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Hi, I'm Gee Charman and welcome back to my series Dinner Delights. In this episode I
am going to show you how to make some delicious pea and mint blinis topped with smoked salmon
and then a bit of jazzed up creme fraiche to go with it.
[Music]
So I'm now going to make up my blini batter which is basically a pancake batter, but first
of all the peas to go with it. These are just frozen peas that have just boiled about three
minutes in boiling salted water and then left them to cool. So I'm just going to blend those
up a little bit and throw them all over the place.
It doesn't matter if it's perfectly smooth or not. Just chopped up is fine. And then
I'm going to make my batter up in this. So I've got plain flour that's going in and then
two rising agents. Baking powder and bicarbonate soda. Bicarbonate soda's a bit stronger, but
if you put too much in you get that real soday taste. You've probably tried it, but it's
not particularly nice. So you just want to balance it out with a bit of baking powder
which will give everything a bit of extra oomph and rise, but doesn't have the flavor.
And then pea and mint go together so a few mint leaves.
All the ingredients for this recipe can be found in the description box.
So now two eggs. Now eggs help little blinis and pancakes to rise. So that's why I'm using
two.
And then I'm going to start to blend this and then just add enough milk to make a really
smooth batter. But you want it quite thick so you get those little tiny blinis and they
don't run all over the pan. So I'll put this on and then add my milk.
That seems about right. You don't want to over mix it and blend it because the gluten
in the flour will stretch and you'll get little rubbery pancakes rather than those beautiful
fluffy light ones. So that's about right.
And now to make this really easy for when I pour them into the pan I'm just going to
decant this mixture into a jug.
This blini mix is perfect for two ways. You can make tiny little ones which are great
for canapees or if you're having a little garden party they are perfect. Or if you make
slightly bigger ones you can have them as a perfect starter.
So I've got my blini mix all ready to go. So I'm just going to get a frying pan on heat.
Now because of the beautiful green color that this batter has got you don't want to get
your pan too hot. It does mean that they'll take a little bit longer to cook than traditional
blinis, but it does also mean that you'll get that vibrant green color. If it's too
hot a pan they'll get that dark sludgy brown color and look like something you've dragged
out of a swamp rather than a beautiful spring like blini. So I'll let that get warm and
then add a little bit of vegetable oil or any flavorless oil is fine and then I just
wipe the excess out of the pan.
You don't want it to fry and sizzle in oil. You just want to have this as a nonstick,
but keep this because between each batch you can just rub the pan again and you're done.
So my pan is sort of medium heat and then I'm just going to start spooning and pouring
some of the batter into it. I'm going to do little canapee size.
So I'm just going to cook these gently and you'll start to see them cook around the edge
and that's when you can just flip them over and cook them on the other side.
So I'm now just going to start to turn these over. I don't know whether you can see it,
but they've just started to set around the edge so using a palette knife it's a bit of
a quick and flip game and you just turn them over like that. So now that they're sort of
firm and their shape is set you can now move them over and on this side of the pan start
the next batch. Which is exactly what I'm going to do.
So now my sort of second batch of blinis is done I'm just going to give these a quick
press and they feel firm and spongy and light rather than sort of like you're prodding a
water bed and it's a bit wobbly underneath. So these can come out. I'm just serving these
on a slate tile which is perfect for canapees, but if you make big ones probably about two
to a plate for a starter.
Just while those are cooling and these are cooking I am going to make a delicious creme
fraiche. So, to jazz this one up I'm going to make a lovely dill and lemon zest creme
fraiche. So I've got a bit of fresh dill here that I'm just going to chop up.
And then run that through your creme fraiche with a bit of lemon zest. Lemon and salmon
go so well together and instead of drowning the blinis in lemon juice just the oil from
the lemon zest just makes this creme fraiche beautiful. So because it is now a savory creme
fresh rather than sweet it needs our old friend salt and pepper. Everything should be seasoned.
It just transforms dishes.
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Now my creme fraiche is done and my other blinis are cooked. They can come out too.
And then I've just got shop bought smoked salmon that's already precut into beautiful
thin slices. Now you can do this in one of two ways. If I'm being really lazy I just
sort of scrunch it up a little bit, curl it up and plop it on the top. Or you can finely
shred it if you're doing sort of delicate lady like mouthfuls and you don't want big
blocks of smoked salmon you can just shred it up and put little bits of shredded smoked
salmon on the top.
And then you have a choice, you can put creme fraiche on the top or you can put it on the
bottom. It's completely up to you. I quite like it on the top.
So now they've got a delicious heapful of smoked salmon on each one. I'm just going
to add a dollop of your creme fraiche.
And this is where you need little pixie fingers so you can pick off little fonds of dill.
If you can't be bothered, just chop it and sprinkle over the top.
And there you have it. Really simple pea and mint blinis topped with smoked salmon and
a delicious lemon and dill creme fraiche. Now this is my best impression of Miss Piggy
so look away now. I'm going to eat one and there is only one way to do it. As the advert
says full moon not half moon.
They are delicious and I didn't eat them very elegantly. But the saltiness of the smoked
salmon, that little hint of lemon and dill in the creme fraiche and these pillow like
blinis with the sweetness of the pea. It just works perfectly.
I really hope you can join me for my next episode in my series of Dinner Delights.
[Music]