I’m really settling in to Bristol now and finally feel like it’s becoming home. A few weeks back I met up with my Bristol based foodie blogging pals Arushi & Bex for dinner, a great opportunity to have a bit of a girls night!
We thought it might be fun to stay in and each bring a course rather than going out for dinner and to make it a bit of a challenge, we decided to pick a cuisine that none of us knew anything about. We all threw a couple of suggestions in and Arushi won the day with Latvian!
I decided to bring three very traditional dishes: Sklaudrausis (savoury vegetable tarts), Speķa Pīrāgi (bacon stuffed rolls) and Marinēti Gurķi (picked cucumbers). Although the plan was to bring a course each, we ended up putting everything together on the table and tucking in. Arushi’s husband made us a beautiful rye bloomer and she added a gorgeous potato and dill salad, pickled beetroot and a walnut and stilton salad as well as Bex’s apple tart and the very unusual bubets (a berry and milk mousse dessert). Delicious!
Here are the there recipes I created, none of these are my own but I wanted to share them with you because the whole experience was so much fun! A great idea for a dinner party.
Speķa Pīrāgi
These are bacon and onion stuffed rolls. Traditionally, so I’ve read, they are eaten at parties and celebrations. You will find lots of recipes for these, but the one I used was from the website food.com and you can find it here. I just used bacon although the recipe does state bacon AND ham!
Sklaundrausis
Here is where Latvian cuisine gets a little different from ours. These vegetable tarts are both sweet and savoury and for me, I found them a little strange. With a rye pastry base, they are filled with a carrot and potato mix, seasoned with cinnamon and honey. I added caraway seeds and seasoned the potato with salt before putting the tarts together to counteract the sweetness.
This was my first time using rye flour, the pastry came together really easily so I’ll definitely be giving it a try again with a more savoury filling! I found this recipe on a food blog called Latvian Eats. Have a peek!
Marinēti gurķi
What a fun idea! I'm not sure on those sweet and savoury tarts (you know me!) but those bacon stuff rolls? Yummy! x
I've never tried Latvian food. It looks very lovely and I really like the idea of those tarts.
Yeah, they were different hehehe but I'm pleased I tried them none the less 🙂
I hadn't tried it either until this dinner party! It was so much fun. We're thinking of a theme for the next one now!
My Grandfather lived in Latvia but I have never tried any Latvian food! These tarts look amazing!
Oh how fab! The tarts are like marmite, you either love them or you hate them I reckon! 🙂