Columbia City Hotel

Columbia, California

Specialty Recipe

Cottage Cheese Blintzes with Warm Fruit Compote

Crepe Ingredients:

3 eggs

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup cream

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons drawn butter, warm (salad oil in a pinch)

1/4 cup water

Filling Ingredients:

One 1-pound tub cottage cheese

1/4 cup sugar, or to taste

1 teaspoon vanilla

Fruit Compote Ingredients:

1/2 cup dried pineapples

1/4 cup dried mangoes

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/4 cinnamon stick

1/4 vanilla bean, sliced open, scraped

1 piece star anise

pinch of allspice

3 cloves, stuck into a piece of orange peel

3 cups to 1 quart Chardonnay

Crepes: Put all ingredients in blender except flour. Blend well. Sift flour into bowl and make a well in the center. Strain blended mix into well. Whisk all together until smooth. Let rest in refrigerator for an hour or so. Test fry one in a hot Teflon omelette pan with a little drawn butter, canola oil or food release (add small amounts of water at this point if batter is too thick), rolling the batter all around the pan until the bottom is covered and crepe is as thin as possible. Fry on one side until nicely brown, turn out onto plate, stacking, until all desire crepes are cooked. These can be frozen in plastic wrap for later use at this point.

Filling and Compote: Dice all fruit. Put in stainless pot with all other ingredients. Simmer, uncovered, for 1/2 hour or so, until fruit is soft and wine is reduced to just barely covering the fruit. (If wine reduces too far before this time, add extra cup of wine.) Remove orange peel with cloves, or leave in fruit until you serve it for best flavor. Keep warm to serve, or chill overnight to let flavors blend. Compote should have plenty of syrup. Add water as necessary.

To serve, spread out 3 or 4 crepes. Put about an ounce of filling on the bottom part of each crepe. Roll or fold up carefully (like a small burrito shape.) Fry 2 or 3 at a time in drawn butter until slightly crisp and brown. Serve 3 per person with compote and some whipped cream

• You found this recipe on 1st Traveler's Choice Internet Cookbook. (www.virtualcities.com)