National Geographic Traveller (UK) - Food

Syrniki pancakes with summer berry salad & chocolate buckwheat

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Made with curd cheese, Syrniki are pancakes that are eaten in many guises across the

Baltic states. They’re often served for breakfast, topped with sour cream and berries, but once I’d eaten them with chocolate buckwheat, there was no going back. The trick to making them truly fluffy, I find, is to use an extra-soft, fine flour — although if none is available, plain flour will also be fine. You can buy kasza gryczana (roasted buckwheat) and twaróg (a traditiona­l white cheese) from Polish food shops.

SERVES 4 TAKES: 25 MINS

INGREDIENT­S

300g twaróg or curd cheese

2 eggs, lightly beaten

¼ tsp salt

4 tbsp ‘00’ pasta flour or plain flour 2 tbsp caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract rapeseed oil, for frying sour cream or crème fraîche, to serve 200g mixed berries, such as blackberri­es,

raspberrie­s and quartered strawberri­es handful of torn mint leaves marigold flowers (optional)

FOR THE CHOCOLATE BUCKWHEAT

2 tbsp roasted buckwheat 15g butter

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp cacao powder

METHOD

To make the summer berry salad, combine the berries with the mint leaves. If you’re using marigold flowers, pull off some of the petals and mix them into the salad, saving a few whole flowers for decoration. Set aside.

To make the syrniki mixture, add the twaróg, eggs and salt to a large bowl and mash together with a fork. Add half of the flour and all the sugar and vanilla extract and continue mashing until the ingredient­s are well combined (if you’re using twaróg, the mixture will retain some texture). Cover and leave to chill in the fridge.

Meanwhile, make the chocolate buckwheat. Pour around 2 tbsp rapeseed oil into a heavybased frying pan set over a medium heat. Add the buckwheat and cook, stirring, for 2 mins until it smells nutty and has turned a shade darker. Melt the butter with the honey in a saucepan set over a medium heat, then stir in the cacao powder. Scoop out the buckwheat from the frying pan, drain on paper towel and tip into a heatproof bowl. Pour the honey mix on top and stir well, then set aside to cool.

Heat oven to 110C, 90C fan, gas ¼. Scatter the remaining flour over a plate. Mould tablespoon­fuls of the syrniki mix into balls and roll them in the flour. Heat another couple of tablespoon­s of rapeseed oil in a large, nonstick frying pan set over a medium heat, ensuring the bottom of the pan is covered with a thin film of oil. Working in batches, fry for 3-4 mins on each side until golden-brown, flattening them slightly as you do so (they’ll also spread as they cook). Drain on paper towel, then keep warm in the oven as you cook the rest.

Serve with the chocolate buckwheat, sour cream and summer berry salad. Decorate with the reserved marigold flowers, if using.

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