Smoked Salmon Blini with Creme Fraiche and Caviar

As many of you have probably already noticed, we're having some technical difficulties on the Sugarlaws site today.

And by technical difficulties, I mean that I accidentally posted three photos with no 1) recipe or 2) witty fun comments, which was obviously a mistake.  Unfortunately, it being Sunday night, I was sitting on the couch watching old episodes of House on my DVR for oh, say, two hours before I realized my mistake.

Which was just long enough for my feed burner to pick it up.

So, all 1100 of you subscribers got some weird email with some pictures of salmon and caviar, and no text.  My 500 or so twitter followers got a "New Recipe!" tweet that lacked, um, a new recipe.  

I get so excited as this blog gets bigger and bigger, but now I see the downside:  it's a bit more embarrassing when you make a mistake and thousands of people get notified instantaneously. 

But, I figure that if this is the worst mistake I make on this blog, I could be doing a lot worse.  So, without further adieu, and 24 hours later...

These salmon blinis are amazing!  This is the second time I've made them, and they're based off a Thomas Keller recipe, but adapted to be a little simpler and a little easier (trust me to find the shortcuts to Thomas Keller recipes).  I used red potatoes from our CSA, which is why the blinis are slightly pink-tinged, but I think it works with the salmon.  And the caviar (oh, the caviar) is surprisingly affordable -- my local fishmonger has jars for $15 and $20 dollars.  Not cheap, of course, but also not such a budget-breaking treat to have at home every once in a while.

Smoked Salmon Blini with Creme Fraiche and Caviar 

INGREDIENTS

1 large red potato potato, or other new potato, washed and peeled

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream

2 large eggs

Salt

1/4 pound Smoked salmon

1 small jar sturgeon caviar

DIRECTIONS

Microwave the potato in a shallow dish of water for 5-7 minutes on high heat, until a fork pierces it easily.

Put the potato in a food processor and add the heavy cream, flour, salt, and both eggs. Process until smooth and creamy -- when you touch your finger to it, the batter should form a soft peak and then melt back into itself.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over low heat. Spray the skillet with cooking spray, then spoon 1 tablespoon of batter onto the skillet for each pancake. Cook until the blini starts to set, like a pancake, about 3 minutes. Then flip them to cook the second side, about 1 minute. Let the cooked blini rest on a sheet of tin foil while you're making the rest -- they should be close to room temperature when you serve them.

Top each blini with a 1-inch square of smoked salmon, a small dollop of creme fraiche, and a tiny bit of caviar. Serve.

Makes about 12 blini.