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Christmas Eve Food in Lithuania

Fri, 13 Oct 2017 07:00:00 GMT

Christmas Season is unarguably the biggest among all public holidays in Lithuania - much like in most Western countries. What may surprise you, however, that not Christmas itself, but rather Christmas Eve ("Kūčios") is more anticipated and has more traditions, both cultural and culinary, attached to it.

Authentic Christmas Eve celebrations encompass a variety of ceremonies and rituals, some of which date as far as Lithuania's pagan times before the end of the 14th century. Today, Christmas Eve is mostly regarded as an annual occasion to gather family and friends around the dinner table.

Twelve Dishes for the Christmas Eve Dinner Table

Lithuanian Christmas Eve Dinner

Traditionally, twelve dishes are to be served on a Christmas Eve table (symbolizing twelve months of the year) and the dinner is to start once the Western star rises. To date, I am not sure what the Western star is, but the twelve dish rule is generally much easier to observe :)

So what are the typical 12 dishes that you would find on a Lithuanian Kūčios dinner table?

Herring & Beet Salad

1, 2, 3 and maybe more. Various herring salads

Not even kidding - you will find on average 3 types of dishes containing herring on a typical Lithuanian Christmas Eve table. Herring with beets, herring with carrots, herring with apples, herring with hot potatoes - you name it. I personally LOVE herring and Christmas Eve is a good occasion to get a year's fill of it.

Herring Terrine

... and more herring

Kūčiukai

4. Christmas Eve Cookies ("Kūčiukai")

I translated the name of this pastry as "cookies" for the lack of a better word. Kūčiukai (sometimes called šližikai) are crouton-sized dough bits made of plain flour, water and poppy seeds and baked exceptionally for Christmas Eve only. Once baked, they become rock-hard within a day, yet are served as a table centerpiece because of old traditions. What is Christmas Eve without a cracked tooth!

Yet do make Kūčiukai if you plan to have truly Lithuanian Christmas Eve - you will find the recipe in my next post.

Poppy Seed Milk

5. Poppy Seed Milk

Another special for Christmas Eve, poppy seed milk is something like Lithuanian eggnog. It is often served alongside with Christmas Eve cookies - something like breakfast cereal, only for dinner.

6. Cranberry Kissel Drink

Kissel is found in many Eastern European cuisines, and it is usually a berry or fruit flavoured thick starchy dessert. In Lithuania, however, kissel is thinned down to a consistency of a drink, and its cranberry variety is a favorite in winter and during Christmas season.

Traditionally, cranberry kissel is made by boiling cranberries, straining them, thickening the hot liquid with starch and adding sugar to taste. As a shortcut, you may heat up ready-made cranberry juice and drizzle some starch suspended in a small amount of water to thicken the juice. Voila - you have a kissel.

Cranberry Kissel Drink

Communion Wafers

7. Communion wafers

Catholicism is the dominant religion in Lithuania, and sharing community wafers during the Christmas Eve dinner is common. Usually a wafer is passed around the table, and each family member breaks and eats a piece, whishing the others a good year ahead. Thus it is not strictly a dish, but one of a better known traditions. One usually can buy wafers from their nearest church.

White Salad

Beef tongue cuts

Aspic

Tangerines on Christmas Eve table

8 and on. The Rest

The remaining of the twelve dishes (and lets face it - twelve is the minimum, rather than the exact count, nowadays) vary from table to table, from family to family. Here a several of the most common ones:

Potato salad - or as Lithuanians call it, "white salad", is a favorite in various celebrations, not only in Christmas season.

Cold cuts - ham, roasts, or beef tongue with condiments. Traditionally, meat is not allowed on the Christmas Eve table due to Advent observances, but this is often no longer the case nowadays.

Aspic - a savoury collagenous jelly made with meat and set in a mould. Served with mayo, horseradish or vinegar.

Tangerines - tropical fruits, of course, are far from traditional, but in the latter decades tangerines in particular became very common on the Christmas Eve table. Grocery stores also seem to stock up on them in December in anticipation of the demand. Culinary globalization in action!

Chocolate and candies - our family's Christmas Eve tradition was to serve a certain Lithuanian candy brand "Griliažas" - something like peanut brittle covered in chocolate.

Candies "Griliažas"

You may by now have come to an impression that Lithuanian Christmas Eve table mostly consists of salads, appetizers and snack-like dishes - and you would be right. Hot courses, such as roasted turkey, goose or cepelinai are usually reserved for the Christmas day lunch. Nevertheless, the Eve dinner is very rich and filling, and the New Year resolutions for weight loss usually start on Christmas Eve.

Peaceful Christmas, everyone!

Time for Cepelinai!

Tue, 12 Jan 2016 08:01:48 GMT

As it is cold outside, it may be time for a filling, heavy and incredibly delicious winter meal. I am talking, of course, about the national dish of Lithuania - potato zeppelins ("cepelinai").

Zeppelins are large dumplings made of potato dough, stuffed with (usually) meat and generously drowned in rich creamy bacon gravy. Yes, millions of calories per serving - but who counts when it is sooo good!

The ingredients for zeppelins are fairly simple (potatoes, meat, bacon, sour cream), but the preparation techniques are a tad complex. The most difficult step, in my opinion, is grating of potatoes with the fine, prickly side of your box grater. If you think it is not a big deal, that is maybe because I forgot to mention that you will need to grate 6 pounds / 2.5 kg of potatoes to serve 4 people. That means lots of elbow grease and scraped knuckles - and it is OK if you are up for a workout. To those not very enchanted by the idea I strongly recommend an electric potato grater, which will do the job in a minute.

To make cepelinai from scratch, allow yourself 2-3 hours (or more if you plan to grate the potatoes manually).

And here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

For dough:

7 lbs / 3 kg Russet potatoes
1 pill of vitamin C (to prevent grated potatoes from discoloration)
2 tsps salt

For filling:

6 oz / 200 g ground pork
6 oz / 200 g ground beef
1 medium (3 oz / 100 g) onion, chopped
2 tsps salt
Pepper to taste

For gravy:

6 oz / 200 g country bacon, diced
2 large (1 lb / 450 g) onions, chopped
Oil for frying
1 cup / 250 ml sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION STEPS

1. Peel the potatoes. Set aside 5/6 of all potatoes. Place the remaining 1/6 of the potatoes into a pot, cover with water, add a pinch of salt and boil until soft (about 30 minutes). Drain, mash with a potato masher, and set aside to cool.

2. Crush the vitamin C pill on a chopping board with a blade of a chef’s knife and place in a large mixing bowl. Vitamin C is acidic and will prevent grated potatoes from discoloration (otherwise they turn dark very quickly when grated).

3. Grate the remaining 5/6 raw potatoes with an electric or manual potato grater (the fine, prickly side of the box grater) into the bowl containing the vitamin C. Mix from time to time while grating, so that the potatoes do not turn dark.

4. Place part of the grated potatoes into a cheesecloth and squeeze well until the potatoes are barely moist. Reserve the potato juice in a bowl. Repeat with the rest of the grated potatoes.

5. Once all potatoes are juiced, slowly pour away the potato juice from the bowl. There will be a layer of potato starch settled on the bottom of the bow;.

6. Knead the potato starch with the juice grated potatoes and with the mashed boiled potatoes until well combined. Add 2 tsps of salt while kneading.

7. For the filling, combine the ground beef, pork, chopped onions, pepper and salt. Mix well.

8. Fill a large 10 quart / 8 litre stockpot with water up to 2/3 of volume. Add 1 tbsp of salt. Set to high heat and bring to boil.

9. While the water is coming to boil, take a lump (the size of a tennis ball) of the potato dough and flatten in your hands. Take a small lump (the size of a ping-pong ball) of the prepared meat filling and put on top. Fold the potato dough on top and press the edges to seal the dumpling into a smooth shape of a zeppelin. Make sure it is well sealed; otherwise zeppelins may open up during boiling. Repeat with the remaining dough and meat.

10. Once the water comes to boil, reduce the heat to medium and carefully lower the zeppelins into the boiling water.

11. Boil for 15-20 minutes until the meat inside is cooked through. Carefully remove the zeppelins from the pot with a slotted spoon.

12. While the zeppelins are boiling, prepare the gravy. Add the diced bacon and chopped onions into a large frying pan and sauté on medium heat for 5-10 minutes until grease is released from the bacon and onions are translucent and soft. If the bacon is lean, you may need to add a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil or lard.

13. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the sour cream, mix well and turn the heat off. Thin the gravy with hot water or chicken stock if needed.

14. Serve the zeppelins generously topped with the gravy.

Serves 4

My mouth is watering already - I'm looking forward to the Christmas day, when we will have cepelinai for lunch!

Guide to Zeppelins

For a more detailed discussion of ingredients, techniques and step-by-step photographed instructions to zeppelin preparation refer to this book from Step-by-Step Lithuanian Recipes series:

Zeppelins by Milda Brighton

Available in Kindle store:

How to Piss Off a Lithuanian

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 07:11:20 GMT

If you are reading about Lithuanian food, chances are that you do so because you know somebody who is Lithuanian, or maybe are planning a trip to Lithuania sometime soon.
In either case, I thought you may find the following article interesting. "How to Piss Off a Lithuanian" is a piece written on Matador Network by a travel journalist with whom I share my first name - Milda Ratkelyte. It gives you tips on how to really piss a Lithuanian off or avoid these faux pas - whatever your goal actually is :)

Free on Kindle: Quick Fix Comfort Food Cookbook

Wed, 27 Nov 2013 09:18:04 GMT

Free on Kindle Store: Nov 29-30, 2013

One of my cookbooks, “Quick Fix Comfort Food” will be given away for free at Amazon Kindle store on November 29-30*, 2013. You are cordially invited to pop by the Kindle store to download it!

*Both dates are based on the US Pacific Time.

Recipes in this book are designed for quick & simple preparations. While working on my Lithuanian recipe book, I realized that I have lots of simple and great tasting recipes, which would make a book on their own. That is how "Quick Fix Comfort Food" came to be.

The recipes are not strictly Lithuanian, but a few of them were inspired by Lithuanian cuisine. Many would recognize apple or cottage cheese pancakes, crusty bites or mini fluffy cheesecakes as definite versions of Lithuanian food. And how about that rice & crab salad - most of its ingredients are so non-Lithuanian, but the salad has been wildly popular in Lithuanian for a couple of decades now.
Hope you'll enjoy it!

Video: Baking the Tree Cake

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 05:43:46 GMT

A couple of months ago I did a post about a very exciting Lithuanian pastry - the tree cake (šakotis). And just recently I received an email from Carl Pendle, a UK-based freelance lifestyle photographer & filmmaker, who shared a fascinating video he created about the process of baking this cake.

The video was filmed in a specialized bakery, which uses real birch wood fire and employs professional šakotis bakers. Frankly, I was astonished to see the speed of rotation and the furiously flying batter. I assume the speed and the batter consistency can be adjusted depending on the desired length and shape of cake "branches".

LITHUANIAN SAKOTIS CAKE from www.carlpendle.com on Vimeo.

My sincere thanks to Carl for sharing this video!

Carl loves filming food, people and travel. If you are interested in commissioning him to do any of the above, Carl can be found on www.carlpendle.com and on twitter @ishootfood .

Cookbook: The Best of Lithuanian Cooking

Sun, 10 Nov 2013 06:23:33 GMT

My collection of the most loved Lithuanian recipes

I have previously mentioned that I was working on a Lithuanian food cookbook. I'm so happy to announce that it has been completed and is now available on Amazon Kindle store!

The book includes a brief intro to Lithuanian cuisine, its ingredients and kitchen tools. A bunch of popular traditional recipes follow, arranged into breakfast food, soups & snacks, main courses and desserts sections.

The preview of the first pages (including the table of contents) is available Amazon. com or Amazon.co.uk.

Here are some of the recipes that you will find in the book:

Country Omelette with Bacon

Cold Summer Soup

Zucchini Pancakes

Yeast-Risen Pancakes

Potato Zeppelins!

Curd Cheese Doughnuts

For the complete collection of my cookbooks, click here.

Heavenly Creation: Glazed Sweet Curd Cheese

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 08:55:18 GMT

For the lack of a better term you may call this food a cheese cake in chocolate. Its original name, "glaistytas vaškės sūrelis", literally translates "little cheese of curd cheese in chocolate" (OK, not so much literal, but I told you - cheese is big in our kitchen, and we even have cheese made of cheese - a curd cheese cheese!)

In Lithuania, it is popular as a dessert, a breakfast item or a snack to have with tea.

You can make it at home by mixing curd cheese with heavy cream, butter, sugar and flavor of your choice (fruits, jam, nuts), dividing the mixture in 2-bite size sticks, freezing them, later dipping them in melted chocolate and refrigerating.
Or make it simple - go into an Eastern European supermarket, where you will be likely to find a few of them ready made. Below are a few variations and brands for your consideration.

PS - look at all the kiddy packaging. It is because parents mostly buy these treats for their kids (who love them), and are more wary about consuming them themselves. Each of these bites packs around 200 calories - and you usually can't stop at one :)

With condensed milk

With vanilla

With poppy seeds

With chocolate bits

With blueberries

With sea buckthorn and rhubarbs (wow!)

Yes, We Eat That: Pig Ears

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 07:14:19 GMT

Smoked pig ears

Continuing the topic about unusual food, let me introduce another favorite crunchy snack: pig ears. Crunchy because of the cartilage inside, the ears are usually eaten smoked and served as a cold cut. Similar to garlic bread, it is another popular snack to have with cold beer.
Try it - the smoky munch tastes great and is quite addictive. One might say it is a low-carb alternative to potato chips.
You can order it in restaurants or buy in Lithuanian supermarkets.

Tree Cake

Mon, 05 Aug 2013 06:55:05 GMT

Tree cake (šakotis) is a unique-looking hollow cake with spikes, with flagrant flavor and the taste to die for . Served usually for large events and parties (such as weddings), tree cake is ordered from specialized bakeries, which are equipped to bake it. It is baked by pouring egg & butter-rich batter in layers on a rotating pole, one side of which is exposed to fire. Sounds complicated? It is.

Tree cake found its way to the Lithuanian food hall of fame undoubtedly from Germany. The German version of this cake, called Baumkuchen, is made in the same way by pouring batter in layers on a pole. But with German precision, Baumkuchen comes out round and smooth with even, distinct layers.

Baking of German Baumkuchen

German Baumkuchen - a cross cut

Lithuanians, however, make their tree cake by letting the batter drip into spikes, which look like tree branches (which are the best tasting part of the cake, if you ask me).

Baking of Lithuanian tree cake

Tree cake standing tall!

For decades, the tree cake was the wedding cake of choice - often made in giant size (and decorated with tacky sugar flowers!). The trend is now disappearing, but it is still customary to have at least a tiny, symbolic tree cake in a wedding party. The tree cake is still a common table centrepiece in large celebrations and family gatherings.

The kitschy beauty - wedding tree cakes

If you are ever in Lithuania, look for bakeries that made tree cakes on site and sample them fresh. You can also buy it in supermarkets, but it is usually a far cry from the amazing freshly baked one.

By the way: while traveling in South East Asia a couple of month ago, my eye was caught by Kueh Lapis - a layer cake popular in Indonesia and Malaysian Peninsula. Its layers look like those of the tree cake, and the taste is quite remarkably similar. The texture of Kueh Lapis, however, is spongy, while tree cake is much denser.

South East Asian Kueh Lapis

Kueh Lapis with pandan leaf extract

Did you know...

Sat, 06 Jul 2013 04:17:35 GMT

Mindaugas, King of Lithuania (1200-1263)

... that today (July 6) Lithuania celebrates the day of its Statehood? On that day back in 1253 the first King of Lithuania, Mindaugas, was crowned. Mindaugas (read min-dow-gahs) was the first to unite the Lithuanian territories into a state, which gave rise to the powerful Grand Duchy of Lithuania - the largest country in Europe at its peak in the 15th century.

Mindaugas remains a well know historical figure - an a popular name for boys up to this day.

On the left you can see a somewhat "Lord of the Ring"-ish artist's impression of the Lithuanian King.