I love a bit of smoked salmon every now and again, and this week, Dorie aided and abetted my hankering with our French Fridays with Dorie recipe - Buckwheat Blinis with Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche.
Dorie's blinis, which are like little pancakes, are made with buckwheat, because Dorie says it gives them a nutty flavour. However, buckwheat is rather hard to find here - it is a specialty shop item which costs a pretty penny. Now that I am possessed of buckwheat flour, I will have to find other ways to use it, as it is right up there in price with chestnut flour.
Interestingly, Dorie's blinis are quite large - when you go to a drinks function here, the blinis served are teeny tiny teaspoon sized objects, whereas Dorie's are around the same size as your average pikelet.
The blinis are relatively easy to make, and I thought they tasted good without any topping at all.
However, the recipe was for blinis with smoked salmon and creme fraiche, so I continued on:
I rarely buy creme fraiche, it being a relatively exotic item that I first learned about through Jamie Oliver in his jubbly wubbly days (way back in 2001, I was besotted with his lifestyle as portrayed through his TV shows, and was so excited when I got a job in London the next year).
Although I adore smoked salmon, I knew I couldn't eat all of the blinis alone, and I wasn't going to splurge on lots of smoked salmon for my work colleagues, so I made up the remainder of the blinis with halved cherry tomatoes and creme fraiche:
These were pretty good too, although not as decadent as the smoked salmon version.
I enjoyed this week's FFwD - I have never made blinis before, and they are really quite delicious.
To check out what everyone else thought of the buckwheat blinis, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.
