Tuesday 7 December 2010

A lovely bank holiday and a recipe to share

We are in the midst of a huge bank holiday here in Madrid - all in all it's five days off from Saturday to Wednesday. I so needed this break, and although I haven't done anything particularly exciting I feel like a new woman. On Saturday D and I had a G&T night in, and I wanted something light and fresh to accompany so I made sweetcorn blinis, topped with greek yoghurt whipped with a little Philadelphia cheese (which makes a decent substitute for sour cream, which you can't get in Spain) smoked salmon and..er...Euro Caviar - I promise I wasn't being stingy and would have bought the real thing, albeit a tiny thimble of it... but alas El Corte Inglés's rincon del gourmet isn't always all that gourmet and I couldn't get any... Still, we enjoyed them as luckily I'm a big fan of roe of all types. Sorry, they were devoured so quickly that I forgot to take photos - ok, that plus the fact I was a little tipsy - embarassingly, all I have left is the one remaining sad little blini that somehow managed to miss my mouth and that I have pictured below. Anyway, to make up for my lack of journalistic detail, I will share the recipe :-)



The recipe is one I adapted from one I scribbled down on a back of an envelope years ago and while it isn't totally orthodox (no buckwheat flour, and no buttermilk - partly as they're hard to get here and partly due to laziness) I can promise they are very tasty and won't disappoint .

Ingredients: (makes about 30, 5cm diameter blinis, though again, due to tipsiness I can't vouch for my this 100%)
150g plain flour
250ml milk (you may need to add a little more less when done, check how the texture is, it should be like a thickish cake batter)
3 small eggs, beaten
1/ tsp salt
dessertspoonful baking powder
2 tablespoons of melted butter (I cheated and used a good slug of olive oil)
200g sweetcorn drained (I got mixed up and thought the recipe required fresh corn on the cob, so I removed the kernels from one cob and boiled them for about 15 minutes then let them cool down)

Mix the flour with the milk with a wooden spoon, beat in eggs, salt, baking powder and butter/oil then add sweetcorn. Fry spoonfuls in a pan with a little oil/butter and turn over when bubbles begin to show on the surface. Serve with soured cream and smoked fish/roe with a twist of lemon. If I had had any mixture left over I would have served it with bacon and eggs the next morning, yummy. Anyway, I'm going to get on with enjoying the rest of this lovely little break and if I get up to anything interesting, I'll let you know :-)

6 comments:

Ashleigh said...

Hey Nadya, it sounds great! But you can get sour cream here...I have found two. As Americans, we use sour cream in everything and through the unofficial military wives network, we found it. Although the grrek yogurt is probably a healthier choice. We have found the sour creams at Carrefour, over in the burgos cheese section. The first one I tried is by Dannon and it's called "Quark" and it more like low fat sour cream in texture. the other that I prefer is more like a full fat sour cream is Carrefour brand It is in a small red and white tub and though written in 3 languages, the spanish title on the tub is "Nata Fresca Espesa" and it has a 30% on the container...Good luck and thanks for sharing this great recipe!

Nadya said...

Thanks Ashleigh! I have a Carrefour near me, so I'll have to try to find some Quark or the other alternative you suggest...I prefer the high fat option too I think :-) Can't believe I've been here 8 years without finding it, I'll let you know how I get on! Hmm, I'm thinking it'll be great for jacket potatoes too...
Nadya
x

Anonymous said...

Wow. I'm impressed. I would never have the patience to make 30 blinis!!!

Nadya said...

I don't know what came over me - with cooking I'm either all or nothing!!

Anonymous said...

Nads, we need more posts!!!!

Nadya said...

Who says we need more posts! Reveal yourself at once! T?

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