Bring back the original, true blin this Maslenitsa!
On the third day of Maslenitsa, we discover oladushki – the fluffy siblings of blini pancakes
Let’s bring back the original, true blin this Maslenitsa!
Oladushki, fluffy pancakes, with pripyok are an old Slavic food, mostly forgotten today, even in Russia.
Pripyok is literally something baked on top, in this case a slice of apple baked into a little plump pancake. The result is a cake and a pancake rolled into one, the apple yielding itself into the batter. Looks very pretty too.
Pripyok can be sweet or savoury – a slice of apple, courgette, pumpkin or even grated cheese are all delicious.
Confusingly oladushki are known as blinis in Britain. The fat, small pancakes are made with yeast or kefir, and are called olad’yi or oladushki in Russia and Ukraine. The stiff little things sold in supermarkets don’t do justice to the beauty of oladushki - make our scrumptious recipe below instead.
Ingredients
200ml kefir
160g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs, medium
1 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Sunflower oil for frying (approx. 60ml)
1 apple, peeled, cored and cut into rings (or try pumpkin, courgette, grated cheese)
Method
Fry the oladushki like you would with normal fluffy pancakes, but, once they’ve fried on one side, place an apple slice (or topping of your choice) on the uncooked part, press lightly and flip over to fry on the other side.
That’s it! Enjoy with lashings of sour cream, berries and sprinkles of sugar!
About the Pushkin House food blog
What is special about Russian food that the world needs to know about? This question will be at the heart of our quest.
Our plan and hopes for the blog is to travel through the seasons and regions of Russia and beyond, sharing the recipes of chefs and well-known writers, interviews with Pushkin House followers and stories of people making Russian-ish food across the UK - did you know there is someone making salo in Wales?
And an important disclaimer. When we say Russian, we often refer to the whole of the so-called ‘New East’ region, the former USSR. Whilst being very much aware of how problematic this ‘Russifying’ of so many countries can be, we choose the word as a shorthand and in recognition of the fact that millions of people who live outside Russia across the post-soviet space, think of themselves as Russian, at least in part.
Our food blog curator and contributor Katrina (Katya) Kollegaeva is a chef, food writer (Guardian, FT, Time Out restaurant reviewer 2009-2012) and sustainable food specialist with a background in food anthropology. She grew up in Estonia to a Crimean dad and a Ukrainian mother. Together with Karina Baldry she runs Rosehip & Rye, a catering and food delivering company specialising in the 'Soul food from the New East'. Head to Pushkin House’s Instagram where Katya is taking over our feed for the week of Maslenitsa, 8- 14 March!
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