Saturday Simple Pleasure

Posted by Tracey at 7:09 AM Read our previous post

Cheese Blintzes

(not my photo!)

I grew up eating cheese blintzes with sour cream. A definite favorite of mine. They had just a bit of sweetness which was balanced so well with plump dollops of sour cream. I even have a recipe to create my own including the surprisingly easy crepe portion and did so many times in my life. Then I became lactose intolerant. No more cheese blintzes. They were one thing I missed very badly. I did eventually find some good tofu based blintzes with a tofu based sour cream - actually like them quite well. Well eventually, about 18 years after becoming lactose intolerant I've rediscovered sour cream and realize now that I can indeed eat it. However, my local grocers don't sell the type of cheese I would need to create my own blintzes. {sad face} But then I spotted these in the grocers frozen aisle!!!

They are good! I ate 3 of them this morning for breakfast. Not quite as sweet as I grew up with, but still the texture seems right and I can taste/texture of dry curd cottage cheese inside seems right to me. But I won't buy them too often, because they are best with mounds of fattening full fat sour cream which supplys full fat hips etc. LOL. And I'm working hard at reversing that trend. Although their calorie count without the sour cream was only 80 cals each I think! Truly not bad at all.

Here is my recipe for Cheese Blintzes. Can't remembe if it was first shown to my by my mother, Ina, or my Nana, Bebe.  (I'm thinking Nana though!)

Cheese Blintzes - Ciglen Style

Ingredients for Filling

1 1/2 pounds dry curd cottage cheese

1 egg

3 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

Mix well together and set aside. If you cannot find dry curd cottage cheese in your area, try calling the stores in the Jewish area of town or even checking the freezer section of more gourmet grocery stores. Or try experiments with regular cottage cheese place in cheese cloth, wrapped tightly and placed in a collander sitting over a bowl overnight to try to let excess moisture drip out.

Ingredients for Crepe Batter

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup water

6 eggs

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp sugar

Mix flour, salt, sugar, and water in large measuring cup. Beat with a dover beater until there are no lumps. Add the 6 eggs and beat again.

Line counter top with paper towels so you'll have a place to turn out your crepes quickly as you work and allow them to cool slightly.

Heat a crepe or omelet pan over medium high heat. Add butter (and keep adding as necessary to prevent crepe from sticking to pan). Pour a little of the crepe mix into the pan; quickly roll the pan around to get the mixture covering the bottom and pour excess back into your measuring cup. It should only take a short tme for the crepe to be cooked. You will not have to turn it over. When it's edges look like they'll be easy to lift, slightly loosen them and turn out crepe onto a paper towel. Put pan back on the stove and straighten out crepe to cool if necessary. Repeat until mixture is gone.

Now you get to decide how much you want to stuff your blintzes! Put a dollop of cheese mix in center of crepe. Pull one end of over it. Then one of the sides, the other side, and finally the top. Ideally you've made this into a bit of a rectangular shape as you've done it. Separate layers of filled blintzes with wax paper because they will stick to each other and tear otherwise.

I don't remember how many this makes, but I know it will certainly feed a small family a yummy Sunday brunch.

Now comes the part where you get to eat these.... yum.

Heat your pan again. Add a little butter. Fry blintzes on both sides just until they brown and bit and serve with dollops of sour cream.

Welcome to my bliss.