TRADITIONAL LATVIAN RECIPES

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TRADITIONAL LATVIAN RECIPES
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CHARACTER OF LATVIAN KITCHEN

• The nutrition which Latvia s residents receive
  has always been based primarily on livestok
  breeding, fishing and farming.
• Since ancient times Latvians have loved rye
  bread, they heve used rough ground wheat or rye
  flour, barley grouts. Legumes have been popular
  especially gray peas with bacon.
• Among vegetables, Latvian are big potato eaters,
  but they also like beets, carrots and cabbages.
• Milk and dairy products are important in the
  Latvian cuisine, many Latvians prepereated cheese
  at home, one kind of cheese is known all over the
  country Janu siers( midsummer solstice cheese).
• Soup is often on the table in the Latvian home
  sauerkraut soup is an example.
• Meat dishes come from pork, beef and lamb. Fish
  dishes come from fish that are found in Latvias
  shores, such a pilchard, cod, herring, carp, eel,
  pike, lamprey and bream.

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CHARACTER OF LATVIAN KITCHEN

• Latvians forests brust with berries and musrooms
  each year and this is an importantpart of Latvian
  nutrition.
• Flavoring agents in Latvian food include onions,
  garlic, dill, green onions, celery parsley and
  caraway seeds.
• Desserts are prepared from fruit and berries
  apples, strawberries, red currants, cranberies -,
  and from rhubarb, pumpkin, cottage cheese, rye
  bread.
• Over the countries, field workers under the hot
  sun have refreshred themselves with a juice
  prepereted from birch sap, a soured porridge
  called skabputra.
• Beer is popular, and there are dozens of
  different varieties in Latvias various regions.
  The beer is one of key element to a summer
  solstice repast.
• Fine ground flour is used for various pan
  breads, everyone knowns speka piradzini (bacon
  rolls or bacon buns) .

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ZIRNU PIKAS ( grey pea dumplins)

• 230 g grey peas, 50 g. onion, 90 g smoked bacon,
  200g potatoes, 1 tablespoon hemp butter, satl,
  black pepper.
• Soak the peas thoroghly 6 8 hours.Peel the
  potatoes. Boil peas and potatoes separately tehn
  drain and grind ingredients together. Chop the
  onionand bacon, chip them in small amount of
  butter. Add to the pea and potato mixture along
  with the hemp butter and species. Malt well.Shape
  the mixture into small dumplingsand arrange them
  in a shallow dish. Serve with curdled milk.

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JANU SIERS ( caraway cheese)

• 1 kg cottage cheese, 5 l milk, 2 eggs, 50 100 g
  buttes, 50 100 g sour cream, salt caraway to
  taste.
• Heat the milk to 90 95 oC. Grind the cottage
  cheese and add it to the milk. Heat at 85 90o C
  for 10 15 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat
  and allow the cottage cheese to sit, pour off any
  liquid. Place cottage cheese in dampened
  cheesecloth, gater the corners togetherand roll
  the cheese to allow as much liquid as possible to
  separate out. Put the cottage cheese in a bowl.
  Mix the sour cream, eggs, salt and caraway seeds,
  and add it gradually to the cheese. Melt the
  butter in the pot. Put the cheese, over a low
  flame, strring all the time, until smooth and
  shihy. Place the cheese in a dampened chesecloth.
  Tie the corners of the cloth together and put the
  cheese under weight in the cold place. Served
  with butter or honey or as a snack with the beer.

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SKABU KAPOSTU ZUPA (sauerkraut soup)

• 1 l water, 300 g pork, 350 g sauerkraut, 50 g
  carrot, 30 g onion, 30 g barley groats, butter,
  sour cream, species, parsley.
• Cut the pork into the pieces. Fry sliced carrot,
  parsley and onions in butter. Pour sauerkraut,
  groats, pork, carrot and onions into a saucepan,
  add water and boil until sauerkraut is tender( 2
  2,5 hours). The suop is generally served with
  sour cream, finely sprinkle chopped parsley
  leaves.

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KARTUPELI AR BIEZPIENU UN SILKI (potatoes with
cottage cheese and herring)

• 1 kg potatoes, 200g cottage cheese, 50 g sour
  cream, 100 g filet of salted herring, spring
  onions.
• Peel the potatoes and boil them, than drain well.
  Put into the bowl, spread with chopped spring
  onions, serve with cottagge cheese, sour cream
  and herring.

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ZIRNI AR SPEKI ( grey peas and bacon)

• 200 g grey peas, 250 g smoked bacon, 300 g onion,
  salt, pepper, curdled milk.
• Soak peas overnight. Put them in a pot with hot
  water to cover and boil until almost tender, than
  add salt. Dice bacon into small cubes and saute
  with onion.Peas are traditionally served in the
  clay bowls, adding fried bacon mixture. Serve
  with a drink of curdled milk.

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SKLANDU RAUI (potato and carrot tarts)

• 1 kg flour, 100 g butter, water, 1kg potatoes,
  milk, 2 eggs, 2 kg carrot, sour cream, 150 g
  honey or sugar.
• Mix flour(croarse rye flour) with water and knead
  into dough to homogeneous consistency. Add sone
  butter to easethe flattening of the dough, and
  roll it to 3 4 mm thickness.With a help of
  glass cut out round shapes with a diameter of
  about 12 cm and turn up their edges.Place on a
  greased backing tray. Mash boiled potatoes, adn
  some milk, butter, salt.Mash boiled carrots, add
  eggs, honey or sugar.Put a layer of the potato
  mass on each dough patty and top it with carrot
  mass and sour cream.Bake in a moderate heat until
  the dough turns dry and crusty.

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SPEKA PIRADZINI (bacon rolls or bacon buns)

• Yeast dough ( ½ l milk, 1 kg white flour, 50 g
  yeast, 100 g butter, 25 g sugar, salt), bacon,
  onion, black pepper, egg for spreading.
• Make yeast dough, put the dough in a warm place
  and leave the dough to rise. Cut bacon into small
  cubes and mix with pepper, salt and chopped
  onion. When the dough has risen, turn it turn it
  out on to a lightly floured surface, roll into a
  long rope and cut ino pieces of equal size. Roll
  the pieces into round balls. Flatten each dough
  ball, put the bacon filling in the middle, fold
  dough over, priching the egdes together. Place
  the finished, creascent shaped buns on a
  greased backing tray with the pinched seam
  underneath, leave to rise for 5 10 minutes,
  then brush with beaten egg and bake.

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RUPJMAIZES KARTOJUMS (traditional Latvian
ambrosia)

• 300 g dry, dark rye bread, 200 g cranberry jam,
  160 g sugar, cinnamon, 250 g double heavy cream,
  fresh cranberies.
• Finely grate the rye bread and mix with the
  cinnamon and half of the sugar. Whip the cream,
  adding the sugar. Whip until you get stiff peaks.
  In a shallow dish arrange the ingredients in
  layers thr rye bread, then the jam, then
  whipped cream, then the rye bread again, etc.
  Making the bread the top layer. Leave it for 3-4
  hours. Decorate with wipped cream and cranberries.

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PUTRAIMDESAS ( barley sausage)

• 500 g medium ground barley grouts, 11/2 l pork
  bouillon, 250 g pokr, 1 l pigs blood, 100g
  onion, 100 g lard, species.
• Make stuffing mixture from boiled pork, barley
  porridge, pigsblood, fried onion and species,
  mix well. Fill the stuffing into sausage casings
  about three quarters full. Boil the sausages in
  salted water, and then heat them over a low flame
  for a while. Before servering the sausages ,
  brown them in the frying fat.

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RUDZU MAIZE ( rye bread)

• To bake approximately 10 loaves of bread 10kg
  coarse rye flour, 5-7 l water, pinch of salt,
  caraway seeds to taste.
• For the starter 250g (8.75oz) coarse rye flour,
  250g (8.75oz) buttermilk, 50g (1.75oz) sugar.
• This recipe is intended for baking bread in a
  traditional wood-fired bread oven. However, you
  can also bake the bread in an electric or gas
  oven using a baking tray
• When baking bread for the first time, you must
  make the starter. Mix one third of flour intended
  for baking with hot water and beat with a wooden
  spatula until the mixture is smooth. Cool to
  35-40C, then add starter and continue to beat
  until the mixture is smooth again. Sprinkle over
  thick layer of flour, cover and put in a warm
  place to rise for 10-12 hours. Each loaf is made
  to have a weight of 2-4 kg. Sprinkle flour on the
  bread-shovel, then with wet hands take enough
  dough for one loaf, place on the bread-shovel and
  form it into a loaf shape. Bake bread for 1-2
  hours, the length of time is determined by the
  size of the loaves .

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CEPTI NEGI( pan backed lamprey)

• Sprinkle the fresh lamprey with salt and wipe
  them lightly a clean cloth. Heat a heavy pan
  without any fat, place the lamprey on the pan
  close together, bake them for 5 -8 minutes, turn
  and bake for 4 5 minutes more. Do not overbake
  or let them burn, because then they will be
  better. Arrange the lamprey tightly in a dish,
  sprinkling salt between them. Take some very
  strong tea, mix with some water and pour it over
  the lamprey for the color, weight down the
  lamprey and put them in a cold place.

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RAUDZETAS BERZU SULAS (sprakling birch juice)

• Fill fresh birch sap into the bottles, adding to
  each 10 15 g sugar. Do not fill bottles all the
  way up. Cork the bottles and put them in a warm
  place for 4 5 days. Seal the corks throughly
  and store the bottles in a cool place. The juice
  will be fermented and sprakling in 15 20 days.

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ALUS (beer)

• Beer is a traditional Latvian beverage - it is
  impossible to imagine ancient or contemporary
  Latvian celebrations without it. Beer is the most
  commonly mentioned drink in Latvian folklore, and
  has innumerable folksongs dedicated to it. In
  Latvia beer was traditionally brewed from barley
  and hops. Honey was also often added during the
  brewing process, and the product was then called
  medalus (honey beer). Juniper berries or wormwood
  were also added to give the beer flavour. Today
  there are many types of beer which are products
  of breweries throughout Latvia. The most popular
  are Aldaris, Cesu, Piebalgas, Tervetes, Uavas,
  Bauskas and Lacplea beers. Beer is the most
  popular alcoholic beverage drunk when friends
  meet in a tavern in the evening, celebrate a
  wedding or the summer solstice

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MELNAIS BALZAMS (black balsam)

• Another special strong alcoholic beverage made in
  Latvia is Riga Black Balsam, first made in the
  18th century and based on an ancient recipe used
  by Rigas pharmacists. The ingredients include
  various herbs, and because of this the liqueur is
  dark, has a thick consistency, is fragrant and is
  considered medicinal.

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LABU APETITI!Good apetite!