An Ukrainian kind of breakfast

 The other day, when I asked you for recipes involving ricotta, a few of you gave me your input. (Thanks so much, I love to try new things). Anna started talking about some kind of Ukrainian pancakes and I was sold. So, I followed the instructions carefully, and wow. Syriniki are truly delicious. They reminded me of a scone, except they are creamy, cheesy, inside, without being too liquid. We ate them with powder sugar, honey, and lemon curd. But I can see how the clotted cream and raspberry jam or fresh fruit can add to the flavor. Also, they were super easy to make. I am usually *afraid* of messing up food that has to be fried (deep or not) since I am always burning stuff. But these were a piece of cake. They are a traditional breakfast or dessert in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland where sometimes quark is used instead of ricotta. In Russia they are called tvorozhniki (творо́жники). And you know how I love to know the origin of words, so here you go:  

"The name syrniki is derived from the word сыр in Russian or  сир in Ukrainian  (pronnouced: syr), meaning "cheese" in both languages. Although the modern meaning of the word сыр (syr) in Russian is hard yellow cheese, the original word in Slavic languages stood for soft white cheese (similar to today's quark cheese, which is still called сир in Ukrainian but metamorphosed into творог, tvorog in Russian). Thus, the word syrniki, derived from the old meaning of syr, came to designate pancakes made from soft white cheese."*

 So now comes Anna's recipe. I just adjusted the quantities to what I had (250 gr. Ricotta, 1 egg, 2 spoons flour, pinch of salt, 1 spoon sugar, raisins).

Ingredients:
2 lb (~1 kg) ricotta cottage cheese
3 eggs
sugar, salt (to taste)
4-5 spoons flour (in my experience, you need more like 7 spoons, but start with 4 and see how it goes)
raisins (soak in hot water to soften, then drain).

What you should do
Mix together ricotta, eggs, sugar, and salt. Add flour one spoon at a time, while stirring. Add raisins.
On a large frying pan, heat up some oil (canola oil works well, but any kind will do). You will need a lot of oil for this recipe, as the pancakes are almost deep-fried. Using a table spoon, dole out mixture onto frying pan into pancake-size portions. Make sure they don't stick to each other. If the pancakes seem too liquid (they spread out too much, or fall apart when you try to turn them over), then you need to add more flour. But don't add too much because then they will be too heavy. Fry pancakes on one side till brown (but not burnt, which sometimes is hard to distinguish), and flip them over. Add oil as necessary between batches.

Best served with sour cream. I like to eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and as a snack. In other words, this recipe comes highly recommended!

* Source