Caviar and Salmon Blini Tortes
Serves 2
Active Time:50 min Start to Finish:50 min
For egg salad
1 hard-boiled large egg, finely chopped
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
For blini
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg, separated
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled, divided
For filling
1/4 lb thinly sliced smoked salmon at room temperature
2 oz trout caviar, such as rainbow–trout caviar*, or salmon roe
Garnish:sour cream; chopped chives
Make egg salad:
Stir together all ingredients and a pinch of salt.
Make blini:
Whisk together dry ingredients in a bowl. Add milk and yolk and whisk until smooth.
Beat egg white with a clean whisk in another bowl until it just holds soft peaks. Fold into batter along with 2 tablespoons melted butter.
Brush a 12-inch nonstick skillet with some of remaining melted butter, then heat over medium heat until hot. Working in batches of 6 or 7, drop 1 level tablespoon batter per pancake into skillet and cook until bubbles appear on surface and undersides are golden, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Flip over and cook 1 minute more. Brush blini on both sides with some of remaining melted butter, then transfer to a plate and keep warm, covered with foil. Brush skillet with butter between batches.
Fill tortes:
Drape smoked salmon on 6 blini and top with egg salad. Spoon caviar onto 6 more blini, then stack on egg-salad-topped blini.
Simply said, Laurier Cafe is a New American bistro for people who love great food and wine. Hands down one of the best meals I have had to date. My first encounter with Laurier Cafe was on Valentines's day with a special four course tasting menu. Three to four options were available for each course. The first course I chose, was a seared, sesame crusted sushi-grade tuna, wilted frisee, and a chili-citrus vinaigrette that was delightful and refreshing. The second course, was a fresh gulf red snapper filet with sautée vegetables. If that wasn't enough, then along came the mustard-crusted duck breast, rapini, caramelized onion and duck jus. All I can say is rapturous. The duck was cooked to perfection with the rapini al dente and mouth watering. Last, but surely not least. For desert there was the Laurier soft-cooked chocolate cake with crème anglaise served fresh from the oven. Absolutely decadent. The only problem with the desert was that it was so rich, I felt like I needed a little additional insulin to help my pancreas along. I suppose as well I shouldn't forget to mention there extensive and reasonably priced wine list. Cabernets, chardonnays, fume blancs, merlots, or what ever may fit your fancy. They have it. All and all, I was deligtfully impressed and excited to know that a place just around the corner existed that was so refreshing. Truely a new breath of fresh air for Houston cuisine. My compliments and best wishes to chef-owner Gary Fuller.
"kakuni" pork belly. pork belly braised in sweet soy sauce over butter sauteed spinach with micro greens. i can't explain how delicious this was. the pork belly was tender and unctuous but the buttery spinach sent each bite over the top with the added depth the butter imparted. chinese hot mustard garnished the plate and helped balance the fat.
uni & king crab spoons. the sweet uni and the dashi-heavy and tangy sunomono sauce had a wonderful smokiness to it. black caviar added a bit of salt and texture.
