Buckwheat Bilinis

It’s Thursday and we are having friends over tonight to watch a movie – it’s a lovely way to spend an evening on a chilly January day – Anyhow, dinner and a movie takes a bit too long on a working day so I just make some snacks to have with some Cava and a quick gossip before having to shut up for a couple of hours.  I won’t say tapas, as my offerings are not Spanish – hummus with crudités, some goats cheese, spring onion and red pepper on some ready made thin rounds of Brick pastry – I nicked it from Delia’s TV ad – it’s a bit like filo but you don’t have to do anything to it – just top it like you would a pizza but a bit more delicately.  I made some with Jamon and gruyere as well. I found it in a supermarket in Almeria amazingly but I know Waitrose sell it.   I thought I should make at least one thing from scratch and I love tiny little pancakes that you can just pop in your mouth – you can put pretty much anything you like on them, but smoked salmon and thick Greek yoghurt goes very well – I forgot the salmon egg to finish with, but they were still pretty good.  These freeze brilliantly too so make them when you have time and just take them out an hour in advance to defrost slightly, put them on a baking tray and put in an oven at 190 for 5 minutes to make them crisp again.  Cool on a rack and top half an hour before serving.

For about 20 you will need

100 g buckwheat flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, separated

100 ml milk

To top

Smoked salmon

Sour cream or Greek yoghurt

Salmon eggs or chives

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl and make a well.  Beat the egg yolk and milk and then add to the flour.  Mix together to form a batter.  Whisk up the egg white to form peaks and fold into your batter.  Heat a medium sized non stick frying pan and brush with a little olive oil.  This is the fun bit.  Drop teaspoons of the batter into the pan – have a bit of a practice as you want them to be small and not too thick, but of course they don’t need to be uniform – people will know they are home made!

Cook for a couple of minutes and then flip over – I find a round ended knife is perfect for this – a fish slice is too big – cook for another minute or two and slide batches of 5 or 6 onto a wire rack, brush on a little more oil and continue until you have used all the batter.  I make double the amount normally and freeze half for the next time I want canapés.

Top with the smoked salmon and sour cream, or cream cheese and salmon eggs or whatever you fancy. It is worth the effort.