I’m looking forward to lowering the curtain on this no good, very bad year. At my house, we’ll be celebrating quietly with Margrit Mondavi’s blini and a bottle of bubbles. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Margrit on two memoirs, and her buckwheat blini recipe is in one of them. The wife of vintner Robert Mondavi, Margrit was a fine cook but, by her own admission, an impatient one, so she made her blini with baking soda, not yeast. They’re closer to buckwheat pancakes, honestly, but “blini” is definitely more Margrit. She put crème fraîche on top, but I have labneh in the fridge and like the tang.

Labneh is simply yogurt drained until it is thick and spreadable. I always have yogurt on hand and can make labneh in a few hours, but every good supermarket carries it now. Top labneh with extra virgin olive oil and some toasted pumpkin seeds or pine nuts, or with dukkah, and you have an instant dip.

Margrit, who passed away in 2016, was a natural storyteller, so the memoirs were easy. All I had to do was turn on the tape recorder and off she went. One of my favorite anecdotes was about a night she and Robert spent at The Dorchester in London, in route home to Napa Valley from a wine event in Johannisberg. They were so tired when they got to their penthouse suite that they dropped their luggage and went straight to bed.

In the morning, Margrit woke first and headed for the bathroom.

“I had been so exhausted the night before that I hadn’t gotten my bearings, and I took the wrong door,” Margrit recalled. “It immediately slammed shut behind me, and suddenly I was in the hall without a stitch of clothes on.”

Businessmen were already having breakfast in the lobby below and she feared they would look up if she pounded on the door. Besides, Robert was hard of hearing.

“I heard water running in the bathroom, which meant he was probably shaving. I knew his rhythms. In fifteen minutes, he would go back to the bedroom to dress. So I counted to sixty fifteen times. Then I heard him say loudly, “Margrit, where are you?” I threw my naked body against the door and, lo and behold, he opened it.

‘Margrit, God almighty, what are you doing outside with no clothes on?’

“I don’t know how many bankers saw me. Perhaps, if they looked up, they thought their minds were playing a trick, like a hallucination. Or maybe, as Englishmen with great savoir-faire, they diplomatically just looked away.”

Margrit Mondavi’s Buckwheat Blini

Adapted from Margrit Mondavi’s Vignettes
by Margrit Biever Mondavi with Janet Fletcher. Make the blini any size you like. Sauteed mushrooms would make a nice topping if you don’t eat smoked fish.

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup buckwheat flour

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

• 1 large egg, beaten

• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons milk, or more if needed

• 2 tablespoons clarified butter, or more if needed, melted

• 6 to 8 ounces smoked salmon or smoked trout

• 1/3 cup labneh, crème fraîche or sour cream

• Fresh dill or thinly sliced chives for garnish

In a bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, buckwheat flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients and whisk well to blend. The batter should be thinner than pancake batter. Transfer it to a container with a pour spout.

Heat a griddle or nonstick skillet over medium heat. If using a skillet, be sure it rests level on the burner. When hot, brush lightly with melted butter. Carefully pour enough batter onto the griddle to spread into a 2-inch circle (or any size you like). Cook until bubbles appear on the surface and the blini begin to brown lightly around the edges, about 45 seconds. Turn with an offset spatula and cook on the second side until done, about 45 seconds. Taste the first one or two and adjust the heat or timing as needed.

Transfer the first batch of blini to a serving platter. Brush with melted butter. Top while hot with a piece of smoked salmon, a dollop of labneh and a sprig of dill or sprinkle of chives. Serve immediately. Repeat until you have used all the batter.

Makes about 32 two-inch blini