To break the Yom Kippur fast, I made a dairy meal for my husband:
a spinach and cheese strata, (purchased herring in cream sauce),
a simple bean salad with tomatoes and avocados, and cheese blintzes.
(I will be back to posting about Japanese food soon.
The holidays and work obligations have kept me busy.)
I just posted about kreplach, a sort of dumpling—a filling wrapped with dough—and this post includes a recipe for another kind of wrapped food: blintzes! Like the dough for kreplach, the wrapper for blintzes is also made with flour and eggs, but it’s formed in a completely different way. The wrapper is a crepe, a sort of thin eggy pancake!
First the recipe for blintzes, then in another post soon, the strata:
Cheese Blintzes with Apple, Apricot, and Raisin Sauce
adapted freely from a recipe on epicurious.com
about 20 6-inch crepes (some to freeze)
and about 10 filled cheese blintzes
For the Crepes:
3/4 cup whole milk
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup flour
Use a whisk to combine the milk, eggs, and salt. Add the flour and melted butter. Blend. Let the batter rest for at least 30 minutes.
For the Filling:
3/4 cup farmer cheese
1/4 cup large curd cottage cheese
1 egg yolk
1/2 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/2 Tablespoon sugar
pinch of salt
In a large bowl, mash the farmer and cottage cheeses together. Add the egg yolk, melted butter, sugar, and salt.
For the Sauce:
1/2 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup apple juice
2 Gala apples, peeled, cut into wedges, and the wedges sliced thickly crosswise
3 Tablespoons apricot preserves or jam
sugar to taste (Hi sweet-tooth!)
Put the raisins and apple juice into a medium saucepan. Warm to a low simmer, and let the raisins plump up. Maybe this took about 1/2 hour? Add the apricot preserves and sliced apples. Keep heat on low and cook while you make the crepes. Check occasionally to see that the sauce isn’t burning and the apples don’t turn to mush.
For Frying:
butter!
Have a clean plate for the crepes. I use a well-seasoned 6-inch cast iron skillet that is amazing for crepes. A different pan will work, but you will have to experiment! Non-stick pans would be best. Heat your pan over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, melt about 1/8 teaspoon of butter—a very tiny bit. Pour 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter into the pan.
Tilt the pan, off the heat, to spread the batter into a thin even layer. Return the pan to the stove and cook until crepe begins to blister. The edges should be lacey and begin to curl away from the skillet. The underside will become brown in spots. The top will look sort of “cooked.” About 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the crepe out of the skillet onto the plate, cooked side up.
Repeat, adding to the stack, cooked side up. Cool. You can make the crepes ahead. Wrap and store in the refrigerator.
Put about 2 Tablespoons of the filling in the center of a crepe. Fold like an enchilada: flip a little of the bottom and the top over the filling then fold the sides to cover the filling. To make square blintzes (like origami), fold the top to the center of the filling, then the right side, then the bottom, and finally the left.
Just before serving, melt about 1 Tablespoon of butter in a larger skillet. Add 3 to 4 blintzes and fry the filled blintzes until golden brown.
Serve topped with the Sauce.
adapted freely from a recipe on epicurious.com
about 20 6-inch crepes (some to freeze)
and about 10 filled cheese blintzes
For the Crepes:
3/4 cup whole milk
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup flour
Use a whisk to combine the milk, eggs, and salt. Add the flour and melted butter. Blend. Let the batter rest for at least 30 minutes.
For the Filling:
3/4 cup farmer cheese
1/4 cup large curd cottage cheese
1 egg yolk
1/2 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/2 Tablespoon sugar
pinch of salt
In a large bowl, mash the farmer and cottage cheeses together. Add the egg yolk, melted butter, sugar, and salt.
For the Sauce:
1/2 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup apple juice
2 Gala apples, peeled, cut into wedges, and the wedges sliced thickly crosswise
3 Tablespoons apricot preserves or jam
sugar to taste (Hi sweet-tooth!)
Put the raisins and apple juice into a medium saucepan. Warm to a low simmer, and let the raisins plump up. Maybe this took about 1/2 hour? Add the apricot preserves and sliced apples. Keep heat on low and cook while you make the crepes. Check occasionally to see that the sauce isn’t burning and the apples don’t turn to mush.
For Frying:
butter!
Have a clean plate for the crepes. I use a well-seasoned 6-inch cast iron skillet that is amazing for crepes. A different pan will work, but you will have to experiment! Non-stick pans would be best. Heat your pan over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, melt about 1/8 teaspoon of butter—a very tiny bit. Pour 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter into the pan.
Tilt the pan, off the heat, to spread the batter into a thin even layer. Return the pan to the stove and cook until crepe begins to blister. The edges should be lacey and begin to curl away from the skillet. The underside will become brown in spots. The top will look sort of “cooked.” About 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the crepe out of the skillet onto the plate, cooked side up.
Repeat, adding to the stack, cooked side up. Cool. You can make the crepes ahead. Wrap and store in the refrigerator.
Put about 2 Tablespoons of the filling in the center of a crepe. Fold like an enchilada: flip a little of the bottom and the top over the filling then fold the sides to cover the filling. To make square blintzes (like origami), fold the top to the center of the filling, then the right side, then the bottom, and finally the left.
Just before serving, melt about 1 Tablespoon of butter in a larger skillet. Add 3 to 4 blintzes and fry the filled blintzes until golden brown.
Serve topped with the Sauce.
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Tess's Japanese Kitchen 
Man, am I spoiled! This food was soo good! Not that the Japanese dishes aren’t also excellent, but this just seemed such a lavish gift when a good meal was just the right thing. The way I would describe the cuisine: delicate and hearty at the same time.
Mr. Tess,
You are too kind. But don’t stop!
love you,
tess