Kiselis

This is a thickened fruit juice, served as a sauce with other desserts, used as a drink, and served with whipped cream. The thickness determines its purpose.

Taken from an old Latvian cookbook "Majturiba". 



Ingredients:

1 liter of water

200-250 g. of berries - fresh, frozen or dried (red currant are popular here, but you can use just about any combination. This is even made with dry fruit here- apricots, raisins, apples, prunes, etc. If using dried use only 100g. )

125 g. sugar

60-65 g. potato starch for thick, 40-45 g. for thin.

Method:

1. Clean berries if they are fresh. 
2. Place berries in pot, add water and bring to boil. 
3. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. 
4. Dissolve potato starch in a bit of cold water and add to boiling juice, stirring constantly. 
5. Bring to boil, remove from heat as soon as comes to boil. 
6. Cool. 
7. Serve with desserts or use as a drink. 

NOTE: Recipe says to sprinkle the sugar on after you pour it into your desired serving container so as to avoid it having a film over the top. I have not had that problem and always dissolve the sugar in the juice. Other Latvians can feel free to comment and I can adjust this recipe. 

Coffee Mousse

This recipe is taken from a very old cookbook that belonged to my Mother- in -law. the book is called "Majturiba". The original recipe is very small and says to use 1/5 of an egg, which I have never seen in any other cookbook. I did the original recipe x5, which is the proportions I will share with you today.

At Lido, the most popular cafeteria style restaurant in Latvia, with tons of traditional Latvian food choices this is a dessert we enjoy. It is served in a pretty dessert cup, with a red currant ķiselis (something like thickened juice) poured in the bottom and a square of this on top. Yum!



Ingredients:

250 g. cream
100 g. milk or cream ( today I used all cream because I didn't have any milk)
1 egg
75 g. sugar
10-20 g. coffee
10 g. gelatin.
Vanilla ( today I used a vanilla been scraped out)

Method: (May not be correct, but it is the way I did it and it worked. Hope if works for you, can see other recipes on the Internet for other directions)

1. Dissolve gelatin in a bit of water, or milk. 
2. If you use instant coffee you can add it later, but if you need to brew your coffee as we do here I made a very strong potion with about 1/2 cup of boiling water poured over the coffee grounds.  Let brew.
3. Mix well and cook over double broiler egg and sugar, stirring constantly. It should become thick. Add vanilla and stir.
4. I typically put my cup with the absorbed gelatin and milk or water into a water bath over low heat until it liquefies. Then stir this into the egg mixture. 
5. Add instant coffee or espresso to egg mixture, discarding of grounds. LET COOL. 
6. Whip cream until thickened and slowly pour in coffee mixture, continuing to whip until a nice thickened consistency.
7. Pour into bowl, dessert glasses, or pan if you desire to serve it as I mentioned above. I put mine in a small rectangular glass pan. 
8. Refrigerate until set. 
9. Serve with ķiselis or pureed strawberries ( as we will eat it this evening).or just enjoy it plain

Crackers

These have been a favorite cracker in our home for a long time now. Thanks to Elina for the recipe she copied out of a magazine and gave me. My friend Gunta inspired me to make a larger batch and freeze some for later- thus always having some dough on hand.

You can divide the dough in balls and roll each one individually or roll it out and cut them with cutters like we did.

Healthy, and yummy and sure to please even the youngest in the family.

Ingredients:

250 g. flour ( 2 1/4- 2 1/2 cups)
50 g. flax seeds ( 1/2 cup)
150 g. whole wheat or rye flour ( 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 t. salt
20 g. sugar (3-4 T)
1/2 t. baking soda
50 g. melted butter (6 T)
240 ml. kefirs, sour milk, buttermilk ( 1 cup)

Method:

1. Mix dry ingredients. 
2. Mix wet ingredients and stir into dry to form ball.
3. Knead as necessary, and divide into balls of teaspoon size. 
4. Roll dough in balls, or roll and cut. 
5. Place on lightly greased cookies sheet. 
6. Prick with a fork. 
7. Bake at apx. 175 degrees C or 350 degrees F until golden. 

Marshmallow Time

Love marshmallows? Try making your own as we did yesterday. They are really very simple and you can find them HERE. Yum!These very much reminded me of "Peeps" the Easter candy. I was thinking of coloring some sugar and making different Easter themed designs with these yummy mallows.

These yummy s'mores were supposed to be coated in chocolate- but we were short on chocolate so we just stuck them together with it.

We also decided we had better give roasting them a try to see if these can be a substitute for our summer fun of cooked marshmallows. They turned black too quickly though and melted too fast- will have to find a different recipe for that :)

Thanks Sweetapolitia for another fantastic recipe :)

Spicy Leek and Ground Meat Soup

I love trying new soups, and this one is from my Ievas Virtuve magazine. I have translated it into English. My husband really liked it and gave it 4.5 stars out of 5. I enjoyed it too.
Ingredients:

700 g. leeks ( I used onions for part of this- as I didn't have enough leeks at home.
1 small chili pepper ( I used canned ones)
1/2 kg. ground meat ( I used beef)
salt and pepper
1 T. flour
100 g. cream
1 liter of vegetable bouillon
200 g. soft cheese ( we have a cheese here intended for spreading on bread. )

oil

Method:

• Cook meat in oil until done. 
• Chop leeks and chili pepper, add to meat. Cook until leeks are done. 
• Add spices and flour, cook a bit. 
• Add bouillon and cream. 
• Cook apx. 15 min. 
• Add apx. 100 g. of soft cheese, stir well. 
• Serve garnished with drop of the remaining soft cheese in each bowl.

Lasagna

In America I was accustomed to making one recipe for lasagna, with ricotta cheese filling or sometimes cottage cheese, a tomato meat sauce, etc. However, my husband wasn't too fond of that recipe and with reheating it would get dry. When we had this lasagna, recipe courtesy of Gunta it was another story and my husband loved it.

Our girl's in cooking class had asked to make lasagna and so we did last week- for several of them it was their first time to taste lasagna- so here is the recipe for you all (with a few adjustments)

4 persons ( I doubled it- and ended up with one apx. 9x13 and a small one for the next day)

Ingredients:

150 g. frozen spinach - thawed.
300 g. ground meat ( I use a mixture of beef and pork or just beef)
2 onion- finely chopped.
2 garlic cloves- finely chopped
2 carrots- peeled and grated.
oil
400-500 g. tomatoes (fresh, canned, sauce or paste. I used a mixture of whatever I have on hand)
1 t, salt
2 t. oregano
1 t. garlic powder

8-10 lasagna noodle
100 g. grated cheese

Cheese Sauce:
400 g. milk
2 T. flour
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
100 g. grated cheese

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. 
2. Chop veges and cook in a little oil.
3. Cook meat and mix with veges, add spices, and tomatoes. Cook to make a savory sauce. 
4. Make cheese sauce by mixing milk with flour and spices and cooking over medium heat stirring until just boiling. Add cheese- cook until melted. 
5. Assemble by layering all ingredients- first noodles, then red sauce, spinach, some cheese sauce, and grated cheese. Repeat with remaining. 
6. Bake until heated through and bubbly, apx. 30 min.

To see this recipe in Latvian see Gunta's blog

Yeast Dough Recipes

Yeast Dough- Aunt Baiba's Recipe

Latvian Piragi- Bacon Rolls