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 pork hocks 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*.
Breakfast or Lunch foods
- Latvian crepes (not those dry, flimsy French ones!)
- Jānis' Cheese (great on bread for breakfast, but a must for celebrating Jāņi)
- Cheese "Danishes" (Biezpien maizītes — easy to make and just delicious!)
- Bacon Buns (Pīrāgi — the Latvian version of piroshki, but much better!)
- Come Back Tomorrow (I've never met a Latvian yet who didn't love these crepes with their savoury filling!)
- Pâté ( much better than store-bought!)
- Water Pretzels (the Latvian version of bagels)
- Jellied Meat (also known as galerts; it's absolutely mouth-watering!)
Dinner or Supper
- Soups (a selection of mouth-watering soups)
- Breaded Pork Chops (karbonāde - a pork chop prepared like wiener schnitzel, so every bite is tender)
- Sauerkraut (sauerkraut like you never imagined it could be! )
- Potato Salad (Latvian rasols – everybody loves this!)
- Sausage Potato Salad (a different type of rasols – like a meal in itself)
- Smorgasbord (what to serve for a fancy occasion)
Dessert
- Manna (a cold, creamy dessert. Delicious!)
- Cranberry Sauce (what to serve over Manna)
- Fruit Sauce (something between a jelly and a fruit soup. Great with ice cream!)
- Fruit Compote (same as the Fruit Sauce, but made with dried fruit, not fresh)
- Cakes, Tortes, etc. (a selection of delectable baked goods)
*Most of these recipes came from my aunts, Mrs. Valentīna Blaubergs and Mrs. Vera Līcitis, my cousin (who prefers to remain anonymous), my sister Linda Bāliņš, or my stepmother, Mrs. Dzidra Šteinbergs. However, I also owe a debt of gratitude to a very helpful cookbook: Latvian Cooking, published in 1984, by the Ladies Auxilliary of the Latvian Relief Society of Canada, Inc., printed in Hamilton, Ontario by Campbell-Barry, Hamilton.