Smoked Salmon & Potato Blinis served with Caper & Lemon vinaigrette

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Blini, Cape Town, capers, Chefs, Clifton Kitchen, Cooking Through The Seasons, Cooks, Food Blogs, Food Writing, Healthy Meals, ingredients, Kate Abbott, lemon, Lifestyle, Light Lunch, Photography, potato blinis, recipe, smoked slamon, starter, vinaigrette

 

Smoked salmon is always useful to serve as either as a starter or light lunch and is one of the staples in my fridge. In this recipe I have paired smoked salmon with little potato blinis and drizzled with a refreshing caper and lemon vinaigrette.

Serves 4

For the blinis you will need the following:

230 g potatoes, peeled and chopped into small cubes

Sea salt for boiling the potatoes

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

Salt to season, about a ¼ teaspoon

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons thick cream

1 egg, extra-large and lightly beaten

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

Method:

Place the potatoes in a pot, add sufficient water to cover the potatoes by about 2 ½ cm. add the salt and boil until the potatoes are soft, about 12 minutes. Drain and let cool slightly.

Pass the potatoes through a food mill or use a potato masher to crush the potatoes. Sprinkle the potatoes with flour, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Mix together gently with a fork, then add the cream and mix until incorporated. Add the slightly beaten egg to the mixture and blend until incorporated.

Place a frying pan over high heat; when hot add one tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, and once melted reduce the heat to medium. Next drop tablespoons of the potato mixture into the pan and cook the blinis for about 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Once the blinis are nicely cooked, transfer to a plate. Depending on the size of your pan, you may need to cook them in batches.

To serve:

Place some rocket and lettuce on each plate; place a blinis, followed by some smoked salmon, then another blini, more smoked salmon and end with a blini.

Drizzle over the caper lemon vinaigrette and serve.

For the vinaigrette

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon capers

A pinch of salt and a grinding of black pepper

Whisk all the ingredients together until well blended, drizzle over the smoked salmon and potato blinis.

Linger a Little Longer with Fresh Ricotta & Spinach Crêpes

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Books, Cape Town, Cape Town Cooks, Chefs, Cooks, Crêpes, Food Blogs, Light meals, News, Photography, recipes, Ricotta, spinach, starter, Travel, Writing

The spinach in my garden is still producing new leaves, just the thing I want for what I am planning. The spinach together with the gorgeous fresh ricotta, herbs and seasoning, will make a rather nice filling for some posh crêpes

Fresh Ricotta & Spinach Crêpes

Serves 4 as a main meal or 8 as a starter

Crêpe batter

500 ml milk

170 g plain flour

4 eggs

100 g butter

Filling

1½ tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic finely chopped

400 g baby spinach

200 g ricotta

60 g parmesan cheese finely grated, a bit extra for scattering

1 tsp. finely chopped fresh thyme leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Prepare the batter: I find a food processor works well for this purpose. Put milk, flour, eggs and a pinch of salt in a food processor, mix until well combined.

In an 18cm non-stick pan, heat about 5 g of butter over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, place 2 tablespoons of the batter in the middle of the pan, swirling to spread batter thinly and evenly. Cook crêpe until just set which should take about 1 ½ minutes, turn and cook the other side for about 30 seconds or until golden brown. Transfer crêpe to a plate and repeat the process with the rest of the batter. You should end up with about 20 crêpes.

For the filling: heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over high heat, add garlic and sauté for a few seconds then add the spinach, and a pinch of salt, stir until the spinach has wilted. Transfer spinach to a bowl, leave to cool slightly then add the ricotta, parmesan, thyme, season to taste. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200C

Working one crêpes at a time, fill with 2 tablespoons of ricotta and spinach filling. Fold crêpes in half, then in half again to form a cone shape. Place the crepe on a paper lined oven tray and repeat the process with the remaining crêpes and filling. Bake until heated through and the edges start to crisp; this should take about 10-15 minutes.

Serve scattered with parmesan and an accompaniment of well seasoned and finely diced ripe tomatoes tossed in olive oil.