Tag: fish & seafood

  • Buckwheat blini

    Buckwheat blini

    & all the trimmings!

    On the 16th of December, with the almost-polar night wrapped around us, the kitchen called. Buckwheat blini felt like the right kind of quiet project – batter rising under a tea towel, thinly sliced shallots steeping in vinegar and sugar.

    One by one, I spooned the mixture into the pan, watching the edges turn golden. We skipped the mustard this time, but there were avocados on the kitchen bench – perfectly ripe and just asking to be part of it all. A dollop of smetana, a slice of smoked salmon, tangy pickled shallots, and a generous squeeze of lemon brought it all together.

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    Buckwheat blini

    Fluffy, nutty buckwheat blini with tangy pickled shallots, creamy smetana, and silky smoked salmon – a dish that feels both indulgent and comforting. Perfect for special occasions, an elegant fika, or even a relaxed weekday dinner. On school nights, I like to serve it buffet-style: a platter of blini, a jar of smetana, and smoked salmon arranged on my favourite plate. Everything in the centre of the table, ready for the three of us to assemble their own.

    Notes

    I’m partial to my plättlägg when making blini. It’s a Swedish pancake pan with shallow indentations, perfect for creating evenly sized, golden rounds that hold their shape beautifully. It’s traditionally used for plättar – small Swedish pancakes – but works wonderfully for blini, too. If you don’t have one, a non-stick frying pan will do just fine.
    Author: Fanny Zanotti
    Prep Time30 minutes
    Cook Time20 minutes
    Total Time1 hour 30 minutes
    Makes 30 blini

    Ingredients

    For the blini

    • 25 g fresh yeast
    • 3 dl whole milk
    • 75 g buckwheat flour
    • 120 g plain flour
    • 2 eggs separated
    • a pinch of flaky sea salt
    • 50 g salted butter melted

    For the pickled shallots

    • 2 shallots peeled and thinly sliced
    • 50 ml distilled vinegar [12%]
    • 90 g caster sugar
    • 150 ml water

    Toppings

    • smetana
    • wholegrain mustard
    • smoked salmon sliced
    • fresh dill to garnish
    • avocado
    • lemon sliced into wedges

    Instructions

    Pickled shallots:

    • Combine the vinegar, sugar, and water in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, then set aside to cool.
    • Add the sliced shallots to the cooled liquid and leave to pickle while you prepare the blini batter.

    Blini:

    • Crumble the yeast into a large mixing bowl. Warm the milk to 30°C and pour it over the yeast, stirring until dissolved.
    • Gradually whisk in the buckwheat flour and plain flour until the batter is smooth.
    • Separate the eggs, reserving the whites. Beat the yolks and salt into the batter. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise for 30-40 minutes.
    • Melt the butter and whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Stir the melted butter into the batter, then gently fold in the whisked egg whites.
    • Heat a blini or non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a little butter. Spoon small amounts of batter into the pan to form individual blini. Cook until golden on both sides.

    To serve

    • Place a dollop of smetana on each blini, followed by a slice of smoked salmon and a few rings of pickled shallots. Garnish with fresh dill and lemon juice. Some freshly crushed black pepper or grated horseradish is a favourite too!
    • Serve immediately.

  • Homemade cured salmon gravlax

    Homemade cured salmon gravlax

    One of my dearest food memories is the time I had my first taste of gravlax. It was a warm and sunny day in the late nineties. We’d gathered around a table placed in the middle of our street. Paper tablecloth, and rosé bottles in an ice bucket. On the table sat many beautiful dishes. Petits farcis and courgette flower beignets, polenta squares and Nice olives. But really, one stood out with a radiance that was hard to ignore. A whole side of salmon that had been cured to perfection by a dear family friend from Sweden. Its coral-hued flesh glistened in the sun and was adorned with plenty of chopped dill; fennel seeds too!

    The gravlax was served with slices of rye bread, garnished with delicate dill flowers, and accompanied by a sweet and tangy mustard sauce that was unlike any other. And its name? Hovmätarsås, a mouthful in more ways than one.

    Years have passed since that magical day, but the memory of that perfectly cured salmon has lingered in my mind ever since. And it almost feels natural that I would find myself now living in the north of Sweden. Here, gravlax is called gravad lax – literally, buried salmon. During the Middle Ages, fishermen would indeed salt and bury their catch in the cold ground to preserve it and make it inaccessible to animals.

    Although it is eaten throughout the year, it is a compulsory addition to the Swedish Christmas and Easter tables, and I’m more than happy to oblige.

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    Homemade cured salmon gravlax

    This gravlax recipe still transports me to that sunny al fresco lunch in the street down our house in the village of Valbonne. And yet, I'm hoping it will give you a hindsight into what we're eating for Easter, almost thirty years later in the north of Sweden.
    The salmon – and I like to use sahimi-grade fish for this recipe – is cured with salt and sugar. I like to add pink peppercorns, coriander and fennel seeds too, but you could use any spice you'd like.
    After curing, I like to drizzle my gravlax with a dash of aquavit – cognac and gin are an equally excellent choice but just as optional – before dressing it with a thick layer of finely chopped dill, plenty of crushed pink peppercorns, and a sprinkle of fennel and coriander seeds.
    The gravlax is usually served with a sweet and tangy mustard sauce – hovmästarsås -, crisp tunnbröd – a very thin flat bread – or thin slices of rye bread, a generous amount of soft salted butter, and sometimes, boiled new potatoes.
    Author: Fanny Zanotti
    Prep Time15 minutes
    Total Time2 days 15 minutes
    Makes 1 kg cured salmon, serving 8-10.

    Ingredients

    For the curing mix

    • 80 g caster sugar
    • 80 g fine sea salt
    • 1 tbsp pink peppercorns slightly crushed
    • 1/2 tbsp fennel seeds
    • 1 tsp coriander seeds

    For the gravlax

    • 1 kg sashimi-grade salmon trimmed and boned, with skin on
    • all of the curing mix above

    To garnish

    • dill finely chopped
    • zest from 1 lemon and 1 lime
    • pink peppercorns crushed
    • fennel seeds
    • coriander seeds
    • cognac, gin or aquavit optional

    Instructions

    • Make the curing mix by mixing all the ingredients together.
    • Place two large pieces of clingfilm on top of each other on your work bench, press down using a clean kitchen towel to “seal” them together. Repeat with one more double piece, slightly overlapping with the first one to create a large rectangle, big enough for your salmon side to sit on top of.
    • Sprinkle a little less than half the curing mixture on top of your prepared clingfilm, on a surface as big as your salmon side.
    • Place your salmon on the curing mix, skin side down, and top with remaining curing mixture.
    • Lift into a large tray and leave uncovered.
    • Refrigerate for 36-48 hours, turning your gravlax over a couple of times and removing the liquid that builds up.
    • When ready, rinse the gravlax briefly under cold water. Pat dry using kitchen paper or a clean kitchen towel, place on a clean tray and return to the fridge, uncovered for 3-6 hours for the surface to dry further.
    • If using any, drizzle with cognac, gin or aquavit. Then top with freshly chopped dill, crushed pink peppercorns, fennel and coriander seeds.
    • When ready to serve, slice thinly at an angle, detaching the slices from the skin. Serve with boiled new potatoes, soft salted butter, crisp tunnbröd [Swedish flatbread] or rye bread, and hovmästarsås – the sweet and tangy mustard sauce – recipe to follow!