Kabocha Blini かぼちゃビリーニ

Recently, in keeping with the fall season, we got a whole Japanese “Kabocha” 南瓜 squash from Weee, I made the classic Japanese stewed kabocha かぼちゃの煮物 and potage かぼちゃのポタージュ.  Both dishes were great mainly because of the quality of the kabocha was extremely good—very tender (not dry and chalky) and slightly sweet. After some time, we had some of the potage left. My wife decided to make “Kabocha blini” from it. This turned out to be pretty good. It has a nice yellow color, moist inside crispy outside. The kabocha flavor is subtle but it’s there. This is a good blini variation.

Ingredients: makes 12 blini
2 cups kabocha puree (or in this case thick soup/potage)
6 tbs melted butter
3/4 cup cream
6 large eggs, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup + 4 Tbs. cake flour
1 Tbs + 1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
may need additional liquid to bring the batter to the consistency of pancake batter.

Directions:
In a bowl add the kabocha puree, melted butter, cream and eggs. Stir until well blended. Then add the flours, baking powder, and salt and whisk until well blended. (You may need to add some additional liquid so the batter is the consistency of pancake batter.)

Melt 1 Tbs. butter. In a cast iron platar, brush some of the melted butter to grease each of the platar cups before adding the batter. Pour the batter into the cups until they are full using the largest ice cream scoop. Cook over moderately low heat, turning once, until set, about 5 minutes or more per side. Repeat with the remaining butter and batter.

These were remarkably good. They had a tender texture, were slightly sweet and had a lovely subtle kabocha flavor. They tasted great toasted and topped with butter. This just proves the possibilities for blinis are limitless.