it is simply too hot to be in the study where the computer room is. On days when its not too hot, I always have other things to do. I've been reading the last 3 installments of Harry Potter. My sister came back from her long vacation to the west coast, visited for a few days, and I am currently planning a vacation for myself. In August there is a family get-together for my mom's side, Alex and I planned to take a long weekend but, since he is starting school and thus we won't be making it to Europe to see (meet) his family, we're taking a week off instead. We're going to Maine, to go camping and see a very good friend of mine from summer camp when I was little. I can't wait. I love camping, I have hardly been out of the city in months, and I haven't seen the ocean yet thos year. My heart hearts. Blintzes
The beautiful picture at the top was taken by my sister and her fancy camera. We went to see Harry Potter (again) but everyone was slow in getting ready/waking up so I made blintzes. I haven't ever made blintzes before, but I love them. I just finished reading a fantastic old cookbook called Love and Knishes (my copy is from 1957 and looks nothing like this copy, however, its the same book). I dogeared the page for blintzes, which needed 1/2 cup potato starch and 1/2 cup matzo cake meal, figuring I'd give it a shot. I even went out and bought cottage cheese, not something I eat ever, in hopes that it would give me the push to make the blintzes. It did. And my God, were they fantastic. I served them with an avocado, with salt and olive oil, which obviously didn't go but needed to be eaten and was delicious.

Recipe adapted from Love and Knishes. I halved the recipe, which says it makes 22 to 24 blintzes, as I was only feeding 3 people. Half the recipe was enough for the three of us.

1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup rice flour mix
1/2 tsp salt
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups water
Maybe 2 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp xantham gum

Sift together dry ingredients, beat eggs until light and fluffy, and add 1/2 cup of water, then beat again. Add remaining water to dry mix, stirring until smooth, then gradually beat in egg-water mixture. Grease a small skillet lightly, heat over medium-high heat, and pour in just enough batter to coat the bottom of the pan. For the pan I was using, I needed about 1/3 cup batter. Cook the batter on only one side, until dry and bubbled, sliding the finished blintz onto a plate or cutting board. Start cooking another blintz. Place 2-3 Tbs filling in the center of the finished blintz, fold down the top edge, then fold the sides in, and fold over. Repeat with remaining blintzes. When all the blintzes are formed, add a little more butter or oil to the pan and fry the folded blintzes on the bottom to seal in the filling. Serve as is or with blueberry sauce.

Blintz filling
One 16 oz container of cottage cheese, drained for an hour
2 eggs
sugar to taste
1 Tbs lemon juice

Combine all ingredients.

Blueberry Sauce
About 1 pint of blueberries, frozen
2 or 3 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs water
1 Tbs lemon (or lime, or orange) juice

Put most of the blueberries in a small pan, add remaining ingredients. Cook over medium-low heat until thickened, then add the rest of the frozen blueberries.


I had some other stuff to talk about, like how I made cherry pie from that pretty bowl of cherries, how I made pork and tomatillo stew in my slow cooker from a book my mom got me for my birthday, how I discovered a pizza dough recipe thats as good as regular dough and how I've been making it almost every night. And how I'm corning beef to make corned beef, which will be ready on Monday. Next time! Maybe. Now it's back to Harry Potter.

Edit- I made the banana bread recipe a post of its own for BBD #2!

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:23 AM

    I just found your blog and oh my gosh! I'm drooling. Everything looks delicious.

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  2. You are my hero! I am so excited to try these, I can't even stand it. A friend of the family used to run a blintz takeout place in NYC and is a well-known cookbook author - She keeps promising if I come visit here (a state away) she will show me how to make GF blintzes, but I haven't gotten around to going up there. It will be interesting to see how her recipe compares to yours when I go up there. Meanwhile... From a blintz-hungry GF New York Jew... thank you!

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  3. thank you!!! it's so exciting to make something gluten-free that tastes like its made with wheat. My gluten-eating boyfriend and sister both thought these were perfect, I can't wait to make them again soon! Let me know how it goes if you make them!

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  4. The blinzes look amazing -- what is the flour mix that you are using?

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  5. Rochelle, I was just about to post that along the sidebars- it's:
    1 cup white rice flour, 1 cup brown rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup tapioca starch.

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  6. Anonymous4:03 PM

    help! what size container of cottage cheese?? it comes in different sizes! there are 2 different sized containers of cottage cheese in the fridge. I'm guessing you mean the smaller one.

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  7. sorry d! I fixed it! a large one.

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  8. First off - kudos to you for baking and cooking gluten free!

    Secondly, you don't know it - but you lucked out. I've tried many MANY blintz recipes and none "worked" until I tried the one in Love and Knishes. And lucky you - it was the first one you tried!

    Thrilled to hear that it can be made GF, I'm dandy with wheat but have a few friends who aren't.

    Keep up the great posts!

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  9. I honestly can't tell you how much this means to me. I thought my 14-year-old celiac daughter would never taste real blintzes!

    In fact, your recipes have been true lifesavers. We've been printing our favorites and adding them to our GF recipe binder, and thanks to you, now have a much expanded Jewish recipe section. I haven't tried your matzah balls yet; your recipe is very different from mine, so I'll be interested to see how they are.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

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  10. Jennifer, thank you so much. Your comment made my day!! I'm so happy I could help.

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  11. Anonymous7:23 AM

    I live outside the U.S. What is in rice flour mix besides rice flour?

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  12. The rice flour mix is posted on the left side of the page. It is rice flour, tapioca starch, and potato flour. You could probably substitute whatever flour mix you use.

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  13. Anonymous12:13 AM

    yums! I just made these (again) as a midnight snack! I 1/3-ed the recipe. delicious

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  14. Anonymous1:56 PM

    My husband and son loved them. I will be making them in a blintz souffle this weekend

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  15. made these for the first time today- HUGE hit in my home. I made a sour cherry topping- delicious!

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