April 2014

Latvian Eats is intended to be a Latvian recipe collection – simple food that anyone can cook and eat. It is not just a compilation of traditional cuisine, it is also about dishes that Latvians have adopted and developed over years and still enjoy every day.

As a born and bred Latvian, currently living in Australia, I miss my home and, more often than not, the food. Some may argue that it is quite bland and uneventful (even I would simply describe it as ‘pork and potatoes’), but it is the taste of home. My attempt is to recreate my family’s recipes and food from eateries of various standard from ingredients that are available outside Latvia and capture the results in as appealing way as possible. It has lead to some experiments and occasional dodgy looking or tasting eats, but nevertheless everything always gets eaten. Must be the practical Latvian upbringing.

For some it may be a discovery of a whole new world of food, for others it may be a trip down the memory lane. Therefore I would like this website to become a community project – I am welcoming Latvians and their descendants living all around the world to share their family recipes and stories behind them. Just get in touch at latvianeats (at) gmail (dot) com and we will figure out the rest!

Labu apetīti!

Liva

 

 

23 Comments

  1. Clare
    November 13, 2017

    Lovely blog! I’m looking forward to making some things.

    Question: I’m an American in England. A Latvian neighbor mentioned milk candies. I’d love to make some for her, but I’m really struggling to find a recipe. How would you describe them? Do you have a recipe? Thank you!

    Reply
    1. Liva
      November 17, 2017

      Hi, thank you for your comment! There are Latvian milk candies called “Gotiņa” (Little Cow), I have a recipe and I will attempt to post it up shortly :)

      Reply
      1. Clare
        November 19, 2017

        Thank you! I am excited to try making them.

        Reply
      2. Daina Janite
        June 30, 2023

        Dear Liva- my three nieces and I just returned from Latvia, and I am trying to adjust to jet lag while I search out recipes for some of the things we ate. The trip was MAGICAL- a mere week with a daughter of each of my siblings who are all gone now- Margers, Baiba, and Ojars were all teenagers when I was the “surprise” in April of 1945 on the “DP Trail”. Today, I would hazard a guess that Lativa could match any other country for gourmet status. There’s a real “slow food” movement that uses every product of local garden soil and animal rearing with imagination and skill. And the flavour that “gotinas” can be found in right from the Skrivea factory.!!! Our one disappointment. Nobody had ever heard of “Aleksander torte” – a mainstay of every birthday in Toronto as we grew up there. Have you ever run across this cake and found the recipe? As I recall, it was like large shortbread cookie layers, held together with seedless raspberry or red currant jam, and glazed on top with a white powdered sugar/lemony glaze. It was the only sweet that we could not find the reminisce over.

        Reply
        1. Cintia
          February 12, 2024

          We had this at every celebration as well. I’ve never found a formal recipe for it, but I made a shortbread recipe (basically butter, flour and a bit of sugar, made a red currant jam and iced with powdered sugar mixed with lemon juice.

          Reply
    2. astra
      November 12, 2019

      thats gotina, little cow. all u need us canned milk and baking parchment. good luck! theyre awesome!!!

      Reply
  2. Margaret Ridge
    December 19, 2017

    I am so glad I found you! I’m not Latvian, but lived with one for many years. His Mother became pretty much my second Mom and though she’s been gone many years now I think of her every day.
    The most amazing cook ever! She never would write down her bacon rolls recipe and if you wanted it you had to spend a day in the kitchen with her making them.
    I’m doing them this year for Christmas Eve in her honor! And so happy to find so many of her other treats here!

    Reply
  3. Ina
    January 21, 2018

    I’m a second generation Latvian, living in the USA, and just found your blog by googling “saute sauerkraut”! So glad I found you and look forward to sharing your recipes and insights with my 92 year old mom, who is still baking, cooking and eating like a Latvian in Wisconsin. Please do post the “Gotiņas” recipe – I have vague childhood memories of a slightly grainy velvety sweet – I think there were “Gotiņas” in my past. Liels paldies!

    Reply
  4. Lyndal
    February 11, 2018

    I’m an Australian of Latvian descent through my grandparents. I have searched everywhere for a pīrāgi recipe and I’m so glad to have finally found it! My fondest childhood memory was watching grandma make her versions (a mince and onion one and one filled with jam) and I can still taste them even though it’s been a very long time since I last had one.
    Paldies!

    Reply
  5. Kristīne
    February 19, 2018

    I am first generation Latvian, making my way through dozens of Latvian dishes I ate growing up. I just made your “buberts” recipe…it turned out just like my vecmāmiņa used to make! I have made piragi from many different recipes, and although they all use more or less the same ingredients, the results are sometime quite different. I will try your recipe next :-) Thank you for your blog, and especially the pictures.

    Reply
  6. Sal
    November 14, 2018

    Hey Liva,
    I discovered this site whilst yet again trying to explain to my foreign friends what exactly is and how to make Sklandrauši.
    Now, I have realized that have been looking at this site for the past hours and remembering days when grandmather used to cook in our summer house. Eating fresh sorrel soup that we had just picked from the garden, or those hours on Christmas day baking pīrādziņi.
    I feel like some one has peeked into the window of my childhood and written down every taste and recipe that was a grand part of my life. This site has become one of my favourities not only becouse of the recipes, but also a weird connection I now feel to our culture that I hadn’t felt before starting to travel.
    Also thanks for the translations of the dishes and ingredients, my vocabulary and patience has always been too short to translate.

    Reply
  7. Fiona
    January 29, 2019

    Hi :)
    Was googling for the name of latvian garlic bread, because I can never remember it, and came across your blog!
    I am french and living in Latvia thanks to love. Even if I do really miss some good old french dishes, there is (nearly) everything to keep a hungry human happy on the Latvian menu :) Love your blog and having an overview of the yummy traditional Latvian food which is always hard to describe to people other than “pork and potatoes” as you mentioned. Now I can do it properly :) Also great to find these recipes in English, I sure will try some soon.
    Paldies for the great blog. Keep going :)

    Reply
  8. June Bormanis
    July 14, 2019

    I tried making the rye bread recipe. Does anyone have the American measurements for the ingredients? My mixture came out too wet. Either I did not use enough flour or too much liquid or not enough yeast. Help!

    Reply
    1. Liva
      July 19, 2019

      My advice is to add more flour until the dough comes together. Don’t expect it to be soft like wheat yeast dough (like for pīrāgi), this will be very dense. Also, check that yeast is fresh – it tends to lose its qualities fairly quickly. Small sachets usually keep it fresher than larger containers.

      Reply
  9. Dace
    January 31, 2020

    Such lovely recipes! I’ve been looking for some from my childhood, and here they all are!
    Thank you, they’re very much appreciated!!..

    Reply
  10. […] Recipe created by Liva. […]

    Reply
  11. Tait Luste
    December 14, 2020

    My Vetz mum would make sure that the family had some for Xmas. Normally through the Latvian Centre in Toronto. Around Easter she would often make something like a cream cheese cake named Paschka? With raisins or walnuts. My favourite.

    Reply
    1. Daina jAnite
      June 30, 2023

      I just got back from Latvia- with the three nieces who are daughters of my three siblings- all gone now. While I was in the Janis Roze bookshop I found a book that is the answer to my dreams- recipes in Latvian and Engish- with beautiful photos of the food. The paska recipe is the closest to my mother’s Toronto paska that I can remember: Edieni Lativija/ Cusine in Lativa by Lolita Selvaha. Someone on Facebook told me they had ordered it on Amazon.

      Reply
      1. Liva
        June 30, 2023

        I just got back from Latvia myself, and I am happy to say that I have found Aleksandra kūka recipes in 1930s books while I was there. Those books have travelled back to Australia with me, and the recipe will be tested very soon!

        Reply
  12. Silvija Kalnins
    April 1, 2021

    Thank you for posting the receipe for “galarts”

    Reply
  13. […] Recipe created by Liva. […]

    Reply
  14. Zee
    October 30, 2022

    I came across your blog while searching for pics of Latvian Lilacs. Finding this was a joy! The recipes are authentic. And I can’t wait to start making them for my Americans friends & family!

    Reply

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