Curd Cheese Pancakes (Syrniki)
When you make fresh curd cheese every week, you inevitably wind up having some left over, more than you want, and it sits in the fridge staring balefully at you. This is fresh stuff, and in my experience only lasts 7 or 8 days before it starts to dry out and go rancid. So you need a couple of good recipes that use it in bulk quantities to cut the going-off process at the pass. And this is my favourite! I generally cook it on a Sunday morning, especially if i am waiting to have brunch at home. These are the lightest, fluffiest, most satisfying pancakes i have ever encountered. And easy to make.
I originally found the recipe on an American site for ex-pats from one of the Russian republiks. How did you wind up there, you say? Well, somewhere in the back of my mind, i had the idea that these were eastern European in origin. Which i guess makes sense in that home produced curd cheese is an eastern European thing. Anyway, i took the recipe, adapted it a bit and the result is below. After cooking them regularly for over a year, i encountered a really nice food blog from Israel, called Food Bridge, by Sarah Melamed, with a recipe for Syrniki in it that matches mine pretty close. I use one more egg, but hey, what's an egg amongst food bloggers!
I originally found the recipe on an American site for ex-pats from one of the Russian republiks. How did you wind up there, you say? Well, somewhere in the back of my mind, i had the idea that these were eastern European in origin. Which i guess makes sense in that home produced curd cheese is an eastern European thing. Anyway, i took the recipe, adapted it a bit and the result is below. After cooking them regularly for over a year, i encountered a really nice food blog from Israel, called Food Bridge, by Sarah Melamed, with a recipe for Syrniki in it that matches mine pretty close. I use one more egg, but hey, what's an egg amongst food bloggers!
Syrniki
This recipe couldn't be easier.
Ingredients
1 1/2 Cups Curd cheese (i know this isn't by weight, but my curd cheese is a bit wetter or drier every time and i find using volume measure for this recipe works out better)
3 eggs
Splash of real vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon sugar (or a glug of maple syrup!)
4 - 6 Tbls white flour
pinch salt
1 Tbls Baking Powder
Juice of half a lemon
1 - 3 Tbls milk (optional)
I just pop the curd cheese into the kitchen machine along with the eggs and start mixing. Mix fairly vigorously until it acquires a smooth texture. Add the sugar (or maple syrup), vanilla, salt, and the flour whilst still mixing. While it is mixing, take a cup and put the baking power in it, then squeeze the lemon juice onto the powder so it puffs up.
Before you add the baking power/lemon solution, check the consistency of your batter. It probably will be too thick -- at least mine usually is.... To thin it just a little i add the milk (not very much!) and mix it in. Then you can add the baking powder.
Mix the lemon/baking powder together gently so all the powder gets wet and froths up. Then gently mix this into the batter. Let it sit for half an hour (if you can wait). Then fry in a lightly buttered fry pan.
Warning! These syrniki are very soft and fragile! Make them smaller rather than larger or you will find that they fall apart when you try to flip them in the pan. I keep them warm in the oven whilst i cook through the whole batter (they are nice cold the next day in your lunch at work, too....). You can see the results in my pictures - not the most symmetrical. Sometimes they hold together better than others, and i haven't figured out why yet. When i do, i'll be sure to post it.
Sometimes i don't have 1 1/2 cups of curd cheese left. When that happens i simply adjust the recipe accordingly -- 1 C curd cheese, 2 eggs, 2 -4 tbl flour, etc. I have even done it with 1/2 C cheese on occasion! You just have to pay attention to the consistency and it will work out fine.
I serve them with sliced fruit (sliced flat so that i can spear them with my fork on top of a piece of pancake), maple syrup, and Turkish yoghurt. And if i am feeling really decadent, i will cook some artisanal bacon to go with them (maple syrup and bacon is a combination made in heaven!). Mind, only artisanal bacon will do. That commercial stuff they sell, pumped full of water and nitrates -- well, i think you're just as well without it.
That said, there is no reason you couldn't serve these with savoury toppings like cheese sauce and veggies. Or topped with nice ham and thin shaved aged Emmental or Gouda and briefly toasted under a grill to make your own unique version of Crepes Lorraine.
Either way you choose, you are virtuously using up the left over curd cheese you made (you did try the recipe, didn't you? ;>), And creating a feast for family and friends. Enjoy!
This recipe couldn't be easier.
Ingredients
1 1/2 Cups Curd cheese (i know this isn't by weight, but my curd cheese is a bit wetter or drier every time and i find using volume measure for this recipe works out better)
3 eggs
Splash of real vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon sugar (or a glug of maple syrup!)
4 - 6 Tbls white flour
pinch salt
1 Tbls Baking Powder
Juice of half a lemon
1 - 3 Tbls milk (optional)
I just pop the curd cheese into the kitchen machine along with the eggs and start mixing. Mix fairly vigorously until it acquires a smooth texture. Add the sugar (or maple syrup), vanilla, salt, and the flour whilst still mixing. While it is mixing, take a cup and put the baking power in it, then squeeze the lemon juice onto the powder so it puffs up.
Before you add the baking power/lemon solution, check the consistency of your batter. It probably will be too thick -- at least mine usually is.... To thin it just a little i add the milk (not very much!) and mix it in. Then you can add the baking powder.
Mix the lemon/baking powder together gently so all the powder gets wet and froths up. Then gently mix this into the batter. Let it sit for half an hour (if you can wait). Then fry in a lightly buttered fry pan.
Warning! These syrniki are very soft and fragile! Make them smaller rather than larger or you will find that they fall apart when you try to flip them in the pan. I keep them warm in the oven whilst i cook through the whole batter (they are nice cold the next day in your lunch at work, too....). You can see the results in my pictures - not the most symmetrical. Sometimes they hold together better than others, and i haven't figured out why yet. When i do, i'll be sure to post it.
Sometimes i don't have 1 1/2 cups of curd cheese left. When that happens i simply adjust the recipe accordingly -- 1 C curd cheese, 2 eggs, 2 -4 tbl flour, etc. I have even done it with 1/2 C cheese on occasion! You just have to pay attention to the consistency and it will work out fine.
I serve them with sliced fruit (sliced flat so that i can spear them with my fork on top of a piece of pancake), maple syrup, and Turkish yoghurt. And if i am feeling really decadent, i will cook some artisanal bacon to go with them (maple syrup and bacon is a combination made in heaven!). Mind, only artisanal bacon will do. That commercial stuff they sell, pumped full of water and nitrates -- well, i think you're just as well without it.
That said, there is no reason you couldn't serve these with savoury toppings like cheese sauce and veggies. Or topped with nice ham and thin shaved aged Emmental or Gouda and briefly toasted under a grill to make your own unique version of Crepes Lorraine.
Either way you choose, you are virtuously using up the left over curd cheese you made (you did try the recipe, didn't you? ;>), And creating a feast for family and friends. Enjoy!
