Saturday, September 20, 2008

Lithuanian Dinner


This was my week to choose a country for My Kitchen My World, how wonderful is that? Lithuania was my country of choice, I am a first generation American who is also Polish and German, along with Lithuanian, and can't wait until someone picks those countries for My Kitchen My World, it was a tough choice but I think that German and Polish cuisines are better known and more popular and wanted to give a little 'shout out' to Lithuania :)

The food that makes me think of Lithuania is without a doubt the mushroom. I remember loving mushrooms as a child, and hearing about how popular mushroom 'hunting' was in my family, and one of my first words being 'grybas' -- Lithuanian for mushroom. The main part of my Lithuanian dinner was cepilinai / cepelinai also called 'zeppelins' because their shape resembles an airship. What are cepilinai? A boiled potato dumpling, made with mashed potato and usually also grated raw potato, and filled with either a meat, mushroom, or 'cottage cheese' filling. They are traditionally topped with a butter sour cream sauce, and sometimes sauteed mushrooms, or if you eat meat some bacon and bacon drippings. These special dumplings are often called the national dish of Lithuania. I do not have a family 'zeppelin' recipe so I just do what I usually do, read a bunch of recipes online, and just use my judgement and available ingredients and hope it's delicious when I'm done.


It is hard to find the seasoning information for the dumpling part online, and mine was a little bland. I had read that sometimes the texture turns gelatinous and mine didn't but I could see where they would seem like that if I undercooked them. I'm definitely planning to try making these again, next time I will be sure to salt and season the potato mixture, and maybe dice my mushrooms for the filling. I have some learning to do before I find a cepelinai recipe I can write down and pass on to my children, but I am up for the challenge!


As a side dish I made a quick slaw salad that was featured in Lithuanian Heritage Magazine. It was so simple I just couldn't not make it, three carrots, two apples, shredded, with some sour cream and sugar stirred in. It was pretty good! Along with mushrooms and potatoes, sour cream is very popular in Lithuanian cuisine.




I can't wait to see what other My Kitchen My World members came up with for this Lithuanian challenge, and yes, it was a challenge! Many Lithuanian dishes closely resemble Jewish, Polish, Russian, and German dishes, so it's very tough to really find out where specific dishes originated from because many almost identical recipes have different names when made my those people who are doing their best to share and preserve a little of their home country for the future generations scattered around the globe.

8 comments:

Susie Homemaker said...

I ALMOST made these, too! Despite my giving you a hard time, I am SO glad you picked a challenging country!

NKP said...

These look great! I agree, I usually have to add salt to published recipes. Hubby would really like these.

Dewi said...

Andrea, It looks perfect for the weather.
Thank you for choosing Lithuania as our travel journey this week.

DIY Daily Darling! said...

You sound amazing, my kind of person, who loves food. You must be very ambitious I am jealous. I used to be more gung ho about it before I had my kids. I would love to get back to cooking the way you do, however, you are much more serious than I ever have been. I love your site and hope to follow it more, I hope you don't mind, looking at food is fun. I just wish you would post all of the recipies so that I can try some of them. I'll check back. I especially want the icecream ganache heart one and the blueberry pie. I think it is fun you have this blog going!

Anonymous said...

Wow, those look really good... and I don't eat mushrooms! Was that a total pain in the arse? I don't think I have the patience to do that... but who knows?

So you're part Polock? I can't believe I didn't know that. I think I even offered you some Polish recipes! The Husband is 50% Polish and I give him crap about it all the time.

~Cat

Prudy said...

That looks delicious, absolutely delicious. I've got to share this with my sister who spent some time in Lithuania. Thanks!

Deb in Hawaii said...

These look so good. i am not very familiar with Lithuanian food but if this is an example I think I need to learn more about it!

Milda said...

Well done!
Im lithuanian living abroad and this is surely a taste of home for me, but for some reason i have never attemped to make it here! Its rather time consuming, isnt it? And yet, this post just made me ashamed of myself. I should give it a go..

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