Cheese Blintzes
My late grandmother, Goldie, was renowned for her cooking and baking in the Jewish community in the North End of Winnipeg. She didn't leave us many written recipes, unfortunately, being one of those who intuited what a dish needed to make it perfect. Twenty years after I had last eaten them, my cousin served blintzes at dinner and my taste buds burst with the memory of our Baba's cooking. She told me that she and my aunt spent about a year tinkering with grains of sugar and salt to get the right combination of ingredients to replicate the taste. My cousin and aunt are both gone, too, but also remembered with love when I make Baba Goldie's cheese blintzes.
Use a round, 6 inch cast iron or non-stick pan to make the bletl, or crepes, as they are called in English. The pan should be consistently hot and buttered, so fast wrist-action is needed to spread the batter around thinly, to cook quickly and tamp out the crepe, cooked side up, on a towel or board. The bletl should be so thin you can see the pattern in the towel through it. Optimally, you should be able to make 18 paper thin bletls from this recipe, athough 14-16 are fine, too.
Use ricotta cheese if desired and adjust the amount of sour cream and sugar. Blintzes freeze well. Served with fruit, sour cream or savoury sides, you'll agree that blintzes are always delicious.
More cottage cheese-based recipes: Cheese Knishes, Cheese Pie, or try Tourtes de Blettes.
Yield: 16-18 blintzes
Ingredients for the Bletl (Crepes)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
4 eggs
pinch of salt
Method
Mix the cornstarch and water together in a large bowl. Add the eggs and the pinch of salt. Stir the batter continually to prevent the cornstarch from settling. Use a small ladle to dip into the bowl.
Grease the pan with melted butter with a basting brush or paper towel. Keep the pan hot, but do not let the butter burn. Whisk the egg/cornstarch mixture and pour a ladle-full of batter into the pan, turning rapidly to spread the liquid and fill in gaps. Pour any excess back into the bowl.
Let the batter cook briefly, then lift the edges to check for doneness. Turn the pan over onto a towel or board and tamp the bletl out.
Baste the pan again and repeat until the mixture is used up.
Ingredients for Cottage Cheese Filling
350 grams dry cottage cheese
3-4 tablespoons sour cream
1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons or more sugar (adjust to your own taste)
Method
Mix the dry cottage cheese, sour cream and the sugar together. Fold about a tablespoon of the mixture onto the centre of a bletl and fold, envelope style, as shown.
Fry gently in butter at medium heat, until gently browned on both sides.
My late grandmother, Goldie, was renowned for her cooking and baking in the Jewish community in the North End of Winnipeg. She didn't leave us many written recipes, unfortunately, being one of those who intuited what a dish needed to make it perfect. Twenty years after I had last eaten them, my cousin served blintzes at dinner and my taste buds burst with the memory of our Baba's cooking. She told me that she and my aunt spent about a year tinkering with grains of sugar and salt to get the right combination of ingredients to replicate the taste. My cousin and aunt are both gone, too, but also remembered with love when I make Baba Goldie's cheese blintzes.
Use a round, 6 inch cast iron or non-stick pan to make the bletl, or crepes, as they are called in English. The pan should be consistently hot and buttered, so fast wrist-action is needed to spread the batter around thinly, to cook quickly and tamp out the crepe, cooked side up, on a towel or board. The bletl should be so thin you can see the pattern in the towel through it. Optimally, you should be able to make 18 paper thin bletls from this recipe, athough 14-16 are fine, too.
Use ricotta cheese if desired and adjust the amount of sour cream and sugar. Blintzes freeze well. Served with fruit, sour cream or savoury sides, you'll agree that blintzes are always delicious.
More cottage cheese-based recipes: Cheese Knishes, Cheese Pie, or try Tourtes de Blettes.
Yield: 16-18 blintzes
Ingredients for the Bletl (Crepes)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
4 eggs
pinch of salt
Method
Mix the cornstarch and water together in a large bowl. Add the eggs and the pinch of salt. Stir the batter continually to prevent the cornstarch from settling. Use a small ladle to dip into the bowl.
Grease the pan with melted butter with a basting brush or paper towel. Keep the pan hot, but do not let the butter burn. Whisk the egg/cornstarch mixture and pour a ladle-full of batter into the pan, turning rapidly to spread the liquid and fill in gaps. Pour any excess back into the bowl.
Let the batter cook briefly, then lift the edges to check for doneness. Turn the pan over onto a towel or board and tamp the bletl out.
Baste the pan again and repeat until the mixture is used up.
Ingredients for Cottage Cheese Filling
350 grams dry cottage cheese
3-4 tablespoons sour cream
1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons or more sugar (adjust to your own taste)
Method
Mix the dry cottage cheese, sour cream and the sugar together. Fold about a tablespoon of the mixture onto the centre of a bletl and fold, envelope style, as shown.
Fry gently in butter at medium heat, until gently browned on both sides.