Day 77 - Savory Buckwheat Crepes, Potato-Spinach Blintzes, and Mushroom Gravy

What a rare treat to have Jonathan over! He's a wonderful actor with whom I've had the privilege of performing in two shows. In one of them, we shared a huge dressing room that became known as "Gerry's Deli" because our third roommate used to bring bags and bags of antipasti and wine and serve it to the entire cast, who'd assemble on our couches. All that to say, Jonathan and I have enjoyed food together, but cooking for him brings it to a whole new level. As a fellow Jew, I knew he'd appreciate this old world treat, blintzes.

Savory Buckwheat Crepes

Jonathan got very excited about the idea of buckwheat crepes. I think it has to do with his fondness for kasha. While the buckwheat flour here doesn't really provide that strong kasha flavor, it does lend a weight that your average crepe doesn't have.

I&T warn that the buckwheat variation is a little trickier to execute, but I can't say I felt challenged by it. Again, I used my cast iron skillet, which, when properly greased, works great for crepe-making. I wonder if my pan was a little too hot, though, because I was finding it difficult to achieve a thinness of crepe. I'd pour in the batter, then swirl and swirl, but it was like I couldn't swirl it fast enough to spread it out super thin. Also, this batter is thicker than the plain one, so that might account for this issue.

But hey, this is Eastern European food - it should be hearty like peasant, no?

The crepes on their own taste great, although I have to say, they're a little on the sweet side...

SFO: 10 


Potato-Spinach Blintzes

Here's another Brunch dish that I'm repurposing for dinnertime, this time as an entree. I'm doing the Potato-Spinach variation because I knew that I was making the Mushroom Gravy, and I thought mushroom on mushroom would be overkill.

I&T say to use "1 pound of cooked, chopped fresh spinach" but I find that somewhat confusing. One pound of fresh spinach, cooked and chopped? Or cook a $#!tload of spinach and then weigh 1 pound of it? In any event, I took the easy way out and defrosted a one pound bag of frozen chopped spinach, and it worked great. The filling came together nicely. 

Typo alert: I think that it must be a mistake when they write "1/2 pound Yukon gold or other waxy potato (about 2 medium-sized potatoes)." Two medium sized potatoes weigh closer to a pound. A half pound of potatoes would make a meager amount of filling for 8-10 blintzes. I think I ended up using even more than a pound of potatoes for my filling, and yes, in an effort to used up all the filling, I overstuffed the blitzes, but not by much. I made eight gigantic blintzes. But given the weight of the crepes, the overstuffing seemed proportionate. 

As for the assembly, I wasn't particularly happy with the way it was going following I&T's directions. That might work for a more delicate blintz, but these were gezuntah blintzes and Jonathan had a much better idea: fold the top side over the filling, then fold over the right and left sides, then roll to seal on the bottom. Much tighter and cleaner. The ones that I folded that way were more likely to "seal" in the panfrying portion of the process.

Again, here's another potato dish that's amazingly satisfying. The buckwheat crepe combines really well with this savory filling. There's still a protein punch missing here, but you're so full and happy, you really don't care. As suggested, I served a green salad with this, which I'm going to assert is mandatory. Without something light like that on the plate, I might feel like I was going to starch hell.

SFO: 10


Mushroom Gravy 

I had high hopes for this one...

I have no complaints about the cooking process. It's really straightforward and simple, once you get past all the slicing. But the flavor... meh.

I think I need to try making it again with bouillon/a different broth. I used the Trader Joe's low sodium vegetable broth, which I just don't like. It's too... orange. Is it tomato that makes it so orange-y? Whatever it is, it has too assertive a flavor, and I think it ruins whatever I put it in, especially something particularly susceptible, like this sauce. The broth is such a big component. Maybe I just need to make I&T's homemade veggie broth recipe already...

SFO: 8
(nothing offensive here, but it doesn't compare well to a dairy-mounted mushroom sauce)