LATVIAN FOOD SPECIALITIES

Transcription

1 LATVIAN FOOD SPECIALITIES Any nation s basic diet is defined by its geographical location. The wealth of Latvia has always been unevenly dispersed over its four regions. The table of a Zemgale nobleman differed from that of a Kurzeme fisherman or a Latgale peasant. According to principles of ethics expounded in Latvia s oral traditions everywhere food was served by a white (i.e., virtuous) hostess on a clean table with a generous hand. The male head of the household cut the first slice of bread; members of the household bowed their heads out of respect for the leader; in quiet voices they thanked God and the giver. Bread was the fruit of work, which is holy in Latvian culture. Slaughtering of the cattle was adjusted with the seasons, which caused very interesting traditions to emerge. For the various holidays the food was very interesting. Most typical food specialities Infrequently a dessert called iejavputra is prepared from the yeast water. It is brought to a boil together with sliced dried apples. Rye or unrefined wheat flour is added to make porridge, which is

2 sweetened with honey. Yeast can also be beaten into froth and served cool with milk. Sweet-sour rye bread (saldskabmaize) is baked from finely ground rye flour. Sklandu rausi is a type of bun that is traditionally baked in Kurzeme, Latvia s western-most region. It is made of rye flour with carrots and potatoes, apple and cottage cheese pies. The name is derived from a word meaning fence. The buns are formed with a fence a border which prevents the filling from running off and gives the bun a pretty appearance. The fence is made by lifting up the dough on the sides and twisting it into sausages, herringbones or ropes. The Zemigalians and the Kursi make karasas from wheat flour, but in Vidzeme placeni (flat cakes) are made from barley meal. The women of Vidzeme make sutnes a steamed mixture of grains. This dish is served with fresh or curdled milk. Beans and peas also a main staple of the Latvian diet. These are served in all seasons. In summer, broad beans are boiled with their pods and served with buttermilk or curdled milk. Peas are eaten during winter and always on the eve of the winter solstice (or Christmas Eve): boiled peas with a small amount of lard are heated in the oven. Pea balls (zirnu pikas) are made from boiled, mashed peas. At Christmas time you may also be served a smoked pig s half head or only its snout with peas, beans, blood sausage and other types of sausages. The tables in Zemgale and Kurzeme are unimaginable without the traditional skabputra (sour porridge), a drink made from barley groats beaten together with milk. A refreshing drink called maizes kvass is made from bread crusts.

3 Birch juice, either fresh or fermented, has always been a natural and healthy drink for Latvians in early spring and in the heat of the summer. This elixir of life is poured into a wooden barrel and sprinkled with grains of barley. The seeds sprout, creating a green cover, but the juice ferments with a special taste. Brown, fermented birch juice is a result of adding roasted rye bread crusts. Taste additives: black currant branches and peppermint. Nowadays birch juices are prepared with lemon and orange rind, raisins, cinnamon, etc. A skilled maker may even offer you birch champagne. Beer, whether dark or light, bitter or sweet (medalus), is an integral part of the Latvian summer solstice. On the so-called Eve of Grasses (23 rd of June) you will be met by a hostess carrying cheese rounds and piragi (buns filled with smoked bacon), but the male head of the household carries about a pitcher of frothy homemade beer, serving it to his guests. The scent of summer fields, grass, and flowers overwhelms the senses. The Janu siers (Solstice cheese, Janu cheese) is prepared in every household. The cheese varies in its consistency from soft to hard, with caraway seeds or without them. Lean cheese is smeared with butter. The Latvian table will always surprise you. In the spring, especially in late April, you can prepare zidenis a porridge made from pearl barley boiled together with a pig s ear or tail, which symbolises long ears of grain and therefore should be eaten by the sower. At Easter coloured eggs are placed on the table. The eggs are usually a luscious brown, which is achieved by boiling them in onion skins. A fern-green colour comes from the leaves of the birch branches, which are used year-round to massage the pirts (steamhouse) goers. Frequently, eggs are wrapped in yarn, leaves, blades of grass, dried heather, lingonberry leaves or grains, which leave lovely designs on the egg s brown hue. Eggs are also coloured with dried blueberries.

4 During the winters in the olden days the Latvian homestead had very little milk to spare, but in the spring, when the cows calved, milk once again occupied a prominent position in the Latvian diet. In Vidzeme, farm cheese is served as a spread embellished with poppy butter. Boiled or baked potatoes are eaten with bacon and farm cheese fried with onions. Flat cakes are baked from rough wheat, buckwheat, barley meal or even bean flour. Poppy butter is made from dried, crushed or ground poppy seeds. The seeds are crushed or milled until they turn into a greasy, black mass. Staks or stenkis is a poppy mass diluted with milk or water. It is used as an additive to various foods: pea porridge, pea balls, as a frosting for flat cakes and bread. Kiselis (a dessert which is usually made from fruit, berries, also from flour and milk, and may by thickened with starch) is boiled from oats. If kiselis is served hot, then it is topped with cubed, fried, smoked or salted bacon fritters. When the gruel cools, it becomes the thick oat kiselis. As a dessert it can be eaten together with honey and is served along with a cup o refreshing milk. Nettle, sorrel, goose-foot (bot.) and horse-tail (bot.) soups are made in the spring. They are prepared with smoked pork, or boiled in water with barley meal, groats or pressed oats. Boiled eggs and sour cream are added to the soup. When the warm days commence, biguzis is made. Ripe rye bread is cut into small pieces or crumbled, then spring water is poured over the mass and sweetened with honey. Pressed cranberries, raspberries or red currants may be added during season. This food was called many names: nabaga cirtiens (the pauper s stroke), nabagelis (pauper), or cuncu-runcu (which cannot be translated). Biguzis is set on a shelf for several hours in order for it to acquire its desired taste. Sometimes warm, sweetened linden, camomile, peppermint or caraway tea is poured over the bread.

5 When Jani (the summer solstice) has passed, the summer turns toward its sister-autumn. Latvia s marshes and forests still offer a wealth berries, nuts and mushrooms.

6 Basically, Latvian food consists of chicken & pork fillets battered in egg and deep fried served with traditional dark rye bread and lots and lots of salads and fresh vegetables. Most of the salads are like a basic potato salad made with various chopped meats (smoked chicken & pork) and vegetables. Most of the salads use a cream based dressing rather than a mayonnaise base.

7 Latvian Bacon Buns (Pîrâgi) These buns can be used as appetizers, as part of a light lunch (with, say, a cup of bouillon), or as part of a party table. They are best straight from the oven, but can be frozen and re-heated. They are absolutely delicious! - Preparation The making of Piragi can be separated into four distinct steps. Step 1: Preparation of Dough Milk, flour, yeast and other ingredients (for varying tastes) are mixed together in a bowl. The mixture is then kneaded to a proper consistency - determined by the individual preparer - and then set to rise until the volume has doubled (approx. 90 mins.). While the dough is rising, the Filling is prepared.

8 Step 2: Preparation of Filling Bacon, ham, and onions (for the meat-variety of Piragi) are chopped into little bits and then lightly baked on a pan. The now mixed-together ingredients are then strained - to remove any fat that might have seeped during the baking - and then deposited into a bowl along with caraway seeds and any additional ingredients one would desire. These ingredients are then mixed together and the Filling is prepared. Step 3: Forming Piragi A chunk of dough is taken out of the bowl and then flattened. A bit of dough is pulled toward the preparer from the chunk. A tablespoon of filling is placed in lower ½ of the bit of dough. A glass with a diameter of approx. 3 in. is used to cut out a circle of dough. The circle of dough is then folded over, and formed into the Piragi shape. Step 4: Baking Piragi Uncooked, formed Piragi are placed on a baking pan, glazed with a mixture of beaten egg and water, and then baked for minutes.

9 NOTE: Almost all of the steps mentioned above can be varied upon by the individual preparer according to his/her tastes. The preparation of Piragi is in itself a piece of folklore to be studied. Small groups often times come together to make the Piragi in a collective - each person being assigned a different task. It is in the most labor intensive part the process - the forming of Piragi - that a social event often takes place. Children form Piragi alongside their parents, members of communities and many others gather together for this event with everyone having a relatively equal status in the preparation sequence. The part of the task that is reserved for the most experienced, though, is the making of the dough and filling - this task requires that the preparer have the necessary "taste" for how the Filling and dough "should be." Overall, the making of Piragi serves to stimulate community solidarity while reminding participants of their heritage.

10 ! Latvian Full Course Meal Latvian meals are always served with bread of some type. Beef steaks, pork chops with green salad and potatoes on any type are served in many restaurants and at home. Salads are a part of Latvian Daily Life Salads of all types, sizes shapes and creative designs are eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

11 Latvian Cuisine Latvian cooking was not merely "peasant" food, it was serf food! (As a general rule, Latvians were serfs until the early 1800's - except for eastern Latvia, where serf emancipation occurred several decades later.) As a result, truly Latvian cooking: consisted of very cheap, self-grown, ingredients (such as dried peas, and cheap cuts of meat, such as porkhocks or bacon). had few or no spices (as imported spices were expensive and normally only available in the major cities). was high in calories (to ensure enough energy for the daily, backbreaking labour!). Thus, a typical, truly Latvian, dish would be something like boiled black peas with small snippets of bacon (yum! ;-). Therefore, the recipes you will see here are the more interesting examples of Latvian cuisine, as influenced by surrounding cultures. Latvian cuisine has been heavily influenced by German, Swedish, and Russian cuisine. You will, no doubt, see influences from each of these countries in the following recipes.

12 Breakfast or Lunch foods Latvian crepes (not those dry, flimsy French ones!) Jânis' Cheese (great on bread for breakfast, but a must for celebrating Jâñi) Latvian Bacon Buns ("Pîrâgi" - the Latvian version of piroshki, but much better!) Latvian Pâté ( much better than store-bought!) Latvian Sour Cream Soup (a cold soup, like vichysoise, but without the potatoes. Very refreshing in the summer!) Dinner or Supper Latvian beet soup (if you don't like beets, you'll still like this!) Latvian potato salad ("rasols" everybody loves this!) Latvian sauerkraut (sauerkraut like you never imagined it could be! ) Latvian smorgasbord (what to serve for a fancy occasion) Dessert Latvian Kringel (actually a coffee cake, but this is what Latvians use for a birthday cake)

13 Latvian-style Cheese Danishes ("Biezpien maizîtes") (lower calorie than Danishes made with cream cheese, but just as good!) Latvian Apple Loaf (the best apple dessert I ever ate!) Latvian Manna (a cold, creamy dessert. Delicious!) Latvian Fruit Sauce (something between a jelly and a fruit soup. Great with ice cream!) Cranberry Sauce (what to serve over Latvian Manna)

14 Latvian Crepes 3 eggs 1/2 cp. flour 1/4 or1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 cp. milk 3 Tbsp. oil Prepare batter ahead of time and let sit at least 1 hour. May be left in refrigerator overnight. Beat eggs well, in large bowl. When completely mixed, add flour and salt. Stir until all lumps are gone. Pour milk into a separate bowl, or large mixing cup, and add oil. Mix with fork until oil is no longer floating on top. Add little by little to flour & egg mixture. Let this sit at least 1 hour. (Don't use a huge frying pan. Each crepe will take up the whole bottom of the pan. If the crepes are too large, they will break more easily, and be hard to handle. Stack finished crepes on a plate, and keep warm in the oven, until ready to serve.) Heat frying pan to medium, or medium-high heat. Unless you are using a non-stick frying pan, put a tiny pat of butter and a few drops of oil into the pan before you pour in the batter for each new crepe. Use about half a ladleful of batter for each crepe. Pour batter onto pan. Immediately lift pan from stove and tilt pan until the batter has covered all of the bottom of the pan. Cook on medium (or medium-high) heat until crepe lifts easily with spatula (egg-turner in some dialects!). Flip over and cook other side. When cooked, each side should have brown spots on it.

15 Instead of syrup, spread sour cream and/or jam on your Latvian crepe. Then fold it twice, or roll it up, and enjoy! Serves 2. (Yes, to serve 6 people, you really do need 9 eggs!) This is the Latvian version of "Swedish Pancakes". Jânis' Cheese (Jâñu siers) 4-5 lbs. dry cottage cheese or ricotta 10 quarts milk 1 tsp. yellow food colouring (optional) 2-3 Tbsp. oil cheese cloth 5-6 oz. butter 6 eggs 1 Tbsp. caraway seeds 1 Tbsp. salt 1-2 tsp. lemon juice (may be unnecessary) Drain off any liquid in the cottage cheese. Put it through a Cuisinart or blender to make sure it is finely ground. Use a large Dutch oven or stock pot. Put oil in pot, add milk. Heat to boiling. Then add cottage cheese and keep stirring. If milk mixture doesn't curdle within about 5 minutes, add the lemon juice. When curdled, strain off all liquid. Place cheese mass in cheese cloth (gauze) and wring out any remaining moisture. Melt the butter in the pot, put in the cheese mass and heat until hot. Meanwhile beat eggs together with salt and caraway sees. Gradually add beaten egg mixture to heated cheese mass. Mix well and keep on stirring until it all balls up and becomes a bit stretchy. Remove from heat and pack into a number of small round-bottomed bowls. (Alternately, shape into small cheese wheels, and wrap in cheese cloth.) Cover, and keep cool.

16 Latvian Bacon Buns (Pîrâgi) These buns can be used as appetizers, as part of a light lunch (with, say, a cup of bouillon), or as part of a smorgasbord. They are best straight from the oven, but can be frozen and reheated. They are absolutely delicious! Meat Filling 1 finely chopped onion 1/2-3/4 lb. bacon, finely diced (or 1/2 lb. bacon and 1/4 lb. ham or pork jowl) salt and pepper to taste (Filling can be prepared ahead of time and kept in the fridge) Dough Ingredients 3/4 cp. milk 1/4 cp. butter 2 tsp. salt 2 Tbsp. sugar 1 pkg. (about 1 Tbsp.) dry yeast 1/4 cp. warm water 1 beaten egg 3 1/2 cps. white flour 1-2 Tbsp. sour cream (optional) Glaze Ingredients 1 egg, beaten 1-2 tsp. milk or water 1/4 tsp. sugar (optional) Preparing the Filling The filling should be prepared ahead of time and allowed to cool. Can be prepared the day before and kept cool in the fridge.

17 Dice/chop all filling ingredients and saute in frying pan over low heat until about half the fat has melted (15-30 minutes). Drain off all but about a tablespoon of the melted fat. Season with lots of pepper and salt, and allow to cool. Making the Dough Heat the milk until a thin skin starts to form. Remove from heat, and add in butter, salt, and sugar. Let cool until lukewarm. Put the yeast in the quarter cup of warm water. Wait until it starts to bubble up. Add it to the (lukewarm) milk mixture. Also add the beaten egg. To this add about 1 1/2 cps. flour and beat until smooth. Now add the rest of the flour about a half cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. If desired, add the sour cream after all the flour has been added. Sour cream makes for a lighter dough. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or towel and let the dough "rest" for 10 minutes. Meanwhile prepare a floured surface (board or clean counter) for kneading. After 10 minutes, turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead lightly for 5-6 minutes until the dough is smooth, but still somewhat soft. Grease a large bowl. Put dough into bowl and turn it until all surfaces have been greased. Cover bowl with damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (30-90 minutes, depending on the warmth of the environment). Making the buns (pîrâgi) When the dough has risen, punch it down. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a floured surface for making piragi. Take meat filling out of fridge. Mix together all the glaze ingredients.

18 Cut off a large piece of the dough. Roll it into a rope about 1 1/2-2 inches in diameter. Cut it into segments about 1 1 /2 inches thick. Make each bit into a small pancake, oval or square. On one half of it, put a teaspoonful (or a little less) of the filling. Fold the dough over, pinching the edges together. Make sure there are no openings left, or the filling will leak out with the pinched seam underneath. Rising and Baking Place the finished buns on an ungreased cookie sheet, with the pinched seams underneath. Let rise in a warm place, until almost doubled in bulk. Brush them with the glaze. Bake at 400 degrees F for minutes, depending on their size, and how brown you want them to look. Golden brown is good. Let cool a bit and enjoy!

19 Latvian Sour Cream Soup ("Skâbâ putra") Ingredients: 4 cps. water 1/3 cp. barley 2 cps. buttermilk 4 cps. milk 1/4 cp. soured milk 1/2 cp. sour cream Making the soup: Wash barley. Place in saucepan, add water, and cook until tender. Let it cool until it has reached a temperature of about 85 degrees F (30 degrees C). Meanwhile let all remaining ingredients (except sour cream) come to room temperature. To the lukewarm cooked barley and water, add the buttermilk, (sweet) milk, sour milk, and leave it all to ferment in a warm place (about 6-12 hours). Then chill for 6-12 hours. Before serving, add the sour cream. Serves 4. This soup is eaten cold, with herring, or bread and butter, in hot weather.

20 Latvian Beet Soup 6-8 large, fresh beets, medium sized ones, or two dozen tiny new ones 1-2 handfuls of rolled oats (or rice) 6-8 medium-sized potatoes 3-4 beef bouillon cubes chopped hard-boiled eggs (1 per serving) sour cream (1 oz. per serving) Wash beets well, and cut off the roots. If using large beets, dice into large chunks. Put beets into a large Dutch oven or stock pot, and cover with water. Bring to a boil, and cook until beets are soft (about minutes, depending on the size of the beets). Drain off the water, and let the beets cool. Meanwhile, peel the potatoes and dice them (cubes about 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter). Put about 2-2 1/2 quarts of water into large pot. Add bouillion cubes, rolled oats (or rice), and potatoes. Bring to a boil, then simmer until potatoes are soft. Meanwhile, put the cooled beets into a Cuisinart or blender and blend to desired size and texture. Add beet mixture and stir all together, until beets are heated through. Into every soup plate put a dollop of sour cream and one chopped, hard-boiled egg (without shell!). Pour over them a couple of ladlefuls of the beet soup, and get ready for raves! Serves 8-12.

21 Latvian Potato Salad (Rasols) There are as many variants of this as there are Latvians! Therefore, I have designated a lot of items as "optional" which many a Latvian cook would deem "essential". This salad is always much better on the second, or even third, day. If you are able, it is always better to make it a day ahead of time, and let it "marinate" in the fridge in its salad dressing, at least overnight. Potato salad ingredients: 6 potatoes 6 eggs 6 pickles (optional) 6 pickled beets, or equivalent in sliced pickled beets (optional) 1 apple (optional) Salad dressing ingredients: 3 large dollops of mayonaise (Hellman's, if possible) 1-2 large dollops of sour cream 1-3 tsp. mustard 1-3 tsp. vinegar 1/4-1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (optional) Boil potatoes until soft (but not until they are falling apart). Hard boil eggs. Remove skins from potatoes, and shells from eggs. Dice into fairly large chunks (about 1/2 inch in diameter). Dice optional ingredients into smaller pieces. Put all diced ingredients into a very large bowl. Make salad dressing. Start with smaller amounts, and keep adding sour cream, vinegar, mustard, etc. until it tastes good to you. The salad dressing should taste somewhat salty and tart.

22 Add salad dressing to diced ingredients. Stir well. Cover. Refrigerate at least overnight. Serves 6. This is a German- and Russian-inspired recipe, but I think it tastes better than either!

23 Latvian Sauerkraut Even if you hate sauerkraut you'll love this! This is best made at least one day ahead of time and re-heated. You'll need a large Dutch oven or stock pot for this. 2 Tbsp. rendered goose grease, duck grease, or bacon fat 2-4 onions 1 can/jar store-bought sauerkraut 1 small head of cabbage 1-3 Macintosh or Granny Smith apples (optional) 1-2 cps. tomato juice (optional) 1/4-1 tsp. caraway seeds (optional) Chop onions. Put (cold) grease or fat in pot on low heat. Add onions and saute until cooked through (clear and soft, but not brown takes about 20 minutes). Meanwhile cut the head of cabbage (except for the core) into strips. Strain the canned sauerkraut, and throw out the juice. (If you are adding the apples, also peel, core, and chop them at this time.) When the onions are cooked, add all remaining ingredients. Add enough water to just cover. Simmer slowly forever. Well, at least 2 hours. Serves 6-10 people, depending on how much they like sauerkraut!

24 Latvian Smorgasbord ("Aukstais galds") This is what you would serve at a big party, a formal anniversary dinner, a wedding reception, a post-funeral reception, any formal or semi-formal occasion. The more formal the occasion and/or the more people attending, the more different kinds of dishes you serve. The essence of a Latvian smorgasbord is: variety, quality, and appearance. Unless the item would look messy if cut, every dish (smorgasbord ingredient?) must be already sliced and arranged on a plate, tray, in a basket, etc. Garnish everything! Most Latvians use chopped scallions (green onions) for colour (instead of parsley), and radishes cut into roses or slices as garnish (for a nice red accent). First you put out the savoury items. After these are all eaten, you clear off the buffet table and put out the desserts, and the coffee urn. This is similar to a Swedish smorgasbord, but it is almost invariably all cold dishes (and you don't serve Swedish meatballs!). Meat and fish dishes Ham (a Black Forest ham, cut into slices, would be ideal). Poached or baked salmon, cold, served whole, covered with a layer of sour cream & garnished. Smoked salmon, with a side dish of lemon wedges. Smoked eel (optional, but delicious! Latvians love it). Smoked whitefish (optional, but also delicious). Pickled herring (optional, but very Latvian). A whole smoked turkey (but only if available!). Homemade Pâté (optional)

25 Latvian Bacon Buns (pîragi) (optional, or as the appetizer) Salads Often two or more kinds of potato salad are prepared: one with beets, one without, and/or one with small pieces of pickled herring mixed in. Latvian potato salad ("rasols"). Slices of cucumber, with sour cream, salt, and pepper as a dressing. Slices of ripe tomato (optional). Breads Sliced and placed in baskets. Light rye bread (Latvian "Sweet and sour rye", if available). Dark rye bread, such as pumpernickel. White bread (French bread is good). Desserts One or more kinds of many-layered torte Latvian coffee cake

26 Latvian Kringel (Coffee Cake) This is the traditional Latvian birthday cake, when shaped as a pretzel. Served also on other family occasions, or as the centre piece in a dessert smorgasbord. 1/2 tsp. Spanish saffron, very finely crumbled or ground 1/4 cp. boiling water 2 Tbsps. yeast 1/2 cp. warm water 1 tsp. sugar 4 1/2 cps. flour 2 cps. table cream, warm 1/2 lb. butter 1/2-1 cp. sugar 3 egg yolks 1 1/2 cps. golden raisins 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom 1 tsp. salt 1 lemon, grate rind and keep juice to put in dough 1 orange, grate rind only (you can then eat the orange!) 1/2 cp. whole or slivered almonds (for decoration) 1 egg, beaten with about 1 Tbsp. water (for decoration) icing sugar (for decoration) Preparation ahead of time: Take eggs and butter out of fridge, and let come to room temperature. Crumble saffron into 1/4 cp. boiling water and let stand. Warm cream (on extremely low heat in a saucepan). Grate the orange rind and lemon rind, reserving the lemon juice for the kringel dough. Into the 1/4 cp. of warm water mix the teaspoon of sugar, and sprinkle yeast on top of water. Let stand (about 10 minutes) until bubbled up.

27 Mixing the dough: In a large bowl, combine warm cream with yeast mixture and add half of the flour. Mix well. Cover and let rise for half an hour in a warm place. Meanwhile, cream butter with sugar. Add egg yolks one at a time. Whip until light. Add raisins to remainder of flour. Add butter/sugar/egg mixture to risen dough/yeast/flour mixture. Now, in a very large bowl, mix together everything (except the items used for decoration). Mix until dough is smooth. Cover and let rise again in warm place until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour). Place risen dough on floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. Possible shapes: The traditional shape is a large pretzel shape. This is the way it is usually presented as a birthday "cake", or for a formal occasion. Pretzel shape: grease a cookie sheet. Stretch dough into a long, fat roll with tapered ends. Place the centre of the roll onto the middle of the long side of the cookie sheet. Make a pretzel shape by twisting the ends into the centre and placing them on the middle of the cake. Smooth and even out the "pretzel" until the two pretzel holes are about the size of a cup. Loaf shape: grease a cookie sheet. Cut dough into 3 even parts. Roll into strands and make a large plump braid. Alternately just place dough into 2 loaf pans. Cake shape: grease and flour a large Bundt cake tin (or two smaller ones) and place dough in it.

28 Preparing cake for baking: Brush surface of dough with beaten egg/water mixture. Sprinkle or decorate with almonds. Let rise again. Meanwhile preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Baking and presentation: Bake until golden brown (about minutes). Let cool in/on pan. If you have them, place paper doilies on a large platter and place kringel on them. Dust with icing sugar. Garnish imaginatively: with candles, bows, candies, flowers, etc. Enjoy!

29 Latvian-style Cheese Danishes ("Biezpien maizîtes") Dough ingredients: 1 cp. milk 2 1/2 cps. flour 1 package (1 Tbsp.) yeast 5 Tbsp. butter 5 Tbsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. salt Filling ingredients: 2 lbs. (dry) cottage cheese raisins (to taste) 10 Tbsp. sugar 1 package Oetker's vanilla sugar 1 package Oetker's vanilla pudding powder juice of half a lemon 2 eggs, separated Making the dough: Put milk in saucepan and heat until bubbles start to form. Let it cool until lukewarm. Then add one Tbsp. sugar, yeast, and let stand about 10 minutes. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Let this rise for 20 minutes. Cream butter, add sugar and salt. When dough has risen (for the 20 minutes) add the butter mixture, and remaining flour. Let rise for about one hour. Making the filling: Beat cottage cheese with a fork (or run through a Cuisinarttype food processor) to break up the lumps. Add sugar, vanilla

30 sugar, pudding powder, lemon juice, egg yolks, and raisins. Beat well. Whip egg whites and fold into cottage cheese mixture. Making the pastries: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Roll out batter onto a cookie sheet, and spread with filling. Alternately: make a number of small, Danish-style pastries and spoon filling into centre of each one. Bake for minutes. Put on a rack to cool. If made in a sheet, cut only when cooled. This has fewer calories than a traditional cheese Danish, but tastes just as good, if not better!

31 Latvian Manna ("Buberts") Ingredients: 3 cps. milk 1/2 cp. Cream of Wheat 2 eggs, separated 4 Tbsp. sugar 1 tsp. vanilla Making the dessert: Heat milk. Slowly stir in Cream of Wheat. Boil at low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Whip egg yolks with 3 Tbsp. sugar and vanilla; add to Cream of Wheat. Whip egg whites and remaining Tbsp. of sugar until firm. Fold into Cream of Wheat mixture and chill. Accompaniments: Serve with Latvian Fruit Sauce or Cranberry sauce.