Riga bagels are super duper!!! The croissants are resting... Another great yeast-leavened pastry - just a delightfully good product! Give it a try and you won't regret it! After I visited Latvia, I just fell in love with its bread and pastries (I am silent about smoked bacon and fish! Ah, this market in Riga - I could live there ...) - I surfed the Internet for a long time in search of recipes - but how Everything turned out to be very secret! It was hard to find good real Latvian recipes for bread and pastries... And as soon as I discovered them (solid recipes and even according to GOST Latvia) - there was no doubt: bake! and immediately! without delay! No sooner said than done! And the result exceeded all expectations - the most delicate airy light dough, not very sweet - it is impossible to break away from it ... What is the figure and diet like? - gouge out your eye, die on the spot, and give me a horn for tea! I tried to adhere to GOST, but I made some small changes: there was no saffron - I didn’t use it ... and - of course! you know me! - reduced the amount of yeast! Well, how else, otherwise I will not be me! I think that's enough talk - let's get down to business!
The beautiful Baltic country is small in territory, but it contains a huge number of attractions and natural beauties. Charming authentic villages and ancient baroque castles, Gothic cathedrals and wooden Orthodox churches harmoniously coexist on the same territory. In each of the Latvian cities there are places attractive for tourists - from narrow streets to famous beaches. As in all countries of the North, Latvia has excellent ecology, beautiful rivers, lakes, forests.
Event tourism is attractive: festivals of organ music, sand sculptures, musical events in Jurmala. In gastronomic tourism, the emphasis is on the environmental friendliness of products produced in the country. So what to try in Latvia?
Food in Latvia
Latvian cuisine is characterized by three main concepts - simple, satisfying, tasty. Today it is no less important that this cuisine is eco-friendly. It has been formed over the centuries, absorbing the features of the cuisines of neighboring countries - Lithuanian and Estonian, German and Scandinavian, and even Belarusian. Latvian cuisine is based on agricultural and livestock products. As well as the gifts of the Baltic Sea, rivers and lakes of Latvia.
Five of the best and most original products of the national cuisine have become the owners of the European mark "Guaranteed Traditional Product": Janov cheese, Tsarnikovskaya lamprey, gray peas, Sklandrausis pie and salted rye bread.
Top 10 Latvian dishes
It is difficult to call bread a separate dish. But in Latvia it is worth forgetting about all its other types. Because this one is unique, and after receiving the traditional products guarantee mark, it can only be baked in this country, according to the most ancient recipes. The older generation, perhaps, remembers bread called "Rizhsky" on the shelves of the USSR. Now you can try it only in Latvia. Bread is cooked for at least a day. And it is baked according to the recipe - not in molds, but on special hot stones. The result is a "signature" crust that retains flavor. In the refrigerator, such bread can be stored for almost six months, and does not lose either freshness or useful properties. But it's better to eat it fresh.
Unusual soups
Soups are considered an obligatory dish of the Latvian table, as are porridges. They are characterized by a combination of incompatible products. Not everyone dares to taste milk soup with herring, but this is a favorite dish among Latvians. Potatoes, onions and green onions are added there. Beer soup contains cottage cheese, boiled eggs, cumin, butter and rye crackers. All this is seasoned with sour cream.
There are cold soups: beetroot, rhubarb, sorrel, barley on buttermilk, bread soup with dried fruits. And how not to try the sweet blueberry soup with dumplings! Lemon is added for flavor.
Jan's Day, one of the most joyful national holidays in Latvia, cannot be imagined without this cheese, of course, with beer. It belongs to soft cheeses, in the format of Adyghe or feta, but with a special taste - due to the method of preparation and components. The country is considered the ancestor of all local cheeses, its recipe dates back to ancient times, when butter had not even been invented yet. Modern cuisine provides for oil, but otherwise the age-old traditions of cooking are respected - with obligatory cumin, eggs, cottage cheese and cow's milk. Ready cheese heads are wrapped in oak or maple leaves, then in clean pieces of linen. After this method of storage, loose yellowish pieces of cheese smell like summer and the sun.
Until now, every housewife prepares her own yanov cheese for the holiday. It can be tasted in restaurants, bought in shops, but it is more interesting to buy it from peasant merchants.
Carnikava Lamprey
Not just a delicacy, in the full sense of the word a cult product. It is named after the village of fishermen Carnikava on the banks of the famous Gauja. Fishing here originated more than three centuries ago; already in the second half of the 19th century, a fish hatchery and a fish factory were organized here.
Fashionable event tourism attracts many visitors to Carnikava – on Lamprey Day. This is a whole action, entertaining and entertaining, with contests, dances and fireworks. The main heroine of the holiday can be tasted fried, smoked, stewed, marinated and in jelly. The most traditional old dish is this fish fried on coals. The lamprey looks strange: without fins, bones and scales, and even a serpentine shape. But since the time of Catherine II, this fatty fish has been considered a delicacy, and deservedly so.
gray peas
The uniqueness of the dish is that the varieties of this pea are selected and grown only in Latvia. Despite the non-holiday name, gray peas are one of the main decorations of the Christmas table. Latvians consider pea seeds to be a symbol of tears. Therefore, they try to eat as much as possible in order to cry less next year. Eating a lot is easy - delicious. Boiled until soft peas are stewed with bacon fried with onions. The dish is very simple and delicious, worth a try. For those who avoid heavy meals, prudent Latvians serve gray peas with a glass of kefir.
Another indispensable dish of the Latvian Christmas table. This pie, always made from rye dough on baked lard, also belongs to the old dishes. It began to be baked in the 17th century, when potatoes were brought into the country. Previously, this cake symbolized the sun. Hence its open shape and bright carrot-potato filling. The pie has another, also common name - Sklandic gingerbread. In fact, it is least of all like a gingerbread. Lush sides, golden filling sprinkled with cinnamon - all this is more like a cheesecake. The pie is worth trying not because it is marked with a European sign. It's just delicious.
blood pancakes
A very ancient dish, as well as tender and tasty, despite the awesome name. The dough for pancakes is made not with milk, but with carefully filtered blood - pork or deer. It is diluted to the consistency of low-fat milk, and then according to the recipe for a regular pancake dough. Be sure to try. So butter, lingonberries or jam is just delicious. In addition, useful: trace elements in these pancakes contribute to the normal functioning of the heart and blood vessels.
Seafood
And this is not only smoked herring, which is known under the name of the famous Latvian sprats. Everything that the Baltic Sea gives is transformed into delicious casseroles - from cod, from herring, etc. Latvians also love fish stewed in milk with onions and carrots. Parsley and other aromatic herbs are added to it, served with a creamy sauce.
Ordinary herring is cooked with onion sauce or fried on coals. It turns out a delicacy. Skilled Latvian chefs even cook flounder on a grill so that a simple dish is eaten like a culinary delight. Still worth trying smelt in batter
These crispy cookies are also an attribute of the Christmas and New Year holidays. In translation, its name means cookies with pepper or cookies with spices. Cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom and allspice are added to it from the heart. They give a spicy taste.
Biscuits have been common throughout Northern Europe since the 13th century. Recipes have improved: they began to add honey, nuts, caraway seeds, vanilla, lemon or orange zest to the dough - whatever you like. In stores in Latvia, before the holidays, they sell spicy dough for baking piparkukas and the cookies themselves in the form of various figures. Glazed angels, stars, houses create an indescribable Christmas atmosphere.
Old Riga
The name of the famous cake is translated as Old Riga. There is no person who has visited Riga and has not tried the most delicate confectionery product with indispensable coffee. It has been a symbol of the Latvian capital for a very long time. Served in almost all coffee shops. Outwardly, they look like a common “shu” cake. The filling is cottage cheese with cream and vanilla. Everything is prepared from the freshest ingredients, without the slightest deviation from the recipe. It turns out an exquisite indescribable dish that can only be tasted in old Riga.
Formation of the Latvian cuisine took place over many centuries. Therefore, in the dishes that are considered traditionally Latvian, many features of Lithuanian, Estonian, Belarusian, German and Scandinavian national cuisines are guessed. Most of them are easy to prepare and satisfying. Some national dishes, replaced by European cuisine, are less often cooked in Latvian homes, others, for example, Janov cheese, are served on the table as often as before. Daily diet citizens mainly includes fish, vegetable dishes (stews, casseroles, salads), meatballs, but on holidays, national dishes are always put on the table in abundance. The main products from which Latvians prepare food are rye and wheat flour, cereals, potatoes, dairy products, various types of legumes and vegetables.
A Russian tourist in the cuisine of Latvians, and in the cuisines of other Baltic peoples, is sometimes very surprised by the “combination of the incongruous”, for example, bread soup with dried fruits, rhubarb jelly or black bread with whipped cream. First courses are generally very different from the cuisines of other countries of the world, even those that seem to be located in the neighborhood. In everyday life, Latvians cook soups on bread, milk, and even with added sugar.
Gifts of reservoirs
Despite the fact that the basis of the diet of Latvians is agricultural crops, the location of the country directly on the Baltic coast has led to the widespread consumption of fish and seafood by its inhabitants.
Of the marine fish, the most revered in are mackerel, herring, cod and herring; from the river, perch, pike, carp and bream are most often prepared. A special place is given to herring. This fish is grilled with the addition of vegetables, cooked on coals, casseroles are made and in various forms (salted, pickled, boiled) are included in sandwiches, salads. Cod is also often used to make casseroles. Almost every good Latvian restaurant offers salmon dishes.
There are a large number of fish farms on the coast of the Baltic Sea, where you can enjoy smoked flounder, eel, cod and lamprey.
Seafood is widely used in various salads: shrimp, cuttlefish, scallops, abalone and octopus. They are often mixed with plain boiled rice and herbs and seasoned with mayonnaise or heavy cream.
Meat
The most consumed type of meat in Latvia is pork. The medieval ancestors of the Latvians loved to treat themselves to pork tails, snouts and ears. A modern person can taste dishes from them in many restaurants, where they are offered as delicacies.
Popular among Latvians are baked pork knuckle and jelly. A lot of dishes are also prepared from veal, beef, lamb, poultry, but not as often as from pork.
Legumes
Legumes are widely used by Latvians in the preparation of soups, second courses, and casseroles. The most popular dish is gray peas with speck (lard). It is customary to cook it at Christmas, which is done with pleasure by both housewives and chefs in restaurants. Guests of Christmas markets always have the opportunity to eat this dish. And for tourists who did not get on the Christmas holiday, you can try peas with bacon in a restaurant specializing in national cuisine.
Vegetables
The most popular vegetables in cooking among medieval and modern Latvians are cabbage, onions and potatoes. Carrots and beets are a little less common, but also present in many recipes. Unique taste qualities and nutritional value are achieved by adding the root and greens of parsley, black radish, horseradish, dill, chicory. Recently, traditional dishes have also been seasoned with cumin.
Bread
In, most likely, there is no such house in which there would be no rye bread or dishes prepared using it. On the basis of rye bread, locals prepare yoghurts, all kinds of desserts and, no matter how strange it may sound, ice cream. A frequent guest on the Latvian table is bread soup. And shop windows offer an abundance of types of rye and wheat bread with various additives: with dried fruits, nuts and even grated carrots, which causes sincere surprise among guests from Russia.
National dishes offered by specialized restaurants
Table of an ordinary Latvian hostess and many establishments Catering- this is in most cases a set of national dishes, "optimized" for modernity. To taste real Latvian cuisine “from A to Z”, a tourist should at least once go to a restaurant specializing in cooking, the recipe of which was created in the Middle Ages.
Guests are advised to try the following dishes:
· Cheeses made on the basis of cottage cheese and eggs with the addition of cumin. These include the Yanov cheese mentioned at the beginning of the article, which has an appetizing yellowish tint and an exquisite salty taste.
· Putra - various cereals made on the basis of vegetables and cereals with the addition of meat, lard, fish (optional), less often fermented milk products.
· Klops - pork or beef steak with an unusual onion sauce.
· Silkyu pundysh - herring casserole with potatoes. It is used both as a festive and as an everyday dish.
· Boiled potatoes with cottage cheese, seasoned with herbs, sour cream and salt. The combination of cottage cheese and potatoes is common for, and it is sometimes shocking for Russians.
For beer, guests in any restaurant will be offered rye crackers with cheese, garlic, seeds, tomatoes and all kinds of seasonings.
Sweets
Buns, cookies, cakes and sweets offered by Latvian stores are not much different from Russian ones. But as for the desserts served in cafes and restaurants, they are very original. For example: semolina dessert with chocolate, jam or whipped cream; milk-bread soup with raisins and cream; bread ice cream with jam; other combinations of bread, jam, nuts, dried fruits and dairy products.
Beverages
Without drinks, it is impossible to form a true opinion about Latvian cuisine. Most of them are based on honey and tree sap (maple and birch). Latvians also often prepare sour jelly with the addition of lingonberry juice or curdled milk, rhubarb jelly, bread kvass. Restaurants offer a wide variety of excellent locally produced beers.
Most catering establishments are concentrated in. Among them, a tourist can choose a cafe or restaurant in accordance with their preferences and budget.
goBaltia
The Soviet era completely eliminated all the authentic features of the Latvian cuisine, and therefore today it is incorrect to talk about Latvian cuisine as a special and unique culinary tradition. There are simply no Latvian national dishes that could vividly represent the local culture.
Two traditions can be distinguished in Latvian cuisine. One of them is the tradition of German townspeople, which is also common in Estonia. It was the Germans who taught Latvians to eat sauerkraut, pickled vegetables, smoked sausages, and beer. Another tradition is the primitive diet of the Latvian peasants, based on the use of dairy products, potatoes, cereals and meat. Actually, a mixture of these two traditions is modern Latvian cuisine, recipes with photos of which you will find in this section.
In cooking, Latvians use products that are characteristic of all Eastern European cuisines. Here, rye bread has been baked since ancient times, cereals are used (mainly for cooking cereals), legumes (peas, beans), vegetables (carrots, turnips, onions). In the nineteenth century, potatoes appeared in Latvia, which immediately became one of the most popular food products here. Since ancient times, Latvians have eaten a lot of meat, and fish is popular in coastal regions. Dairy products are an important source of protein.
The traditional lunch of a Latvian peasant is boiled potatoes with milk or kefir. If possible, meat, pickled or pickled vegetables were served at the table. Actually, the active use of potatoes, dairy products, meat and pickled and pickled vegetables is also characteristic of modern Latvian cuisine.
Important features of Latvian cuisine are also the moderate use of spices. Latvians used to have to import salt, so it was used very sparingly. Latvians season their dishes lightly, usually with cumin, mustard or garlic. Sugar is also unpopular - since ancient times, honey has been the only sweetener in local cuisine. Dishes of the Latvian national cuisine are not spicy, a little fresh and usually fatty.
For historical reasons, in Latvia the table of cold appetizers is very rich and the table of hot dishes is very poor. From ancient times, Latvians worked in the fields from morning to evening, so they did not have time to cook hot meals. Therefore, both for breakfast and for lunch, Latvians ate cold dishes. Until now, cold appetizers are a key element of the Latvian menu.
Like other Eastern European peoples, modern Latvians eat a lot of soups. However, there are no special Latvian soups - they all look like Estonian, German, Lithuanian or Slavic soups.
Putra is the only category of dishes that is truly unique to Latvians. Putra is prepared as follows: individual products are taken (cereals, potatoes, meat, fish, etc.), boiled separately, then mixed with cottage cheese and yogurt, infused for a day at a low temperature and only then served. Once upon a time, putra was the number one dish for Latvian peasants, but today this dish is forgotten. A typical Latvian lunch is a cutlet or chop of meat or fish, served with potatoes, vegetable salad and, rarely, pickled or pickled vegetables.
The Latvian dessert table is also unoriginal - almost all desserts and drinks are borrowed from the Germans or Russians.
However, if Latvians cannot boast of world-famous dishes, desserts or soft drinks, they nevertheless invented one unique alcoholic drink. The famous Riga Balsam, invented in the eighteenth century, is produced only in Latvia. Today it is an element of many popular alcoholic cocktails.
Traditional Latvian cuisine combines dishes typical of the entire Baltic region, as well as German, pan-European and Russian cuisine. Basically, they cook here from fish, smoked meat and sour-milk products.
The national dishes of Latvia are distinguished by their simplicity and satiety. Here they appreciate vegetables, vitamin berries, and sometimes they create real masterpieces from them. In green markets in small towns, you can buy organic products or ready meals.
Traditional Latvian cuisine
We have collected the most common Latvian dishes for you, and we recommend trying them.
Putra- vegetable and grain porridge with bacon, smoked meat or fish is truly satisfying. Although it is considered a simple folk dish, nevertheless, its analogues can be found in many restaurants.
curdled milk, fermented milk porridges, are popular throughout Latvia, as are all kinds of homemade cheeses like backstein. BUT caraway son you can easily buy in any market and in many supermarkets. It is a common snack in restaurants.
Latvians love originality, so you can't surprise anyone here with spicy milk soup with fish, a dish popular in the Baltic coastal regions.
Sour barley porridge skābputra prepared from curdled milk and cereals, sour for several days for a special flavor for an amateur.
sausages kupaty with lingonberries and lingonberry sauce are unusual, and their recipe is quite complicated, so try this dish in Latvia, you won't regret it.
Silkupudins considered a good cold appetizer, it is a casserole with herring and potatoes. Simple and satisfying, it is popular everywhere.
Also try the onion steak. bugs, a rather fatty and voluminous dish of Latvian cuisine, which is difficult not to eat.
Sklandrausis can be found in many cafes and shops, restaurants and fairs. It's a regular vegetable pie and it's really delicious.
Latvian dessert bubert made from semolina porridge with whipped cream, nuts, vanilla and cranberry sauce.
Of the non-alcoholic drinks in Lithuania, which are also dishes, one can name various types of jelly putels with rhubarb, milk, cream or fruit. Bread kvass is almost everywhere.
Almost all alcoholic drinks in Lithuania are good. Riga Melnais Balzams is beyond competition. Aldaris Luxusa, Aldaris Zelta and Bauskas Gaisais are popular among light beers, while Porteris and Bauskas Tumsais are popular among dark beers.