Recipe: Margaret Fulton’s blinis with smoked salmon

This is a perfect treat before Christmas dinner – or any other dinner or lunch for that matter. Our family requests Robert, my son-in-law, make his very excellent gravlax as a special treat, which he makes 2 or 3 days ahead. A batch of proper little Russian pancakes – blinis – made with buckwheat flour is made just before we eat, and he also makes a creamy horseradish sauce by adding 1 tablespoon horseradish to 4 tablespoons crème fraîche or light sour cream. Smoked salmon or gravlax can be served on dark rye or black bread as a little pre-dinner savoury or at a drinks party as an alternative to blinis.

Ingredients

• 90 g unsalted butter
• ⅓ cup buckwheat flour
• ⅔ cup plain flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 large egg
• ¾ cup milk, or use a mixture of half
• buttermilk, half milk
• 250 g smoked salmon slices or gravlax
• (opposite)
• ⅓ cup crème fraîche or light sour
• cream
• 2 tablespoons baby capers
• sprigs of watercress or dill
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• lemon wedges, for squeezing over

Method

1. Melt the butter and skim off most of the white foam that rises to the surface.
2. Sift the buckwheat and plain flours with the salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the egg, milk and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter.
3. Whisk the wet ingredients together, gradually drawing in the dry ingredients, until a smooth batter is formed.
4. To cook the blinis, heat some of the remaining melted butter in a large frying pan. Drop the batter into the pan, 1 tablespoon at a time, to form small pancakes. Cook each for 1–2 minutes or until covered with bubbles. Turn and cook the other side until golden. Repeat with remaining batter.
5. To serve, top warm blinis with the smoked salmon, ½ teaspoon crème fraîche or sour cream, a few baby capers and a few leaves of watercress or dill.
6. Finish with a few twists of the pepper mill and a squeeze of lemon.

This recipe has been provided by Margaret Fulton.