Traditional Food Recipes
BLACK RYE BREAD
Ingredients:
5 k rye flour, 2,5 l water, 60 g salt, caraway seeds.
Directions:
To make dough sift a third of flour in warm water and mix, add bread leaven (a leftover of dough from the last bread baking) dissolved in warm water or a new bread starter (prepared from a mixture of 20 g of yeast, 3 glasses of warm water, 3 glasses of rye flour and half glass of sour milk fermented for 24 hours). Mix all well, sprinkle with flour, cover and set in a warm spot again 24 hours to ferment. In the morning add salt, caraway seeds and remaining flour, knead dough well and set for another rising. When dough puffs up, heat the stove. Sweep out coals and cinders, dust a peel with flour or line with calamus, maple or dried cabbage leaves and form two oblong loaves on it. Smooth loaves with damp hands and put to a stove for 2 - 2,3 hours. Then dampen tops of loaves with warm water, cover loaves with a linen cloth and let cool.
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ENRICHED CAKE
Ingredients:
500 g flour, 15-20 g yeast, 50 g sugar, 50 g butter (fat), 1 cup milk, 5 g salt, flavorful seasonings.
Directions:
Dissolve yeast in sweetened, warm milk, sift in a third of flour, mix well, blend and let rest in warm spot for 2-3 hours, until batter has doubled (45 min). Add salt, sugar, remaining flour, melted butter and knead dough until it is no longer sticky. Add seasonings in the very end of kneading. Brush top of dough with fat, cover and set in a warm spot for another rising. Keep the dough for an hour or more to rise, not too long, so that the hole on the dough would still remain. Place dough to a baking pan and set warm for another rising (20-30 min). Brush top with egg wash and bake in a medium hot oven.
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BUCKWHEAT BABA / BABKA
Ingredients:
1 k buckwheat flour, 0,5 l milk, 1 egg.
Directions:
Blend flour in milk (sour milk, or milk mixed with sour cream), fold in egg, add salt and mix all well. To enrich the batter add finely chopped fried bacon and mix again. Place dough into a greased round baking pan and bake in a hot oven for about an hour.
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PANCAKES
Ingredients:
7 cup flour, 1 cup milk, 1-2 eggs, salt.
Directions:
Beat eggs with salt, pour a spot of milk, add flour and blend. Add remaining milk to thin down the batter. Pour down into a pan with hot oil.
Or
sift wheat (rye, buckwheat or barley) flour into warm water, milk or sour milk and let to ferment overnight, in the morning add 3 or 4 grated potatoes and blend again. Drop down to hot oil and fry on both sides.
Serve with pork scratchings, curd, potato (mashed potato porridge) or braised sauerkraut sauce.
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DUMPLINGS
Ingredients:
2,5 cup wheat flour, 0,5 cup water, salt, 1 egg, 15 g oil or other fat.
Directions:
Make stiff dough mixing flour, salt, water, beaten egg and oil, and roll out thinly. Make palm sized rounds, place some filling, fold over and seal edges well. Or put pieces of filling on dough and cover with another sheet of dough, then seal round buns using a cup. Drop dumplings into boiling, salted water and cook till they rise to surface. When dumplings are done, remove with slotted spoon into a bowl or put on a special board to drain. Serve covered with pork scratchings, butter or sour cream.
FILLINGS FOR DUMPLINGS
Cooked potatoes - 1 k cooked potatoes, 1 onion, 1 spoon butter or finely chopped bacon, bard or fat. Fry onion in butter and mix with riced potatoes. Blend all ingredients well and fill dumplings. Add fried bacon, chopped meat or herring to the filling.
Curd - 500 g curd, 1 tablespoon sour cream, 1-2 eggs, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, mint. Blend curd with sour cream and eggs, salt to taste, add sugar and finely chopped mint. Mix well and fill dumplings. Curd dumplings are eaten with sour cream and sprinkled with sugar.
Blueberries - 1 cup of blueberries. Use one teaspoon of washed and dried berries for one dumpling. Drop dumplings into boiling water and cook till they rise to surface. Substitute blueberries with black currants or pitted cherries.
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WHEAT DUMPLINGS SOUP / KIULKYNĖ, KLECKYNĖ, ZACIRKA
Ingredients:
3-4 cups flour, 1 cup water, salt, 2 eggs (not necessary).
Directions:
Make stiff dough and crush up with fingers or chop to tiny dumplings using a special hatchet. Drop dumplings into boiling water. When dumplings are done, add milk.
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GRATED POTATO CAKE / PLOKŠTAINIS
Ingredients:
1.5 k potatoes, 1 cup milk, 4-5 boiled potatoes, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 teaspoon fat (oil, butter, pork scratchings), salt, 1 onion.
Directions:
Grate peeled potatoes and squeeze gently to remove some of potato juice. Bring milk to a boil and pour over potato gratings. Fry onion and mix into grated potatoes, add boiled mashed potatoes, beaten eggs, salt to taste and mix well. Line a peel with a large cabbage leave, pour mixture slowly and flatten to make a layer by a finger breadth. Bake in a hot oven. Brush the top with wet potato starch for the cake to glaze.
When the cake is done, break to pieces and serve with fried bacon, scrambled eggs or curd. Or grease cakes with fat, put on each other and return to oven to soften.
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POTATO SAUSAGES / BULVINIAI VĖDARAI
Ingredients:
1 k potatoes, pork scratchings, eggs (not necessary), salt, black pepper, onions and natural pork casings.
Directions:
Grate peeled potatoes and scald gratings with fried pork scratchings and onions, salt and season to taste, add beaten eggs and mix well.
Wash casings, scrub out with salt and sluice out. Fill pork casings with potato mixture (not too tight, so that they do not break as they expand while baking) and place sausages into a greased baking dish quite loosely. Bake in a medium hot oven. Serve with fried bacon.
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BLOOD SAUSAGES WITH BARLEY GRITS / KRAUJINIAI VĖDARAI
Ingredients:
1 k barley grits, 0,5 l blood, pork scratchings, fat, salt, mint, natural pork casings.
Directions:
Soak grits for few hours and drain. Add blood, hot pork scratchings, chopped mint and salt. Blend all ingredients. Stuff casings with barley grits mixture, but not too tight. Tie sausage ends or tuck with wooden sticks and place into a greased baking dish. Bake in a medium hot oven for 1-1,5 hours. Serve covered with hot pork scratchings.
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LENTILS STUFFED POTATO BUNS
Ingredients:
0,5 k boiled and riced potatoes, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon starch, 1 cup soaked and grinded lentils, 1 onion, pork scratchings, 0,5 cup sour cream.
Directions:
Make dough with riced potatoes, egg, starch and salt. Knead well. Make palm sized rounds of dough, place some stuffing of lentils in the center. Fold over, seal edges and place into a greased baking dish. Bake in a medium hot oven for 30-35 min. When buns are done, cover with pork scratchings, fried onion and sour cream.
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COLD-NOSED POTATO BUNS / ŠALTANOSIAI
Ingredients:
1 k grated potatoes, 2 cups buckwheat or rye flour, 1 cup grinded poppy or hemp seed, salt, 0,5 teaspoon sugar.
Directions:
Drain some potato juice from grated potatoes, mix with flour and salt. Make palm size rounds of dough, place some stuffing made of onion and hemp seed grinded with salt (or poppy seed grinded with sugar) and form buns. Place into baking dish and bake in a medium hot oven for 45 min.
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ZEPPELINS / DIDŽKUKULIAI (CEPELINAI)
Ingredients:
3 k potatoes, 1/3 cup starch, salt.
For filling: 300 g ground meat, onion. Zeppelins may be stuffed with curd or pork scratchings filling
Directions:
Grate raw potatoes, squeeze dry, mix with starch and salt. Knead well. Make dumplings stuffed with filling. Seal seams, smooth with damp palms.
To make softer dough use boiled and mashed potatoes instead of a third of raw potato gratings. Put zeppelins into boiling water and cook for about
30 min.
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BLOOD SOUP / JUKA
Ingredients:
2 l pork broth, 0,5 cup rye flour (or 1 slice dark rye bread), 1 onion, black pepper, bay leaves, salt, mint.
Directions:
Make a broth, remove meat. Add dissolved in water and fermented rye bread pulp or crumbled bread to boiling broth. Beaten blood with salt, pour to soup, add chopped mint, bay leaves, black pepper. Boil soup another 5-7 min stirring constantly. Flour or bread may be replaced with flour or grated potato dumplings.
Suvalkieciai, people of the southwest region, make blood soup with dried fruits.
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SKILANDIS
Ingredients:
10 k pork, 400 g salt, 10 g sugar, 10 g black pepper, garlic.
Directions:
Cut meat to pieces (30-35 g), mix with some chopped lard (if meat is too lean). Add salt, chopped seasonings and mix all well. Stuff well-cleaned pork's stomach tightly with mixture to squeeze well and avoid air bubbles. Sew up the stuffed stomach, set narrow plates to it and tie using a string. Compress and set for 3-5 days, then smoke-dry. When a casing fogs up with smoke, skilandis has to be retied to reset plates. A smaller size skilandis is done in a week, a bigger one takes longer.
Skilandis is eaten raw or cooked. While boiling in water it is advisable to put the cut piece of skilandis into linen cloth for then it would not break up.
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SAMOGITIAN HODGEPODGE / ZEMAITISKAS SIUPINYS
Ingredients:
0.5 l dried peas soaked, 2 tablespoons grits, 200-300 g pork, 3 middle size potatoes, salt and seasonings to taste.
Directions:
Pour grits into cold water and cook. Cook soaked peas, potatoes and meat separately. Drain grits and peas, pour into a bowl of potatoes and meat, add salt and seasonings. Mix all well. Set on fire for another two minutes and shake well.
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SOUR CREAM BUTTER / KASTINIS
Ingredients:
1,5 l sour cream, 1 teaspoon butter, 50 g caraway seeds, salt.
Directions:
Blend with wooden spoon one tablespoon of sour cream and one teaspoon of butter in a ceramic bowl. When mixture becomes grainy, put a bowl in a hot water bath and proceed blending until solid mass is formed. Take a bowl out of the water and add another tablespoon of sour cream, repeat the process until all sour cream is used. The mixture has to be solid and white. When the mass starts stiffen add caraway seeds and salt. Cooks use a variety of seasonings, mint, poppy seed and spring onions.
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SOUR CHEESE
Heat sour milk until it curdles. Pour curds into a moist linen cheese bag and hang up to drain. Shake curds in bag, place between two boards and compress. Sprinkle cheese with salt and turn upside down several times.
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MUSHROOM BUNS
Ingredients:
1,5 cup wheat flour, 1 cup milk, 1 tablespoon sugar, 10 g dry yeast, 1 egg, 50g butter.
For filling: 1,5 cup cooked dried mushrooms, 1 onion, 1 carrot, oil, black pepper, salt.
Directions:
Blend yeast with some sugar and dissolve in warm milk. Sift a third of flour to milk and blend well. Sprinkle dough with flour and let rise in a warm spot. Add egg, salt, sugar, remaining flour and beat dough. In the end add melted butter. Knead dough until it is no longer sticky and set for another rising. Roll out dough to rolls, cut and roll out rounds. Stuff rounds with filling and seal edges. To make filling fry chopped mushrooms, onions and carrot, add black pepper and salt and mix well. Place buns into a greased baking dish and set in a warm spot to rise. Bake in an oven until golden brown.
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MUSHROOM SOUP/RASALYNE
Ingredients:
3 l water, 1 carrot, 1 onion, black pepper, salt, 3-5 dried boletus, 3-4 tablespoons grits (rye flour), sour cream.
Directions:
Pour grits, grated carrot, chopped mushrooms into boiling water and cook for about 30 min. Season in the end. Salt and whiten with sour cream just before serving.
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COLD BEET SOUP/SALTIBARSCIAI
Ingredients:
2 l sour milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1-2 cucumbers, 2 eggs, dills, spring onions, 1 cooked beet, V2 cup sour cream, V21 boiled water.
Directions:
Blend sour cream well. Cut cucumbers, sprinkle with salt, chopped dills and spring onions, beat gently with a spoon. Add coarsely grated beet and pour sour milk blended with boiled water. Serve with chopped hard boiled eggs and dollops of sour cream.
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BAKED FISH
Ingredients:
1 k fish, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 onion, 1 tablespoon fat.
Directions:
Clean fish and cut straight in half if it is a big one, then cut across into medium pieces. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper, roll in flour and fry in hot fat. Fry diced onion and cover baked fish.
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BREAD KVASS
Ingredients:
1,5-2 k black rye bread, 10-12 l water, 30-40 g yeast, 500-700 g sugar, 20-30 raisins.
Directions:
Cover thin sliced well-dried bread with boiling water and let sit for 10-12 hours in a bowl. Strain, add yeast blended with sugar, and remaining sugar, mix well, cover with a cloth and let ferment for 14 hours in a warm spot. When liquid begins to foam, remove scum and pour into bottles, add several raisins to each bottle close tightly and set in a cool spot. Kvass is ready to drink in 12 hours.
