Adapted from the kitchen of Tel Aviv farm-to-table restaurant Reviva & Celia, these savory mushroom-stuffed blintzes are filled with creamy, herby mushroom filling. They make a great dish for your Shavuot table, and are worth the fuss all year around.
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In Israel, blintzes are a genre of food not to be trifled with once a year, or occasionally at the deli. Rather, they are to be strutted out regularly, bearing not just sweet or fruity fillings but hard-hitting savories like these mushroom-stuffed blintzes. They're creamy, they're carby, they're everything you need rolled up in a blintz.
Making the blintzes
The blintzes used for this recipe are the same as the ones in my Israeli Sweet Cheese Blintzes. They make a neutrally-flavored blintz (no sugar or vanilla in the batter) that's a bit thicker than those used in my sweet Traditional Cheese Blintzes. Like all blintzes of their many kinds and nationalities, the batter for these is loose and pourable. It gets swirled around a non-stick skillet in a thin layer, then cooked for a few minutes on both sides. (When making sweet cheese blintzes, I only cook them on one side.) You'll need to make the blintzes first, then the filling.
For a walk-through with pictures on making blintzes, see my post on Israeli Sweet Cheese Blintzes.
Making the mushroom filling
The mushroom filling for these blintzes is made of sauteed mushrooms folded into velvety bechamel, the classic French white sauce. It sounds fancy-pants but it's all faux. Bechamel is actually an easy sauce to make, tends to be forgiving of mistakes, and is overall a great one to have in your repertoire. If you've never made it before, it's just a bit of fat (butter or oil) with flour whisked in, then milk or another liquid added. The flour thickens the liquid and bam, sauce. I have a step-by-step with process pictures in my post on Baked Mac and Cheese, where bechamel is the base for the cheese sauce.
To begin, you'll saute the onions, then the mushrooms with a bit of salt, thyme, and then white wine, which you'll cook off, mostly. Then you'll make the bechamel to fold the mushrooms into.
Before starting the bechamel, you'll want to make a bouquet garni, yet another off-putting French term that just means grab some whole herbs and spices and tie them up like in a teabag. I used a rectangle of cheesecloth for mine. The stuff inside your bouquet garni will flavor up the milk used to make the sauce. It's got a few garlic cloves, sprigs of thyme, bay leaves, and allspice berries in it. If you don't want to bother with the bouquet, skip it; it's subtle and we'll be adding thyme to the mushrooms anyhow.
If using, warm the milk with the bouquet garni inside, until the milk begins to steam. Just to get my money's worth out of that futzy little thing, I like to press it against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon and squeeze out a bit more flavor.
Then, proceed with whisking the flour in the butter and adding milk a little at a time, until you get a nice, thick sauce.
Filling the blintzes
With the blintzes all made and cooled and the filling prepared, you'll place about two tablespoons of filling in each blintz, fold up the bottom, fold in the sides, and roll. These blintzes then go in the oven for 10 minutes until heated back up. If you have any extra filling, you can pour it over the filled blintzes as an added topping.
Mushroom-Filled Savory Blintzes (dairy)
Equipment
- Food processor or blender (helpful but not required)
- Medium-sized non-stick or carbon steel skillet with sloped sides
Ingredients
Blintzes:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour - 250 g
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk - 240 ml
- 1 cup water - 240 ml
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 Tbs butter - melted, or ¼ cup oil - 50g butter or 60ml oil
Béchamel:
- 4 Tbsp butter - 50 g
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour - 30 g
- 2 cups milk - 480 ml
- salt and pepper
- bouquet garni with a few allspice berries, 3-4 cloves garlic, 2 bay leaves, 1 sprig thyme, - optional
Mushrooms:
- 800 g button mushrooms or a mix including wild mushrooms - 2 packages
- 1 large onion
- 3 Tbsp olive oil - 45 ml
- ¼ cup white wine - 60 ml
Instructions
Make the blintzes:
- Using a food processor or whisk, combine the flour and eggs. Add the milk and stir to combine, then add the water and stir again. Stir in the salt and melted butter or oil, and mix until combined. You want to the batter to be as smooth as possible, but you'll probably still have some lumps, which is fine.
- Heat an ungreased, medium-sized, non-stick skillet over medium heat. Scoop or pour about ⅓ cup of the batter into the frying pan. Lift and tilt the pan in a circular motion to evenly coat the bottom with a thin layer of batter.
- Cook until the edges are dry and the top is almost set, with a few bubbles. Flip and cook on the second side for a short time, less than a minute. Carefully remove from the pan using a flexible spatula and set aside to cool. Repeat with remaining batter until all the leaves have been formed.
Make the béchamel:
- If making a bouquet garni: Tie up the allspice berries, garlic cloves, bay leaves, and thyme in a square of cheesecloth.
- Heat the milk with the bouquet garni inside (if using), until beginning to steam, on the stovetop or in the microwave. Press the bourquet garni to extract more flavor into the hot milk, if used, then remove.
- Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat. Whisking, add in the flour. When a thick paste forms, pour in a small amount of milk, about ¼ cup. Whisk until smooth and thickened again. Keep pouring in the milk until it is all incorporated into a smooth sauce that amply coats the back of a spoon.
Sauté the mushrooms:
- Dice the onion. Heat olive oil in a large, straight-sided skillet over medium heat, then add the onion. Cook the onion until browned, 5-7 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme leaves.
- Slice the mushrooms and add them to the skillet. Cook until they shrink and release their water, 3-4 minutes.
- Pour in the white wine and cook until reduced by more than half, 1-2 minutes.
- Fold the béchamel into the sautéed mushroom mixture.
Fill the blintzes:
- Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C before filling the blintzes.
- Put about 2 tablespoons of filling in the center of each blintz. Fold up the bottom, then fold in the side and roll up. Place in a baking dish.
Bake the blintzes:
- Bake for 10 minutes before serving.
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