I celebrated a belated Maslenitsa last week. Maslenitsa, the Russian Orthodox version of Fat Tuesday, is famed for its pancake feasts. Now, by “celebrated,” I mean that I made and ate a bunch of pancakes. Religious holidays were taboo when I was growing up, and the little I know about this celebration comes from 19th century Russian lit.My pancakes were blini, the Russian version of crepes, which I’ve blogged about in the past. This time, I decided to forgo the usual sweet fillings for
savory rollups with cream cheese and smoked salmon.This sounds fancy, but it’s very simple. Fry up a bunch of blini as described in the linked recipe above. Spread with cream cheese—fluffy Philadelphia whipped cream cheese works best. Layer with thinly sliced smoked salmon. Roll up and eat.
For more on Maslenitsa, see this excellent blog written by an expat American woman who's raising two young daughters in Moscow.
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2 comments:
That is exactly the kind of religious holiday that I can get behind. And who says eating blini isn't enough to constitute a religious experience? There are some VERY tasty blini out there. :-)
Mmm. Sounds like a good holiday to me, too. I wanted to try my hand at blini for Shrove Tuesday, but it just didn't happen this year.
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