One of the many reasons why we love books is their capacity to open our minds to different cultures and experiences that we may never live ourselves. In light of the current crisis in Ukraine, we want to share the story of Sam and Natasha Ilyayev, featured in the book The World Eats Here, a compilation of stories and recipes from NYC’s Queens Night Market. When they first met, they could barely communicate in each other’s languages, and now they have built a marriage based on Natasha’s traditional Ukrainian recipes and Sam’s Russian, Uzbekistan, and NYC culinary heritages. Their business, Blintz Box is currently raising funds Ukraine through their food stall.

“Natasha is from the Ukraine; Sam has been a New Yorker as long as he can remember. He and his parents left Tashkent, Uzbekistan as refugees from the crumbling Soviet Union when he was just three years old. The couple’s collaborative food business draws from both culinary heritages, but it would be a bit of a mouthful to try to call it “Blintz Box: a taste of Ukraine—mixed up with diasporic Bukharian Jewish Russian-Uzbek culinary traditions and tweaked by a New Yorker’s palate,” so they just went with “Blintz Box” to be practical, for now. But the truth is, Sam and Natasha’s marriage brings together cultures and cuisines technically originating from two different continents, brought into communication by the former Soviet Union and the Russian language.”

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Ukrainian Blintzes with creamy mushrooms

For many Americans, the smell of pancakes hitting the skillet evokes vivid memories of family breakfasts. It’s the same for Sam and Natasha. Their blintz recipes have been passed down for generations, with each iteration getting tweaked ever so slightly to accommodate contemporaneous tastes. The creamy mushroom filling in this recipe is savory, so this version uses less sugar in the batter than one might use for a dessert blintz. Serve with sour cream or your favorite hot sauce; it is common to eat these blintzes with adjika, a Ukrainian spicy salsa.
Makes 10 blintzes

FILLING
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1½ pounds (680 g) whole portobello mushrooms, washed and thinly sliced
1 medium sweet onion, diced
1 tablespoon salt
¾ cup (175 g) mascarpone or sour cream
¼ cup (60 ml) heavy cream

BATTER
1¼ cups (300 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 medium eggs
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups (155 g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons canola oil

1. To make the filling, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat and sauté the mushrooms, stirring frequently, until the liquid has completely evaporated, about 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a small pan over medium heat and sauté the onion. When it begins to caramelize, after about 15 minutes, remove from the heat.
3. Add the onion and salt to the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Turn the heat to low. Add the mascarpone and cream and cook, stirring regularly, until the cheese has melted and integrated with the cream and coated the mushrooms, about 5 minutes.
4. Transfer to a bowl to avoid overcooking the mascarpone.
5. To make the batter, heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan over low heat, until the milk is lukewarm. Remove from the heat.
6. Combine the eggs, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl or stand mixer. Mix on low until completely smooth with no lumps.
7. Slowly pour the warm milk into the bowl, continuing to mix. Add the flour ½ cup (65 g) at a time, allowing the flour to blend thoroughly before adding more. Add the oil and mix on medium for a few minutes, until the batter is completely smooth with no dry lumps.
8. To make the blintzes, heat a 12-inch (30 cm) nonstick crepe pan over medium-high heat until hot.(Use unsalted butter to brush the pan if it is not nonstick.)
9. Use a 6-ounce (175 ml) ladle to add batter to the center of the pan while simultaneously tilting and rotating the pan to spread over the bottom. Keep rotating the pan until the batter is fully settled and does not spread any more.
10. Wait for the edges of the crepe to begin browning, about 30 seconds. Carefully flip by inserting a thin spatula under the center and lifting.Brown the other side, about 20 seconds, and transfer to a plate.Repeat with all the batter, or save the batter for later in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
11. Add 2 tablespoons of the filling to the bottom half of each crepe. Fold the bottom edge over the filling, then fold both sides 1 inch (2.5 cm) toward the center, and roll it up. Cut in half and serve.

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Recipe from Sam & Natasha Ilyayev, Blintz Box. Excerpted from The World Eats Here: Amazing Food and the Inspiring People Who Make It at New York’s Queens Night Market, © 2020 by John Wang and Storm Garner. Photographs © by John Taggart. Reprinted by permission of The Experiment. Available wherever books are sold. theexperimentpublishing.com

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