How to cook mind-blowing Russian bliny with minced meat (RECIPE)

Bliny are known as one of the main traditional Russian dishes. There are many variations: sweet, salty, with topping, crepe cakes or pies, crepe-rolls. All can be served with all kinds of dressings from sour cream and honey to caviar. 

Stuffed bliny were always something special for me. There are two types in our family: sweet with vanilla quark and savory with minced meat. From childhood, I remember them as a special festive dish.  

To my surprise, when I spoke about crepe wraps to my mother, I learned that the dish had a different concept in Soviet times and, probably, before then. It was made of leftovers. In fact, at the end of Maslenitsa, the week when people eat bliny and pancakes every day, some bliny were left over. To eat them the next day was quite boring. That's why some culinary tricks were applied. My granny and mother used to cook meat stock for soup, remove the meat, mince it and use it as a bliny filling. All the flavors from the stock passed to the meat, making it tastier. 

Since I mastered all these aspects of stuffed bliny, I developed my own methods. First, I always make thin and flexible bliny, so that it is easier to wrap the filling. Boiled water in the dough helps to achieve this effect. Second, I moisten the filling using fried onions and a fatty part of ham, which makes it extra juicy. We usually serve stuffed meat bliny with sour cream to add a fresh accent to the dish. My family enjoys mind-blowing flavors of bliny and smoked ham while it is cold outside. 

Ingredients:

Dough:

• Milk - 350 ml
• Flour - 220 g
• Boiling water - 100 ml
• Egg - 1 pc
• Sugar - 2 tbsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Sunflower oil (refined) - 2 tbsp 

Filling:

• Minced meat - 400 g
• Onion - 1 pc
• Fat (smoked) ham - 70-100 g
• Garlic
• Black pepper
• Salt
• Spices
• Oil

 Preparation: 

1. Mix milk, an egg, sugar, salt in a deep bowl.

2. Sift the flour inside the bowl.

3. Let the dough sit while you prepare the filling.

4. Chop the onion in small cubes, fry it till soft and golden.

5. Add minced meat and fry till the meat is done.

6. To get a tender filling, mince this meat and onions together with ham in a processor. Add spices and one clove of squashed garlic and fry again in the pan for 2 minutes.

7. Add boiling water and oil to the dough.

8. Fry bliny on a hot pan, using a bit of oil.

9. Wrap the filling inside the bliny, forming small envelopes. They’re not ready yet.

10. Use the same pan to fry these. You can add some pieces of ham as well.

11. Now, your bliny stuffed with meat are ready!

12. Enjoy!

READ MORE: Shrovetide indulgence with babushka’s tvorog blini