making blintzes

I have to be honest — when this theme was first posted, my mind wandered trying to figure out what the heck a blintz was.

Knowing I had heard of it before, I had to head off to Google to figure out what in the name of holy heck a blintz was. I then realized I had eaten them before — they were called crepes filled with stuff.

Still, how to blog about it?

I have no idea where I’d find a blintz around here. There might be a place somewhere, but who knows?

Back to the Google drawing board. How does one go about making one of these things? Is it hard? Easy? Maybe I’ll make my own blintz.

My Google search brought me to The Shiksa in the Kitchen, where I found this seemingly easy recipe for a cheese blintz. I say easy, because I can cook decently well. But things like this usually throw me for a loop. That being said, this recipe was easy to follow and made me interested in trying it out.

OK, one thing I must note — making these things requires some patience, which I don’t always have. Shockingly, I didn’t have any issues. I made the batter, then made the filling. Then I started cooking up the blintzes.

They say to cook ’em all first. Well, part of the way. Then fill ’em. Then fry ’em. Then eat ’em.

So, after all were cooked for the first part, I went to filling.

I didn’t take photos of this process as it’s hard to actually take photos when you are using both hands to fill these things. The recipe shows you need to put some of the filling on the crepe and then fold it up, like an envelope.

Easier said than done.

I had a few profanities leave my mouth at times when the rolled up blintz popped out the edges. Then I had to try it all over. Or, when I moved it to the plate, it didn’t seem like it was solid enough.

But, I eventually got it right and then I focused on the frying, where I had to dodge a few splattering shots of oil.

They didn’t look too bad, though.

I won’t lie — I did fully cook one of the crepes and ate it, just to see if it was any good. And, despite it not looking pretty, it tasted pretty solid. I’m not on a cooking show or working in a professional kitchen, though. So plating isn’t something I’m worried about.

I’m going for taste. And I think I achieved it with the crepe.

The jury was still out for the blintz, though.

I did have a few issues with the blintzes. A couple of them I went a little longer than I should have, so they didn’t look so perfect. A couple of them opened during the frying aspect.

Now, I needed to get these ready to eat. No more messing around.

But a plain blintz?

As if!

So what to put on them? I saw a couple of blintz recipes with a blueberry sauce. How good does that sound? Exactly. And being I wasn’t up for whipped cream (for the record, I make kick-ass whipped cream), so I went for a blueberry sauce.

Back to Google…

I found a recipe, which, again, seemed easy enough. This truly was easy. For the record, I substituted Equal for sugar and it tasted awesome. I have to watch my sugar intake, so any time I can do that, I’m happy.

The sauce was excellent and went very well with the blintzes. Yummy, indeed.

I don’t think I have a calling as a professional cook, but I was quite pleased with this attempt at making blintzes. I have a few things I can do to maybe change the process if I do it again and hopefully they will come out a bit prettier next time!

I also need to improve my food photography!

But, in the end, I call it a success. After all, the idea is to get something that tastes good, right? If it’s done at home, who cares what it looks like?

Although it does look pretty good here, no?

Turns out I didn’t have to go far for a good blintz.

Who knew?

I don’t think I’ll be looking to change careers to a chef anytime soon, but it’s nice to know I can make a decent crepe or a blintz!

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