These quick and easy light pancakes are a great base for many tasty vegetarian toppings. We have found they are particularly delicious with aubergine and pickled walnut caviar. You can always add a little dollop of sour cream.
Serves 6-8 as a starter
Equipment needed: Ideally a food processor to super-puree the spinach
A couple of very small pans to make uniform little pancakes
Ingredients
- 250g Spinach (Washed and shaken dry)
- 4 Eggs (Carefully separated into yolks and whites into 2 cups)
- 60g Plain Flour
- A big pinch of nutmeg for seasoning, sea salt and ground black pepper
- A little oil for cooking
Method
Place a wok or good non-stick pan on a medium heat. Add a little oil and half the spinach. Season well with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir-fry until the spinach is wilted but still retains some good texture. Immediately transfer to a colander, spread out the spinach so it cools quickly, to ensure the spinach doesn't overcook. Clean the pan, add more oil and repeat with the remaining half of the spinach. When wilted, transfer and cool quickly in the same way around the colander.
Allow the spinach to cool for 10 minutes, then carefully press out any excess juice. Transfer to food processor and blitz until a fine paste/puree. Place the spinach puree in a clean bowl and carefully stir in the egg yolks. Now fold in the flour in 2 lots to ensure the mix doesn't become claggy.
In a separate clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until becoming stiff. Then gently fold into the spinach mix in 2 lots.
Place 2 blini or small pancake pans on a medium heat, brush with a little oil, and add 2 tbsp of the spinach blini mix so evenly distributed throughout the pan. Saute for 2 mins on a gentle to medium heat so the mix begins to rise, then turn and sauté for 2 minutes on the other side.
Cook the remainder of the mix in this way until you have 10 -12 blinis. Either serve the blinis hot immediately by flashing under a grill or keep for up to 3 days and serve hot or cold.
