A petite, slender girl with a tomboy personality, little Sophie was growing up in a highly aristocratic, but dirt poor family. Parents largely neglected her while grooming her brothers to become royalty (both brothers became Kings of Sweden, one after another). Her life changed overnight, when two powerful monarchs and a French adventurer cast a net throughout Europe, choosing a bride for the heir to the Russian throne. Count Jean Armand de L’Estocq kept getting in trouble and ending up in jail for having “affairs d’amour” (love affairs) with unavailable ladies, so to speak. Fortunately, he had friends in very high places. Madame de Bourbon, daughter of Louis XIV of France and marquise de Montespan, a powerful and intimate friend, pulled him out of French jail and got him a position of a court physician in Russia. Wouldn’t you know, he promptly got into the same hot water and again ended up behind bars, by order of Peter the Great himself. However, after Peter’s death, the royal widow, Empress Catherine I, promptly freed her favorite doctor and restored him to his former position. A seasoned seducer became fast friends with Princess Elizaveta, the future Empress, and continued having tremendous influence on her during her reign. He was the one who focused Elizaveta’s attention on Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, the little provincial princess, with no money and little beauty, but a peerless pedigree. He also sold this deal to Frederick II of Prussia. Sophie, accompanied by her mother, arrived to the Russian Imperial Court to audition for the part.
Actually, this was not the first time fifteen-year-old Sophie and sixteen-year-old Karl Peter, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, met each other. She had been introduced to the Heir five years ago, when they were ten and eleven, respectively, and, as she wrote in her diary, found him “detestable.” Oh, but now the situation was different! The clever teenager, having decided “to do whatever was necessary, and to profess to believe whatever was required of her, to become qualified to wear the crown,” as she wrote in her memoirs, went out of her way to become Empress Elizaveta’s favorite and to “out-Russian” the Russians in all Russian ways. She was received by Russian Orthodox Church under the new name Ekaterina, or Catherine. Tutored by Count Lestocq, as he was known in Russia, she became adept in other ways as well. Unfortunately, the only person who detested her as much as she detested him was her husband, the future Emperor Peter III. It is said that none of her children were fathered by him. Certainly, he denied paternity of his heir, the future Emperor Paul I. It is estimated that during her long reign she had twenty two lovers.
Undoubtedly a great monarch, renown as “the enlightened sovereign,” a patroness of arts and culture, a reformer of public education “for both sexes” who opened the first in Europe institution of higher learning for girls (the Smolny Institute) and corresponded with Voltaire, Catherine felt free to choose young lovers whom she promoted and enriched at dismissal. In turn, they remained loyal to her throughout her entire life. No wonder her private life is surrounded by all kinds of rumors. Was she involved with her favorite Grigory Orlov and his brothers in a conspiracy to kill her husband Peter? Maybe, or maybe not. Was she a nymphomaniac? By today’s standards, not at all. Even by the standards of her times, any male monarch would have mistresses by the dozen parading through his bedroom – it was expected. But a woman is accused not only of promiscuity, but of bestiality! No, Catherine the Great was not killed by a stallion while having a romantic relationship with him! And no, contrary to Elvis, she did not die on the toilet. She suffered a stroke while in her bathroom, was carried to her room, and expired in her own bed.
A tomboy to the end, she was a woman of simple tastes in food. She liked boiled beef with pickles and cutlets made of minced game meat (http://rbth.com/arts/2014/07/09/monarchs_menu_feasts_fit_for_russian_tsars_and_emperors_38051.html). While she preferred meat, her efforts to be completely russified became second nature. The Empress loved Russian blini, and not simple blini of which there is a huge variety, but the famous Tsar Blini. I found the original recipe in an old Saint Petersburg cook book. Imagine:
- 1 cup best flour
- 4 cups cream 30% fat
- 2 cups butter
- 10 eggs
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
Now, scroll back up and look at the portrait of Catherine the Great in her 50’s. No wonder she gained a little weight! And nobody dared to put the Empress on a diet…
Since my husband could also benefit from a diet while enjoying these dainty, airy creations, I used my “best flour” – organic white spelt flour. If you have a celiac disorder or an allergy to gluten, it could be easily replaced by gluten free flour. Instead of 30% fat cream (scary!), I used soy prostokvasha (for recipe, please click here). Instead of refined sugar, I used agave, and just added some vanilla extract for flavor and baking powder for extra fluff. But what about those 10 eggs?
Aquafaba (liquid left from cooking chickpeas) has worked for me before, and it worked in this case, too! I whipped it real well, then introduced the rest of the ingredients, and fried on medium hot, barely misted with oil frying pan.
A word of caution: these blini are so fragile that you shouldn’t even try to pick them up with a spatula. You need to fry them on both sides, so flip them onto a plate and slide them back onto the frying pan, one by one. When done, slide them onto the serving plate.
Here is my husband enjoying a healthy and dietetic brunch, fit for Tsars. Just like Catherine the Great, he has filled his blini with a fruit puree, in this case, my sugar free blueberry sauce. Blinis are finger food, even the fancy royal Tsar Blini, so become an Emperor or Empress for a day and dig in!
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup white spelt or gluten free flour
- 1 cup non-dairy prostokvasha (clabbered milk)
- 1 cup aquafaba
- 1/2 cup agave
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
PROCEDURE
- Add a pinch of salt to aquafaba, whip to stiff foam. Add the rest of ingredients, mix gently but thoroughly.
- Preheat small frying pan to medium, mist with oil, fry for 2 minutes. Flip onto a plate, slide back into frying pan, fry for 2 minutes or until golden brown.
- Slide onto serving plate, serve with fruit jam or sauce, garnish with fruit or berries.
Enjoy!
Your posts are so entertaining and I always learn something. Thanks for altering this recipe for those of us who are unable to eat the original.
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Thank you so much for your kind words, dear Ali!
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Dolly, how in the world did this even hold together with all this
“4 cups cream 30% fat
2 cups butter
10 eggs” and only 1 cup of flour????? I can imagine it tastes royally rich!!
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In the cook book it says to stir 2 cups of cream with flour and simmer until thick., then add butter and simmer some more. Then whip eggs with sugar, add the remaining 2 cups of cream, and mix this horror together. It makes me sick just to think of it!
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lol
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Dolly
Your quest for the history of recipes is amazing and commendable. Thank you for doing that.
The recipe seems like a Russian pancake to me. I am glad you diluted the recipe to suit the modern palate.
Susie
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Dear Susie, all blinis ARE Russian pancakes, even the yeast-based ones. Thank you for your kind comment!
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Stories, stories, stories. I love them. You are a wonderful storyteller. I smiled as I imagined the many lovers and rumours surrounding Sophie aka Catherine. She lived her life to the fullest, it seems. I tasted blinis once at a small Russian eatery in Delhi and I was sold on them. I would love to try these out.
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Thank you so much, dear! You are very kind! Let me know how they come out, please.
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I shall. I really mean that about the book 🙂
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I know you do, thank you, dear!
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You come up with the most interesting stories….and food!!!! I have never heard of clabbered milk…what is aquafaba?
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The link to clabbered milk is in the post. It is even healthier than yogurt and very easy to make at home. Aquafaba is the liquid left when you cook chickpeas or, alternatively, open a can. It whips into a foam, almost like eggs, but it has no fat or cholesterol and quite a few of important nutrients.
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You never seize to amaze me Dolly with your wonderful stories. Thank you.
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Thank you, dear Myra!
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What an interesting story… I am just embarking on kosher etc… My father was Jewish.. I am messianic. … Nd most greatful for your posts:)
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Thank you so much for your kind comment! If I can help in any way, please don’t hesitate to ask, and if you don’t want to ask in a public forum, feel free to e-mail me. Blessings to you and yours!
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Wow! Dolly, I have always loved your art of story telling and how efficiently you manage to link your story to the recipe.Its definitely a talent and I admire it.
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Thank you so much, dear Anuradha, you are so kind!
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Thank you Dolly for another amazing post 👏. Let me quote my husband, whom I read it to, when I reached the part about your husband’s need to diet “It’s always the husband who gets it in the end…”. 😅
I listened to the story of Catherine the Great on the BBC a couple of months ago; well, let me tell you, I am sending them an email telling them to hire you for future historical episodes!
I thought blinis were only salty, but I was apparently wrong. Someone once told me the plural of “blini” is “blins”. Is that right?
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In English, plural nouns are made by adding -s, which will make it “blins.” In Russian, though, plural of “blin” is “blini.” Since it’s highly unlikely that anyone would eat just one, in all Russian cookbooks the blini recipes are called “Blini” in plural, including “The Tsar Blini.” Incidentally, you might be interested to know that the original recipe was renamed after the revolution, to eliminate “Tsar,” and in the later cookbooks it is called “Bisquite blini.” To make that incredibly rich concoction with very little flour stick together, they simmered flour with cream and then also added butter, almost like you would make eclairs, and then added the rest of the ingredients and fried the blini. This method made them double-cooked, i.e. “bisquite.”
Your husband has a nice sense of humor! 🙂 As to BBC, I am afraid I speak with the wrong accent, but thank you for your kind recommendation!
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Looking at her late portrait, I’m sure Catherine couldn’t be content with only one blin!!!
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LOL Exactly! Neither was my husband…
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Correction: it’s one “blin” and several “blini”. Let me know if I got it wrong!
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You got it right, but nobody eats just one, so they are always discussed in plural.
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These blini looks very good, Dolly 😀
I will try them out and I will exchange the soy for almond milk instead. This use to function in most recipes for me.
Interesting story.
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Thank you so much, dear Irene! I have never made prostokvasha with almond milk, but I have with coconut milk, and it comes out great. You have to use coconut cream or yogurt first, to make a starter, though.
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I always love your stories – enlightening as well as entertaining – but you have finally mentioned aquafaba often enough that I am inspired to give it a try. Any tips about what foods in which is works well as an egg substitute and where not to even try it? (besides scrambled, of course) 🙂
xx,
mgh
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That’s a million dollar question! I am still in the experimenting stage, so all I can say is so far, in everything I have tried it and posted it worked well. Beyond that, I don’t know – sorry!
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It was worth a try. I guess I’ll just have to keep following and repeat your experiments. 🙂
xx,
mgh
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Good idea on the safe side.
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I’m not sure what is better: the story or the recipe! I like fat but as I’m a vegan I do appreciate the alternatives in your recipe (will I dare to make these? they seem too fragile for my heavy-handed cooking). And the story is so great that you could be an editor of a gossip magazine about long dead ‘celebrities’. I love the post 🙂
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That’s a brilliant idea! If I didn’t despise gossip magazines, I’d probably consider starting a dead-celebrities one online. These blini are pretty fragile, but remember the Russian saying, “The first blin is always is mess”? Just do it – what have you got to lose?
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To be honest, it’s thanks to you and your stories that I have finally understood the concept of gossip magazines. I would probably start reading them if they were all about dead tsars, princesses and poor but smart young men and women who bend their fate so that it serves them…
I think I’ll have a go at the blini 😉 I’ll eat them anyway, pretty or not 🙂
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I am not sure whether I should take is as a compliment, but I’ll be bold and take it!
Good luck with the blini, and don’t worry about the looks; enjoy the taste!
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My interest in aquafaba is growing with each one of your post. The blini looks good. i make something similar with gram flour with no egg.
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But if you have no egg and no aquafaba, what gives you the foamy texture?
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I am still a tomboy and I definitely need to lose weight so I feel absolutely royal after reading this! The blini look so delicious! I’m going to try them but I’ll make Pete come help! He can flip them in the pan (or should we not do that because of the delicacy of the blini?).
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I am with you on both counts (my doctor read me the riot act yesterday), but you definitely don’t flip them – they are very fragile. Slide them onto a plate gently, then flip them from the plate back onto the pan.
Enjoy!
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After I sent the comment about flipping I realized there’s no way I should if you suggested sliding them on a plate. I want to make these Sunday morning for a very special breakfast!
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Well, flipping is what we do all the time, with or without blini, but I am a curious cat: what’s special about this Sunday morning?
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Nothing. I just thought it would be nice to have a special breakfast and the blini really are special!
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It’s always nice to have a special breakfast! I make a special brunch every Sunday.
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Sundays in usually recovering from making family dinner or making it. But I can’t resist those blini!
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Enjoy them!
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What a fascinating history lesson! And I learned something new about cooking–aquafaba (new word for me) as a replacement for eggs!
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Thank you so much for your kind words! Yes, we learn something new every day; I my self only started experimenting with it a couple of months ago, and I love it.
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Very interesting history and goes so well with great, interesting eats. Funny how Celiac/gluten has never (as I know of) been a problem as. today. Hmm!
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Many problems have not been recognized until very recently, and many problems probably did not exist until recently. I don’t know whether celiac /gluten belongs to the first pr the second category, but it is definitely a very real issue.
Thank you so much for your kind comment!
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These look really delicious!
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Thank you so much – I am glad you like them!
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Can you imagine if wordpress had a button to smell what others bake?
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Give it a few more years, and someone will invent it, I am sure!
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You are obviously an excellent wife, as well as an excellent cook! Actually, these blini sound alot like my Hungarian grandmother’s palacsinta. Wishing you and yours a Happy Passover! ❤
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I don’t know about being an excellent wife, but thank you so much for your sweet comment! Actually, I have a Placinda post (that’s how it’s called in Yiddish), but we make it differently. If you are curious, here it is: https://koolkosherkitchen.wordpress.com/2016/11/24/placinda-flaky-pumpkin-pie/
Thank you for your warm and wonderful wishes!
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How interesting–I just had someone email me yesterday asking whether I was familiar with aquafaba, which I wasn’t! The recipe she was asking about was using the liquid from commercially canned chickpeas, which wasn’t making sense to me because I think those are cooked, drained, and then packed in a saltwater brine. But perhaps I’m wrong. Are you cooking dried chickpeas and using the aquafaba from that?
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Yes, I use aquafaba left from cooking dry chickpeas; however, I’ve seen many recipes that list liquid from cans. I prefer not to use cans so when I started experimenting with aquafaba, I tried using the liquid left from cooking, and it worked.
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Sounds great! I’m with you on the canned beans. I’ll certainly give it a try and pass along the info–and the link to your delicious looking recipe. Now if only I could get my hands on some decent caviar–I haven’t had any since I lived in St. Petersburg more than a decade ago, and it’s my favorite for blini!
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Dear Julie, thank you so much for your kind comment! As I understand, you are traveling in the U.S. quite a bit. Any large metropolitan city has at least one, if not several, Russian deli where you find an assortment of the best caviars – and I am with you on that, I also love it!
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Thanks for the tip! I’m living in NW Montana now, and the nearest big city is Calgary, but I’ll definitely put it on my shopping list for city trips.
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Here is a link for caviar-by-mail-order. The prices are very reasonable, less than we pay in store, and the brands are very good.
https://www.red-caviar.com
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Thanks, Dolly! I’ll put it to use.
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Enjoy!
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I’ll certainly give it a try and pass along the info–and the link to your delicious looking recipe. Actually, I have a Placinda post (that’s how it’s called in Yiddish), but we make it differently.
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Thank you for your kind comment, Mary. Yes, that’s how we called it in Yiddish, and I would love to see your post, but can’t find it on your site. Can you send me a link? Thank you!
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Reblogged this on koolkosherkitchen and commented:
With help of Catherine the Great, let me make my humble contribution to the International Pancake Day. Enjoy, Beuatiful People!
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Lots of wry wit in this story, Dolly. I liked the tongue in cheek ‘so to speak’ re ‘unavailable ladies’
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Thank you so much, Derrick. I truly appreciate your comment re: “wry wit,” as I am convinced that, although wit comes with Odessa blood, wry wit is the British prerogative.
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🙂
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My grandmother cut this kind of blini in small squares to prevent any damage and inconvenience to take them, then put them in the special pot, added plenty of butter and then placed all that stuff in Russian stove. I can remember that unforgettable taste even now after 60 years have passed.
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Ahhh, the Russian stove – “pechka”! We had one, with blue on white tiles and wrought-iron grate. My grandmother put beef stew there for the next day.
Thank you so much for a wonderful comments, dear Alexander!
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Sweet dreams and memories are helping to see to the future with optimism.
I am enjoying to read your posts and the recipes. The only complain – it is impossible to read them while hungry😋
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You are so right about the connections of memories and future!
I thank you for a lovely compliment, Alexander!
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Great interpretation of Blini! However, I avoid ANY wheat/rye flour, not because of gluten, but because of Flour itself. Grains when milled till flour (powder) are things to avoid at any cost
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Thank you for stopping by, Alan. I have two questions: first, why should grains milled into flour be avoided? and second, what about oat, almond, soy, etc. flour?
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Thank you for great questions! It would be too inresponsible to answer just in a few sentences. Im thinking now to write about it on my blog, but it needs time for research and writing itself. If just giving a very simple answers, so, any grains were not created by Nature in a flour form, it is in fact nano particles, these are complicated to pass through a body and stick anywhere, clogging a body for years. Flour is a great mucus former (read prof. Arnold Ehret). Second question: those other flours like oat, almond still are flours and stop longer in a body than normal, therefore-eat ocassionally. Question to question: do you soak almond, then dry it properly, then mill into flour? Probably not. All grains and nuts have phitic acid which is another trigger and should be avoided in food in a long perspective. Well, if taking things easy-everithing is ok, if looking for well-being and pleasant longevity without chronic diseases – than these two aspects are important
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Thank you so much for such a comprehensive explanation, Alan. I truly appreciate this imformation. I do not make almond flour but buy organic one, yet I do not know how they mill it. Thanks to you, I will now research.
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Another great posting! Thank you so much, Dolly! If i remember right, Blini’s are now something like fashion food, but i dont know if these Blini’s are the same. Your’s are fantastic, and with such tradition its a pleasure getting a little bit Russian flair into the house.
You know, our region always had fear beeing overtaken by Russia. Lol
The best: With the Americans they also dont wanted to get closer. 😉 Michael
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I didn’t know about blini being in fashion now, and there are many different ways of making them. I do know about the fear of Russian invasion in your region, of course, but I hope it doesn’t include Russian food. LOL
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Those pancakes look delicious..crispy round the edges….lovely and boiled beef and pickles I could eat that now one of my all time favourites 🙂 xx
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Thank you so much, darling; I am so glad you like it!
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