Cheese Blintzes

(From Jewish Cooking, Crescent Books)

Ingredients:

Batter:

1 cup flour

Pinch of salt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

2 tsp oil (sunflower oil is best)

Butter and oil for frying

Filling:

1-1/2 cups dry cottage cheese or other soft white cheese [half ricotta and half farmer=s cheese works well] mixed with 2 tbsp light cream or an egg yolk

1 tsp sugar

Pinch of salt

Combine flour and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine eggs, milk, water, and oil. Gradually add flour mixture, eliminating all lumps. Beat with a whisk until the surface is covered with tiny bubbles. Leave the batter for half an hour. Blend all the filling ingredients and leave until required.

To fry the pancakes, stir the batter well and pour into a jug. It should be the consistency of light cream. If too thick, add a further tablespoon of water. Use a 6-inch diameter omelet or crèpe pan with rounded sides (non-stick pans are easier). Put on medium heat for 3 minutes; then drop in a teaspoon of oil and swirl it around the base and sides of the pan. Wipe out any excess with paper towels, then again using paper towels, smear the entire inner surface of the pan very thinly with butter, then pour in a thick layer of batter, swirling it round so that it covers the sides as well as the base of the pan. The heat will immediately set a thin layer so that the excess can be poured back into the jug. By this means you will get a blintze so thin that by the time the sides of the pancake begin to curl from the pan, the bottom will be brown and the top side dry. Turn the pancake out onto a sheet of wax paper. Re-butter the pan and repeat the process until all the batter has been used. As each pancake stops steaming, stack one on top of the other, browned side up. At this stage pancakes can be frozen, refrigerated overnight, or stuffed.

To stuff the pancakes, place a pancake brown side up. Spread a tablespoon of filling thinly over the bottom half, turn in the sides and roll up into a long thin roll. Repeat with each pancake.

To serve - heat 1/4 cup butter and 2 teaspoons of oil in a wide frying pan. The moment the butter stops foaming, put in the blintzes, join side upwards. Cook gently for 3 minutes until golden brown, turn and cook the second side.

Makes 12 blintzes.