Cheese Blintzes

by Sheila Connolly

A week ago I spent four days in New York City for a romance writers’ conference. I know—I write mysteries, but I started out trying to write romance, and now I’ve come back to it with a self-published paranormal romance series. I figured it was time to see what the opposition, er, our colleagues were up to now.

I won’t bore you with the details of a very large, very busy and very interesting convention. And I’ll admit up front, I wanted to go in part because it was held in New York, on Times Square. It’s a city with more restaurants than you could eat at in your life, assuming you ate out three meals a day. Or maybe four. You have Thai restaurants next to French bistros next to Cuban nightclubs next to Irish pubs. Yes, I found an Irish pub named Connolly’s and had dinner there, and a couple of pints.

But even the hotel food surpasses 97% of what I can get in my neighborhood. My last (sob) meal in the city, in the conference hotel, was breakfast at the hotel buffet, where I ate my first blintz. And then I went back for seconds. How was it I had never met these cuties before? They’re a bit time-consuming to assemble, but the ingredients are simple. Mostly they’re a thin crepe wrapped around a flavored ricotta filling, then sautéed in butter. The crepes and the filling can be made ahead, if you want to wow your guests at breakfast. (What, you never have guests at breakfast? Go ahead and eat them all yourself.)

Cheese Blintzes

Crepes

1 cup milk

1/4 cup cold water

2 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

Pinch salt

1 Tblsp sugar

3 Tblsp unsalted butter, melted

More butter for sautéeing the crepes

Combine the milk, water, eggs, flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Blend on medium speed for about 15 seconds, until the batter is smooth and there are no lumps. Scrape down the sides and pour in the melted butter. Blend again to mix.

Refrigerate the batter for an hour to let it rest.

Place a non-stick skillet over medium heat and brush with a little melted butter. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan and swirl to cover the bottom evenly.  Cook for 30-45 seconds, until the batter sets. Loosen the crepe from the pan, then flip and cook the other side for 30 seconds. (They will not be crisp—you want to be able to fold them.)

Slide the crepe onto a platter. Cover each one with a paper towel to keep them from drying out or sticking to each other. Repeat until all the batter is used up (this recipe made nine—if I’d made them a bit smaller I could have had a couple more).

Filling

1-1/2 cups ricotta cheese

4 oz cream cheese

3 Tblsp confectioner’s sugar

Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated

1 egg

In a food processor, combine the cheeses, the sugar, the lemon zest and the egg and blend until smooth. Chill to firm up a bit so it won’t squish out when you make the blintzes.

Forming the Blintzes

Lay a crepe in front of you and spoon 1/4 cup of the filling along the bottom third. Fold that edge away from you to just cover the filling. Fold the two sides in toward the center, then fold the top side down. Roll it around to make a package, ending with the seam side down.

Halfway there

In an oven-proof skillet over medium heat, brush on melted butter, and pan-fry the blintzes for 2 minutes per side, until they’re crisp and golden.

When they’re all sautéed, place the pan in a 400-degree preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes, to cook the filling through. Transfer to serving plates.

There are only eight here because one collapsed
in the making. I ate it.

You can serve these as is, or you can add a fruit sauce or fresh fruit of your choice (blueberries or a mix of blueberries and raspberries works well). I went with a lightly-cooked blueberry compote.

Yes, dear readers, I write romance--a paranormal romance series (available in multiple e-formats). The only mystery in them is why my heroine starts seeing her dead ancestors. Luckily her boyfriend does too. BTW, I borrow a lot of my Massachusetts ancestors for this series, but I haven't met any of them face to face. Yet.

New York Nuts for New Years (the candied kind) from Cleo Coyle

We were hit with a little snow
here in New York City...



No, this is not my car. 
If it were, I would opt for
public transportation until April.

Shovel, shovel, shovel....



Even the NYPD got stuck. Our street is one way.
This police van is going the other.

By the way, this photo was taken
12 hours after the storm ended.
City services? Hello! We do love the NYPD,
but snow removal experts they're not.
Send a snow plow, a salt truck, something!



Cleo Coyle, New York nut,
and author of the
Coffeehouse Mysteries

So while we're waiting for the plow to come, let's consider New York nuts. It's a fact. People do crazy things in New York—like stand outside for hours on December 31st to watch a big ball drop at midnight. I’ve done it. My husband’s done it. Almost everyone who lives in NYC has done it, and most of us have done it only once. Why? Because it’s nuts!



It’s nuts because you have to get to the location eight to ten hours early and wait in freezing cold temperatures until the clock strikes midnight. It's nuts because, post 9/11, you aren't allowed to bring a backpack, a bag, or even a bottle of champagne. It's nuts because a bathroom break is nearly impossible. If you leave Times Square to hit a public facility, you won't be allowed back in. (More tips for seeing the Times Square ball drop here.)

In case you were wondering (because I was), the Times Square tradition actually began back in 1904 as a Don Draper-style marketing ploy to showcase the newly erected New York Times Building. Before then, people traditionally gathered at Trinity Church at the corner of Wall Street and Broadway to sing songs and wait for the church bells to ring at midnight. That first Times Square celebration drew 200,000 people. The organizers provided fireworks but no ball. Finally, in 1907 the ball was added and, with the exception of some years during World War II, has continued to drop annually to this day when it draws a physical audience of one million and a global televised audience of one billion. (More here.)

OH, NUTS!

There is a foodie analogy here but not a happy one...

For some time now, my husband and I have heard raves about the "famous" bar nuts served at New York's Union Square Cafe. Okay, Nathan's hot dogs we've heard of. Egg creams, check. Black and White cookies, yes. Junior's Cheesecake, of course. But we never heard of these "famous" bar nuts before they were featured on the Food Network's My Favorite Things.


That Don Draper power of sell worked well on me. "Let's try the recipe and link to it!" I told my husband, Marc. (Click here to see the recipe but keep reading because I don't recommend it.) Marc and I read the recipe and trekked to the green grocer to buy the ingredients. We followed the directions exactly. Finally, we tasted them. Oh, nuts! Not good. Not good at all! Rosemary is a lovely spice. I use it often in my kitchen (see my recipe for Rack of Lamb with Rosemary and Lemon here). But in this recipe, the piney rosemary completely overwhelmed the flavor of our beautiful, fresh nuts. We also thought tossing the nuts in butter after they were toasted took away some of the crunch that we really think is essential to enjoying a nutty snack.


What to do?

Because I really wanted to blog a nutty snack recipe in honor of our New Year's nuts, I turned to another famous New York nut -- the candied variety. Here in the city, you'll find hot, freshly sugared nuts cooked right on local vendors' carts. David Lebovitz does a version here that will work with whole, round, raw nuts like peanuts or almonds. Today, I'm going to share my own quick and dirty version that works better for walnuts, pecans, cashews, and chopped hazelnuts (the kind of nuts that have nooks and crannies).

Finally, if you have a favorite nut recipe to share for New Year's Eve snack bowls, by all means tell me about it in the comments section or leave a link. (I just hope it doesn't include rosemary!)

Cleo Coyle's
New York Nuts

Ingredients

Any combination of...

Walnuts, pecans, cashews, and/or chopped hazelnuts (see my note)*

Butter (see below for amount)

Light brown sugar (ditto)

*Nuts not to use in this recipe: almonds, Brazil nuts, peanuts. The almonds are too bitter, the Brazil nuts too big, and the peanuts not a mild and sweet enough flavor to work well here.

Ratio: For ever 1 cup (in volume)* of nuts, use 1-1/2 Tablespoons of butter, and 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed. *(By weight: 4 ounces or about 100 grams)

Directions: Place nuts in warm skillet and toss over medium-high until nice and hot. Add butter and continue tossing to coat the nuts. Before butter is completely melted, add the light brown sugar. Continually stir the nuts and sugar in the skillet until the sugar melts. Pour the hot, candied nuts onto a baking sheet that's been covered in parchment paper. Scrape any remaining syrup over the nuts and spread evenly into one layer.  When the nuts have completely cooled and dried, break apart any large clumps and eat with joy!

An important question: Why not just melt the butter and sugar together in the skillet and then add the nuts? While this method will work, I find that working the undissolved sugar into the nooks and crannies of the walnuts, pecans, cashews, and/or chopped hazelnuts gives a much more delightful result. Also, warming the nuts in the hot pan will partially toast them, bringing out their flavor, as well.

Happy
New Year,
Everyone...

GO NUTS!

~ Cleo Coyle, author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries

To get more of my recipes, win free coffee,

or find out more about my books, visit me
 at my *virtual* coffeehouse:

CoffeehouseMystery.com



Click on the book covers above
to learn more about Cleo's culinary mysteries.