ILZE'S KITCHEN

Ilze's Kitchen (c)

ILZE loves cooking and baking - and would like to share her favorite recipes with you.

The first one listed here is a traditional Latvian savoury snack. "PIRAGI" ~ Bacon & Onion yeast buns,

great on their own, hot or cold, or with a steaming mug of beef bouillon with chopped fresh parsley.

Every person who bakes these has their own little secret what makes these special. If you're in a bright chirpy mood

when you're cooking the food turns out so much better, so Bon Appetit! If you'd like to make a comment feel free to

email me. (Oh, I'm better at cooking than designing web pages)

LATVIAN PIRAGI

FOR DOUGH: MAKES ABOUT 25 PIRAGI:-

4 cups plain flour (I like to use organic unbleached)

half a tsp. cardamon seeds crushed (I use the side of a metal meat mallet)

1 tsp salt

30g (approx. but no less) compressed yeast

2 tsp. white sugar

about one and a quarter cups milk

about three quarters of a cup of unsalted butter, extra flour or milk as required

Pre-heat oven to about 190 degrees Celsius (about 375 degrees Fahrenheit)

BACON & ONION MIX:-

1 Onion, finely diced (if you can, but peasant style will do)

about 300gm bacon pieces diced small

pepper to taste

your favourite dried herbs (good shake)

freshly chopped (finely) European parsley

pinch salt

Heat oil in pan (I use Canola oil, about one quarter of a cup). I swear by my Bessemer pan, anything cooked in it ALWAYS

tastes better. This trusty pan is now 20 years old and still going strong.. Fry onion until transparent, add bacon, pepper and

herbs, cook gently for about 5 minutes until cooked through, don't brown the onions though. Put in bowl and set aside.

Keep the bacon rinds. You will need them to grease your baking trays. Of course you can use baking paper instead if you llike.

My Mum always did it with bacon rind. It gives the tiniest hint of fat on the pan and prevents sticking. Afterwards you can throw

these scraps out for the birds.

MAKING THE DOUGH & THE PIRAGI:-

1) Sift the flour and salt and crushed cardamon seeds into a large ceramic mixing bowl.

Make a well in the middle.

2) Cream the yeast with the sugar in a cup. (Takes a little while - leave it for about 3 minutes and you will see the yeast

dissolving in the sugar, so give it a good stir).

3) Warm half a cup of the milk to blood temperature (When you dribble a bit on the inside of your wrist you shouldn't be able

to feel it. If it's too hot you'll kill the yeast and if it's too cold it won't rise (sounds like Goldilocks and the three bears, doesn't it)

4) Mix the warm milk with the sugary yeast in the cup and pour it into the well in the flour. Stir in a bit of the surrounding

flour to make a soft batter in the middle.

5) Cover the bowl with a tea-towel and stand in a warm place until the batter in the centre looks spongy and is full of tiny

bubbles (waiting time about 5 - 10 minutes. I like to put my bowl on the opened oven door (I have an electric oven whose

door opens downwards, so my bowl sits comfortably on it).

6) Heat about three quarters of a cup of unsalted butter and when melted add about three quarters cup of cold milk.

Test again on your wrist. Only blood temperature please. You might need to add extra cold milk before you try this as

hot butter, well, is HOT butter. And you don't want to kill your nice spongy yeast/flour mixture.

7) Pour onto the spongy mixture in the bowl and mix to a soft dough with a large wooden spoon (mine is Mum's from the

1950's). Then knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is soft and elastic. If too dry add a bit of oil straight from the

bottle, if too moist add a bit of flour. Shape dough into ball and sprinkle with sieved flour top and bottom.

8) Cover with a tea-towel and let it rise in front of the oven (like this) for about half and hour until it has doubled in size.

Now some cooks would then knead the dough again and put it to rise again, but I don't.

9) Pull off a chunk and roll with hands into a longish sausage shape. Cut off slices about 2 and a half cm thick and pull

gently into a flat elastic shape with your fingers so it resembles a mini pizza base about 8cm diameter.

10) Put about 1 tsp full of the bacon & onion mixture into the centre of the mini (pizza) base and pull the edges of dough

together and press shut with your fingers. Put on the tray with the pulled-together edges underneath.

My piragi are this size. Some cooks make them half this size, with also far less bacon inside them, it's up to you.

Mine are a meal.

When you have filled your tray with piragi, brush the tops of the buns with beaten egg/milk mixture and bake in the top half

of the oven (but not the top shelf) for about 15 - 20 minutes at about 190 degrees Celsius until golden brown on top.

(Ovens vary, so may your baking times). My piragi may not be the most elegant, but you can see they are bulging with

the bacon mix!

If you find you still have some dough left over and no more bacon mix, just form little buns and sprinkle with caraway seeds

(after you've brushed them with egg/milk) and press a little knob of butter into their middle and a pinch of salt.

With more practice you (and I) will be able to proudly display evenly baked Piragi. Despite their appearance (this time)

they are yummy and in my home they disappear very soon after baking.

Piragi can be frozen straight away and then gently re-heated in the oven (covered with alfoil) for about 10 minutes.

ENJOY!

OK folks, that's what you can do with pork/bacon, now for 2 recipes with beef and chicken done the

Latvian way by Ilze's Kitchen.

LATVIAN MEATBALLS (KOTLETES) Time: about 25 minutes all up.

Feeds 4 Australians or 2 Latvians.

Ingredients:

500g quality beef mince with no preservatives

2 slices stale white bread or about one handful wheatgerm or natural oatbran (the healthier alternative)

half a cup milk

one brown onion fairly finely diced

2 decent sized cloves of garlic, finely chopped

a handful European parsley (also known as flat-leaf Italian parsley)

unsalted butter for frying onion

Canola oil

salt, pepper and mixed herbs to taste

one egg

Maltina bread crumbs

Now the easy part:

1) Cut the crusts off the white bread and discard. Chop the remaining inside of slice coarsely and pour over milk to cover. Make sure

all pieces are submerged and soaking up milk. If you're using wheatgerm or oatbran, the same applies. You might need more milk

for these latter two as they expand when you add milk.

2) Chop onion and garlic finely and put about one third of a cup unsalted butter in your pan (I use Bessemer because everything tastes

better cooked in this). When butter melted add onion and garlic and fry gently until translucent. Don't brown it. Add chopped parsley

and fry a bit longer (total time less than 5 minutes). Take out of pan and put on a plate to cool slightly.

3) Put your mince in a good sized mixing bowl and take your watch off and put it on the kitchen bench. (Your watch that is)

4) Roll up your sleeves a bit

5) Add the soaked bread to the meat and knead through by hand until evenly mixed (about 30 seconds) You can put in all the milk it

was sitting in too.

6) Now that you have cooled the onions, garlic and parsley mix you can add this to the meat mix and you won't burn your hands when

you knead these through. (About one and a half minutes)

7) Aha, time to season your mix, a pinch of salt, a good shake of pepper and mixed herbs.

8) Add whole egg and knead through. This will be squishy between your fingers but it needs egg to hold it all together.

9) Take a small handful of mince mixture in your hands and gently make a small patty out of it. Roll in breadcrumbs and do the rest the

same way. I like Maltina bread crumbs (good Aussie brand. My Mum used it too back in the 1950s and it's still good). You can use

whatever you want of course. If you don't have any breadcrumbs then flour will do, or in desperation, nothing at all coating them,

but that's truly in desperation. The breadcrumbs taste wonderful afterwards after you have lovingly cooked your little "kotlete" in oil

and butter.

10) It's time for jumping off the plate into the frying pan! Having heated your pan on high add Canola oil or whichever one you prefer

and place about 6 meatballs in the pan. Flatten them a bit to snuggle up to each other on the pan and fry gently on each side for

about 8 - 10 minutes, turning heat down to moderate. When you have turned them over then add a bit of butter to the pan. You know,

butter is ALWAYS better than margarine (no trans oils or hydrogenised vegetable oils). Make sure it's unsalted butter too.

11) Meanwhile while this is cooking happily. Boil water in a kettle and when boiled put in large saucepan with one cup Jasmine rice,

2 tbsp. oil and pinch of salt. Put on hot stove element and set timer for 15 minutes. When done, strain in colander. You will find

that the rice will not be gluggy using this method and you won't have to refresh it under the hot water tap.

12) Meatballs and rice are done in the same time. Get ready to serve and wait for compliments.

My meatballs are so soft you really only need a spoon to cut them with. You can serve them with Ilze's Kitchen Tomato Relish or

whatever turns you on. I also like to use that other Aussie icon called "Gravox" instant sauce maker, which really will be appreciated

if your other half is Australian, as they grew up with this. I like to add pan juices from my roast to it to give it a more Latvian flavour.

See below.

Labu apetiti! (Enjoy!)

LATVIAN CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP Time: one and a half hours cooking

Ingredients for bouillon: For soup:

one and a half kg chicken necks 2 carrots finely sliced

water half a cup green peas

one large carrot, coarsely chopped egg noodles, about 2 handfuls

3 sticks of celery, chopped in chunks fresh chives and dill

any kind of parsley, large handful or two

bouquet garni or several bayleaves

12 black peppercorns

handful of cooking salt

one large brown onion, skin left on, coarsely chopped

4 large cloves of garlic, unpeeled

Now the easy part:

1) Chuck all ingredients in big stainless steel pot with water just to cover

2) Bring to boil and then simmer for an hour and a half

3) From time to time you can skim fat off the surface with a slotted spoon. I find that using chicken necks they are so lean you won't

have to skim any fat off.

4) After allotted time strain stock into pot through colander, discarding boiled meat and vegetables. If you want to be thrifty you can

rescue the carrot and chop it up and pop it in the next stage when you add noodles, but I like to use fresh carrots, finely sliced for

that stage. Some green peas are also nice popped into the bouillon in the second stage along with a couple of handfuls of your

favorite small noodles. I like to use Wiech's Barossa Valley Egg Noodles as they are naturally made without anything artificial.

The second stage should take you no more than 10 minutes. Pop also some chopped fresh chives and dill into soup for that

authentic European flavour.

ENJOY!

P.S. An old Latvian auntie of mine liked to chew on these cooked chicken necks - you can too if you like to fight with tiny slivers of bone.

If you have real patience you can carefully separate the cooked meat off the chicken necks and then pop this meat in your soup, but

it's a tedious process, because the little bones are just SOOOO little.