Turning native

This week has had a lot of activity, but this post is going to be all about our morning of Ukrainian cooking. Our friend, Maya, invited us over on Wednesday morning to make блины (my spelling might be a smidge off). You pronounce it "blen-nee", and the basic idea is that of a crepe. Ukrainians eat all kinds of things inside of блины: meat, a cream cheese mixture, fruit...you name it. Our task: cream cheese блины with chocolate sauce to drizzle over the top. Here goes!

Ingredients for блины :
*Please note that Maya does not measure.
1 Maya
1.5(ish) cups flour
1 egg
.5(ish) t. salt
1 tbsp(ish) sugar
1(ish) cup boiling water
3/4-1(ish) cup milk
2-3(ish) tbsp oil
skillet (Maya's is cast-ironish)
3 ready-to-learn Americans

Salt

Sugar. Let me correct the previously-stated measurement: HEAPING tbsp.

Boiling water. Ukrainians tend to use a hot pot/ electronic kettle. I have to say that I'm pretty in love with mine. I'll miss it.

Milk. That's right: it comes in bags.

Trying the mixture.

Ok, heat the oil in the pan for just a bit until it's a little bubbly. Then, pour it into the batter.

This is where you test your skill! Once the skillet is hot, you need to hold it so that you can maneuver the pan around in circles. Drizzle approx. 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and begin rotating the pan in circles so that the batter covers the bottom. It needs to be pretty thin.

This is me circling the pan. Rachel took an action shot. Thanks, Rach!

Waiting on one to cook.

This part is just like cooking pancakes: flip it with a spatula when the first side is cooked. It should look something like this.

Hannah bravely went first. Her flip didn't go quite as planned. This was the result. It tasted good, though.

Ingredients for cream cheese filling:
a Ukrainian block of cream cheese (I'm guessing about 8 oz(ish)
about 1/4 cup of сметана (sour cream...Ukrainian staple)
vanilla (Maya used a packet of vanilla sugar. I'm not 100% sure how that translates into extract. Any suggestions?)
Mix well.

Cream cheese and sour cream.

Vanilla.

This is our finished product! To finish up: put a dollop of the cream cheese mixture on the edge of one of the crepes. Then, if you've ever been to Moe's, roll it like a burrito! Fold the edge over the dollop. Then, fold the sides in. After that, just roll it all the way to the other edge. Presto.

Ingredients for chocolate sauce:
sauce pan
2-3(ish) tbsp of cocoa
2(ish) tbsp of sugar
*Rachel and I added a few pinches of salt when no one was looking.
2-3(ish) tbsp of sour cream
Mix well and heat over stove until melted.

Yep...sour cream comes in a bag, too.

If you've made it this far in the post, I'm congratulating you! If you become brave enough to try making it, PLEASE let me know how it goes for you!