Crème fraîche and chive blini with soft smoked trout

A yummy little entrée or finger food type thing, you can top these blini with whatever takes your fancy. I chose one of my all time favourite products – Tetsuya’s Soft Smoked Petuna Ocean Trout – which you can buy from good suppliers, but I tend to get it frozen from De Costi’s at the Sydney Fish Market. You can pretty well rely on them stocking it. I’m a bit fussy with smoked salmon, often finding it too oily and fishy, but this product is light, sweet and definitely not overpowering. A little goes a long way and I think it’s top of the class in this category. This recipe is adapted from one that appeared in Super Food Ideas using wholemeal flour. I like the taste of buckwheat much more and it’s more traditional for blini.

1 ¼ cups of buckwheat flour
1 sachet (8 grams) instant dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
200 g crème fraiche (at room temperature)
1 cup warm milk
3 eggs, separated
½ bunch of chives, snipped or finely chopped.

100g crème fraîche extra and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped dill.
1 x 200 g packet of Tetsuya’s Soft Smoked Petuna Ocean Trout

Mix the flour, yeast and sugar and make a well in the centre. Mix in the crème fraîche, milk and egg yolks and whisk to form a batter. Cover with cling wrap and set aside in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until the batter starts to bubbles on the surface and it has increased in volume by half. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the batter in two lots along with the chives. Heat a non stick pan with a little butter and drop small spoonfuls of the mixture into the pan, then flip over when one side is cooked.

Mix the remaining crème fraîche with the dill and top each blini with a spoonful, followed by a small piece of ocean trout. Serve with a grind of pepper and lemon wedges.