Blintzes -- a traditional food for Shavuot

What's really weird: I thought I had posted this last week, the week for entrees, only to discover tonight that I posted it to the wrong blog. So I'm posting this in here tonight and because it's almost tomorrow anyway, tomorrow I will post the dessert/sweet thing recipe I had in mind to post tonight.

Shavuot is coming up in less than two weeks and for us, Shavuot means blintzes. Like so many traditional Jewish foods, blintzes are one of the things that I never ate while I was growing up. They just weren't something that my mother made or bought or that we were likely to have anywhere we went. So when I first decided to make blintzes, I had no clue how to make them or even what they looked like.

I read a lot of recipes and I found one that seemed do-able and tried it out. Thirty years or so (and some trial and error) later, I am still making blintzes. And tonight, I'm going to show you how I do it.

Blintzes are but one of many things made using the same basic ingredients -- liquid (milk in this case), eggs, flour, fat (oil), and sugar. And maybe a little salt.

In different proportions (and maybe a different fat or liquid), you can make cakes and cookies and biscuits and any number of other things. But today, it's blintz pancakes. Combine 3 eggs and 1 and 1/4 cups milk, along with 2 Tablespoons of oil, a couple of Tablespoons of sugar, and a dash of salt:

And whisk. The whisk is pretty important in this process, because once you add a cup of flour:

you really need to mix it up well. And, even so, the batter will be a little lumpy:

The lumpiness really isn't a problem. It all works out in the end. I suppose this part could be done with a mixer, but since the lumps don't really matter, I don't see the advantage. I just let the batter sit for a bit before starting to cook the pancakes, and whisk the batter every so often and the lumps pretty much go away.

The pancakes cook pretty quickly, so I set up everything I need before I start to cook them. I usually make the batter in a bowl that has a spout for pouring. I keep it on a plate to minimize spills on the counter. Since I use about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake, I get out that measuring cup and put it on its own plate.

I also need a place for the cooked pancakes. For me, that's a dinner plate with a paper towel on the plate and another paper towel to put on top of the cooked blintz pancakes so that they don't dry out while making the rest of the batch.

I use a nonstick T-fal-type pan with gently sloped sides for cooking blintzes. I spread just a little oil in the pan and get it really hot before starting to cook.

That (above) was actually more oil than I needed. If there's too much oil in the pan, the first pancake is kind of oily-greasy and you may want to discard it (which is, I must admit, what happened to the first pancake I made while taking these pictures). After the first pancake, there is no need to add more oil to the pan. It's possible that you don't even need oil for the first pancake -- that's the kind of thing you can experiment with.

You may also need to experiment a bit with the temperature of the burner you are cooking the blintzes over. There's no hard-and-fast answer for what a "medium-high" heat is on your particular stove, but that's more or less what you want. Too high a heat and the blintzes will cook too fast, or even burn. Too low, and you'll have blintzes that are kind of pasty.

Measure out 1/4 cup of blintz batter:

And pour it into the hot blintz pan, turning the pan to spread the batter out as much as possible all over the pan.

As you can see, I lift the pan off the burner during this step and kind of rotate it around so that the blintz batter covers as much of the pan as possible.

This isn't a process you can set a timer for and come back to. You have to stay with the blintzes until you are done. The first test for doneness is that the top becomes mostly dry.

Then, I usually lift up an edge using a plastic fork (metal forks can scratch your non-stick pan and mar the finish) to see what the bottom looks like:

That one looks about right. (By the way, notice that while the first blintz pancake is cooking, I pour the batter for the next pancake. That way, the pan doesn't get too hot between pancakes.)

Sometimes, if the bottom is done but the top is still a little wet looking, I will quickly flip the pancake over. I just grab the edge of the pancake and flip it, then immediately pick it up and move it to the plate for finished pancakes.

I don't let go of the pancake edge during this process -- it really is just a matter of letting the top side touch the hot pan and immediately removing it again.

Cooked pancakes go between layers of paper towels, cooked side down:

Each subsequent pancake is placed right on top of the previous one -- the cooked sides are always down and they really don't stick to each other. Always cover the pile up again so that they won't dry out while the rest of the batch is cooking.

Oh ... sometimes you get kind of funny-shaped blintz pancakes.

There's nothing wrong with these pancakes. The blintzes made from them taste just as good.

Eventually, you will have a plate full of blintz pancakes. (I took the paper towel off briefly to take this picture -- they really should stay covered.)

One more thing -- the pile above is the result of about 4 batches of batter. Each batch makes about 12 to 14 blintz pancakes. I usually have a helper mixing up the next batch of batter while I am cooking the pancakes because when I make blintzes for my family, 12 to 14 blintzes just isn't enough.

Leave the covered stack of blintz pancakes alone for a bit and make some fillings. We almost always make strawberry, blueberry, and cheese blintzes. The fruit fillings are simple -- just mix the fruit with appropriate amounts of sugar and corn starch. Both are sort of discretionary amounts; i.e., I don't measure. If the fruit is really sweet, I use less sugar. The corn starch is primarily for making a kind of sauce while the blintzes cook, and the amount varies according to how the cook feels on any particular day.

Fresh and frozen fruit both work very well in blintzes. The fillings above were made with frozen fruit. I buzzed the frozen strawberries in the food processor a bit so that the pieces would be smaller and easier to manage while filling blintzes.

The classic cheese filling for blintzes is farmer's cheese, but since I had never heard of farmer's cheese the first time I made blintzes, I have always just used cottage cheese. I add a little sugar, a little egg, maybe some lemon peel, always some cinnamon (I do have a recipe, but I kind of go with what's around).

Now that the pancakes are cooked and the fillings are prepared, it's time to set up to put the blintzes together.

In the picture above, the plate of blintz pancakes (still covered) is on the left and the fillings are on the right. A clean plate for assembling blintzes is centrally located, and a pan spread with melted butter is waiting for the blintzes.

First, take a blintz pancake from the pile (and re-cover the pile) and place it on the plate, cooked side up. The cooked side will be on the inside of the blintz because the outside will get cooked in the oven.

Next, put a spoonful of filling on the bottom part of the blintz pancake.

Fold the bottom edge of the pancake up to cover the filling:

Fold one side of the pancake over:

And then the other side:

Then work from the bottom and fold the blintz over until you can't fold it any more:

That's it! Place the assembled blintz into the buttered pan, with the folded side down:

And continue this process, with fillings of your choice,

Until the pan is full:

Before putting the blintzes in the oven, brush the tops with more melted butter.

I know that this seems like a long and complicated process, but it's really fairly simple. To demonstrate how easy assembling blintzes really is, I asked a couple of young friends to let me take pictures of them putting together their first blintzes. There are two children in the photos below -- I had to alternate depending on which pictures came out better -- but they did these all on their own with only a little coaching:

That's really all there is to it. Bake the blintzes for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees and they are done:

And finally, the most important thing. Enjoy!

Toppings are optional but tasty. Sour cream is traditional, but applesauce and fresh fruit, as shown here, are also really good.

Blintz Pancakes

3 eggs
2 Tablespoons oil
1-1/4 cups milk
1 cup flour
1-1/2 Tablespoons sugar
dash of salt

Mix the eggs, oil, and milk in a large bowl.
Whisk in the flour, sugar, and salt.
Heat a small amount of oil in a non-stick frying pan.

When the pan is really hot, pour in about 1/4 cup batter and tilt the pan to cover the bottom with the batter.
Cook briefly, until the bottom of the pancake is lightly browned.
Lift the pancake out of the pan carefully and place on a paper towel.

Repeat process until all the batter has been used. It probably won't be necessary to re-oil the pan after each pancake. See the note below about low-fat blintzes.

Pancakes can be stacked, but keep pile covered with another paper towel.

LOW FAT BLINTZES: To cut down on the fat in this recipe, use skim milk and egg substitutes instead of whole eggs. With a non-stick frying pan, little to no oil should be necessary. I usually brush the pan once at the beginning (pastry brush dipped in canola oil) and often don't have to do it again. But it takes practice - beginners may need to oil the pan more frequently. Cooking sprays also work to help keep the pancakes from sticking to the pan.


Cheese Filling for Blintzes

2 cups cottage cheese (low-fat and nonfat work fine)
1/2 cup plain yogurt (optional)
1 egg (OR 2 egg whites OR 1/4 cup egg substitute)
3 to 4 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
lemon rind (optional)

Fills 12-16 pancakes, depending on how generous you are with the filling.

Blueberry Filling:

Blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Corn starch
Granulated Sugar

The sugar gives it a little sweetness, the cornstarch makes a nice blueberry syrup. Proportions aren't enormously important. Mix the corn starch and sugar and toss the blueberries in the dry mixture. If you like kind of soupy blueberry mush, use more of the dry mixture.

Strawberry Filling:

About the same as the blueberry mix, except use strawberries. Sliced strawberries are better than whole strawberries for this use. If you are using fresh strawberries, be sure to save some to spoon over the top after cooking.

These are so good, I thought this picture bore repeating one more time.

Not-Chicken Soup and Matzoh Balls

I have been known to make chicken soup. But this is a vegetarian blog and chicken soup would be ... inappropriate at best. So what do vegetarians do if they want a nice matzoh ball soup? One solution is to make Not-Chicken Soup, which is basically a very hearty, very tasty vegetable broth.

Making vegetable broth involves, well, vegetables and lots of water:

This batch of soup has celery, carrots, parsnips, mushrooms, onions, and a sweet potato. We've used various other vegetables at times -- rutabaga instead of parsnips, for example. As you can see, it isn't important to peel any of the vegetables. Though you probably should scrub any root vegetables before putting them in the pot.

Oh, and the most important vegetable of all for this particular soup:

Lots and lots of garlic. It is hard to put too much garlic into this soup.

You add some salt and turmeric powder to the broth and cook for a couple of hours. The turmeric gives the broth a nice golden color as well as adding a nice flavor. You add salt because -- have you ever read King Lear?

Now that you've chopped all those vegetables and cooked them, it's time to get rid of them. This soup is a clear broth, so all the vegetables are strained out and discarded. That's why it really isn't important to peel them before cooking.

I usually strain over a second pot so that any broth clinging to the vegetables gets rescued for later eating.

Even after removing the vegetables, which are biggish, there is usually a fair amount of other stuff in the broth. To make it really, really clear, I strain the broth several times to get rid of the sludge. Cheesecloth works for this, and I used to have some. But the turmeric in the broth turns the cheesecloth a bright yellowy-orangey color. So I just use paper towels:

After I have removed as much of this sludge-y stuff as I feel up to and the broth is as clear as I want it, it's done!

It is possible, of course, to use this soup as is -- either as soup or as an addition to other recipes. However, we like to add matzoh balls to our soup. Rice or noodles would also work well. But we are traditionalists, and tend to stick to matzoh balls.

There are two main schools of thought on matzoh balls -- floaters or sinkers. Some people like light, fluffy matzoh balls; others prefer hard chewy matzoh balls. I have made both for my family over the years, but we all prefer the light, fluffy floaters.

The first thing you need to do is separate some eggs. This is somewhat flexible, but 6 to 8 eggs is a good quantity. Common wisdom is to separate the eggs while cold and then let them warm up to room temperature before beating them. For this recipe, the whites and yolks are beat separately.

Because I am basically lazy, I always beat the egg whites first. If you beat the egg yolks first, you have to wash the beater before beating the egg whites. Even a bit of yolk can keep the whites from beating up nicely, but a little egg white in the yolks doesn't make a difference.

Once the egg whites are nice and stiff, beat the egg yolks with a little club soda and some salt and pepper. Then the beaten yolks are folded into the beaten whites.

Now that the separated eggs have been beaten and recombined, gradually add matzoh meal (not matzoh cake meal) to the eggs. Fold in with a fork, about 1/2 cup at a time. I generally sprinkle a little on at a time rather than dumping the entire half-cup of matzoh meal in.

My original recipe (which I got from a friend who got it from her mother) said that at least 2 cups of matzoh meal would be needed to get to a "medium consistency". I have found that the amount of matzoh meal varies, though 2 cups is a good ball park measure. As for a medium consistency, who knows? Here's what my matzoh ball batter generally looks like when I decide there's enough matzoh meal added:

The batter needs to be refrigerated for 30 to 40 minutes before being cooked. My friend's mother's recipe said to cover the bowl with foil, so I always do. But I see no reason why any other type of cover on the bowl wouldn't work just as well.

After the sitting time, bring a large pot of water to a boil. I don't add salt to the water, though my friend's mother did. Form the batter into smallish balls -- gently! If you mash them up too much, the balls will be leaden rather than fluffy. I know this because one year I let someone else, someone who assured me that she was a champion matzoh ball maker, form the balls. Same recipe, matzoh balls that were hard as rocks.

Drop them into the  boiling water as you go.

Cover the pot and boil for about 30 to 40 minutes. And that's about it.

See how they fluff up while cooking?

I usually leave the cooked matzoh balls in the water used for boiling until adding them to soup. And I store leftover matzoh balls separately from any soup they may be put into. Some people freeze cooked matzoh balls, but I have never tried that. My understanding is that you drain the matzoh balls, place them individually on a baking sheet and freeze. Once they are solidly frozen, you can move them into a storage container or bag.

One of my favorite combinations -- not-chicken soup and matzoh balls:

Not-Chicken Soup (Vegetable Broth)

Because I use this broth not only for soup, but also almost anytime that a recipe calls for vegetable broth, I tend to make it in enormous quantities and then freeze it in smaller portions. When I took the pictures above, I was quadrupling the recipe. Here, I'm just going to list the ingredients to make about 2 quarts of broth.

2 quarts water
1 parsnip or other mild root vegetable (e.g., rutabaga) in chunks
2 large carrots, cut in chunks (add the greens from the top if you wish)
2 medium to large onions, cut in quarters (no need to peel)
10 to 12 cloves of garlic, cut in half
2 stalks celery, chopped (leave on leafy parts)
6-8 ounces of mushrooms
other vegetables as desired, cut in chunks (root vegetables work best, in my experience)
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
freshly grated paper to taste

Combine everything in a large pot. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and cover the top loosely.

Simmer for about 2 hours. A little longer or shorter won't matter much.

Remove and discard the vegetables, then strain the soup to the desired clarity. This step is usually easier if the soup has cooled to room temperature, but I've done it with hot broth. If you choose to strain hot broth, be very careful about splashes.

Serve hot as soup or store for use as broth.

Linda's Mom's Matzoh Balls


6-8 eggs, separated

Beat egg whites until stiff.

Add to yolks:
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
1/2 cup club soda

Beat yolks on high speed.

Fold yolks into whites with a fork.

Fold matzoh meal in with a fork, 1/2 cup at a time, until mixture is of medium consistency.
You will need at least 2 cups matzoh meal.

Cover the bowl with foil and refrigerate at least 30-40 minutes.

Boil water in a large pot. Form balls of mixture with hands; drop into the boiling water.

Cook matzoh balls in a covered pot over low heat for 30-40 minutes. Add to soup when serving.

The plan from here on out

I've been doing a lot of thinking about how to best organize this blog along with all the other things I am working on right now. And I have a plan, which works only as long as I do. Here it is:

I am going to update this blog once a week unless something exciting comes along. The updates will usually post late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. In general, I plan to post recipes in the following pattern:

1st weekend of the month -- Soup

2nd weekend of the month -- Entree

3rd weekend of the month -- Cookies and other sweet stuff

4th weekend of the month -- Other stuff, including Tools of the Trade

5th weekend of the month, when we are so blessed -- Dealer's Choice

Since today is Friday and tomorrow is not only Saturday but the first day of the merry month of May, look for a soup recipe tomorrow night. Or early Sunday morning.