Hiziki Caviar with Cornmeal Blini
Source: Rachel Gitlin

Note: Blini au Caviar is the classic presentation for caviar. Fresh Beluga Caviar is the most Highly acclaimed of all appetizers & justly so. It is, perhaps, the most expensive, including the truffles, the most expensive mushroom. Serve this as an elegant preamble for an expensive party for your best friends. Almost frozen vodka or Dom Perignon are the best beverages to accompany the dish.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups of hiziki caviar

HIZIKI CAVIAR:
6 tablespoons of hiziki
2/3 cups of unfiltered apple juice
2 tablespoons of shoyu
1/3 cup of water
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
1 3/4 cups of diced onion
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1 small piece of ginger root, peeled
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
Sea salt to taste
Chopped parsley or chives as garnish
Cornmeal blini, recipe follows

Place hiziki in a bowl and rinse once with lukewarm water.

Cover with apple juice, shoyu, water, and soak 30 minutes.

Heat sesame oil in a skillet. Add the onion and then garlic; add sea salt and saute for 5 minutes. Add hiziki and soaking liquid, cover and cook 10 minutes.

Grate ginger and add it to the skillet along with the lemon juice. Cook the mixture covered for 10 minutes.

Uncover and cook over medium heat until liquid is absorbed. Allow hiziki mixture to cool slightly and pulse in food processor for a few seconds.

Serve chilled but not icy cold.

CORNMEAL BLINI:
1/2 cup of cornmeal
1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
1 tablespoon of corn oil
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
1/2 cup of vanilla soy milk
1/4 cup of water
1 1/4 teaspoons of rice or apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons of parsley, chopped
Hiziki caviar, recipe above

Sift cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl beat together corn oil, maple syrup, soymilk, water and vinegar. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Stir in parsley.

Heat a skillet and add a 1/2 teaspoon corn oil. Drop batter by scant tablespoons onto heated skillet. Carefully turn blini after about a minute. Lower heat and flip blini to cook only about 45 seconds on that side.

To serve blini with hiziki caviar: Place a teaspoon of caviar on top of each blini and garnish with chives or parsley

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen blini
Source/ Television Food Network,/2003