Blini Cups With Caviar Recipes

CHIVE BLINI WITH CAVIAR AND CREME FRAICHE

Steps:

• In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine flour, egg, milk, 1 tablespoon butter, chives, and salt. Whisk just until ingredients come together. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour. Set a medium nonstick pan over low heat and brush with melted butter. Pour approximately 1 teaspoon of the batter into the pan, and repeat leaving some space between pancakes. When bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes (about 1 to 2 minutes), flip them over with a spatula. Continue cooking for 1 minute more or until the pancakes are golden brown on both sides.
• Serve with a tiny dollop of creme fraiche and an even tinier dollop of the caviar of your choice (paddle fish, hackleback, golden whitefish and tobiko all work well.)

HIZIKI CAVIAR WITH CORNMEAL BLINI

Steps:

• Place hiziki in a bowl and rinse once with lukewarm water. Cover with apple juice, shoyu, water, and soak 30 minutes. Heat sesame oil in a skillet. Add the onion and then garlic; add sea salt and saute for 5 minutes. Add hiziki and soaking liquid, cover and cook 10 minutes. Grate ginger and add it to the skillet along with the lemon juice. Cook the mixture covered for 10 minutes. Uncover and cook over medium heat until liquid is absorbed. Allow hiziki mixture to cool slightly and pulse in food processor for a few seconds. Serve chilled but not icy cold.
• Sift cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl beat together corn oil, maple syrup, soymilk, water and vinegar. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Stir in parsley. Heat a skillet and add a 1/2 teaspoon corn oil. Drop batter by scant tablespoons onto heated skillet. Carefully turn blini after about a minute. Lower heat and flip blini to cook only about 45 seconds on that side.
• To serve blini with hiziki caviar: Place a teaspoon of caviar on top of each blini and garnish with chives or parsley.

RUSSIAN BLINIS WITH CAVIAR

Steps:

• Scald the milk and set aside.
• Dissolve the yeast in one-fourth cup warm water.
• Sift the white flour into a bowl, add the buckwheat flour, salt and sugar.
• Beat the egg yolks until thick. When the milk has cooled to lukewarm, add the yolks and three tablespoons of the melted butter. Add the yeast. Mix well and pour into the flour. Mix thoroughly, removing any lumps. Set aside in a warm place lightly covered with a towel for about two hours, or until doubled in bulk.
• Whip the egg whites until they stand in stiff peaks and fold them into the batter.
• Lightly butter a small frying pan. Pour in just enough of the pancake mixture to coat the bottom of the pan. When the mixture begins to bubble, turn the pancake over and cook lightly on the other side. Wrap the pancakes in a napkin and keep them warm in the oven while you cook the others. Serve in a pile, wrapped in a napkin.
• Serve the caviar, the sour cream and the remaining melted butter in small bowls on the table. Each person puts a pancake on a plate, butters it, adds sour cream and caviar, and rolls it like a crepe.