Blini

Whisk the plain flour, yeast and sugar into 200ml of the lukewarm milk in a large bowl, until smooth.

Cover and stand for 1 hour at around 24C/75F, until the sponge has domed, filled with bubbles and just begun to sink back in the middle.

Whisk in the buckwheat flour, the remaining 200ml of milk, the egg yolks, the 40g of melted butter for the batter and the salt.

Do not be tempted to raise the proportion of buckwheat. It carries no gluten at all, and a batter weighted towards it produces a pancake that tears the moment you try to lift it.

Cover and rise for a further hour, until the surface is covered in small bubbles and the batter smells faintly sour.

Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks in a clean bowl.

Fold the whites through the batter with six or seven strokes of a spatula, stopping while streaks are still visible. Beating them in flattens the foam you just made.

Check the consistency: it should pour like single cream and coat the back of a spoon in a thin film. Loosen with a splash of water if it has thickened past that during the rise.

Set a heavy 20cm frying pan over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, then brush it with the melted butter for the pan.

Ladle in about 55ml of batter and swirl the pan immediately to spread it to the edges.

Cook for 60-90 seconds, until the surface loses its shine, the edge lifts away from the pan and the underside is evenly gold with no pale centre.

Flip once and cook for a further 30-45 seconds.

Read the first one and adjust. Dark spots with a raw centre mean the pan is too hot and the batter is setting before it can spread; a pale, leathery blin means the pan is too cool and the pancake has dried out slowly instead of colouring.

Stack the cooked blini on a warm plate, brushing each with a little of the melted butter so they do not weld together.

Hold the stack in a 100C/212F oven while you cook the rest, brushing the pan with butter between each.

Serve warm, with the soured cream, the sliced herring and the chopped dill.