Thursday, March 20, 2008

Lithuanian "snack to beer"

Lithuanian "snacks to beer" was posted last summer by boakandbailey — a pair of British beer bloggers based in London. Better late than never, I'm reposting it here.

Kepta duona—cooked bread [say: KEPT uh _ DOO uh nuh] —is fried rye bread rubbed with garlic and salt. This is not the soft rye bread we ubiquitously see here in the States, but rather the hard, dark, wonderful stuff. And I just happened to purchase some on the way home today.

Garlicky fried bread strips:
It’s not remotely fancy, it’s not good for you, but it’s a great snack to beer for several reasons. Firstly, it’s salty and oily. Now, I know greasy is bad for your beer. It makes it go flat. But, frankly, who cares — it just works.

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at 5:52 PM

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4 comments:

  1. Hello Tom

    Glad you liked our post! Haven't made any kepta duona for a long time... don't suppose you know how to make cepelinai (sp?)
    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Boak,

    I'll check with my resident expert on things Lithuanian for spelling and recipe for cepelinai. In the meantime, here's a recipe for ausukai, appropriate to the season.
    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello (Sveiki) I can help you with cepelinai :)
    Ingredients
    1 kg uncooked potatoes
    3 or 4 boiled potatoes
    ground beef, or a combination of ground beef and ground pork
    for meatless cepelinai:

    dry cottage cheese (curd) or mushrooms can be used.

    [edit] Preparation
    Peel and grate raw potatoes, then squeeze out excess liquid from them through a cheesecloth. Let starch settle to the bottom of the liquid, then pour the liquid off and add the starch back to the potatoes. Peel and mash the boiled potatoes, then add them to the grated ones. Add a dash of salt and knead the mass well.

    Take approximately egg-sized pieces of this mixture and form into patties. Place spoonfuls of the previously prepared filling into the center of the patties. Most often a filling is made from ground beef, dry cottage cheese or mushrooms with salt and spices. Close the patties around the filling and form them into ovoid shapes.

    Place the cepelinai in a salted boiling water and cook for approximately 30 minutes. Carefully stir the pot so that cepelinai do not stick to the bottom. Cepelinai are eaten with bacon, or melted sour cream and butter sauce. This dish is very filling, and was traditionally only served for guests or during heavy work seasons.





    [edit] Challenges and Techniques

    [edit] Grating the potatoes
    Use the smallest side of the grater, i.e., the one which looks like circular metal dimples. This will result in a very even, consistent texture, which looks somewhat like applesauce before the potato liquid is removed.
    Do not use the large or small shredders on a typical grater; the texture will be incorrect and will not hold together
    Consider adding crushed vitamin C (ascorbic acid) tablets or vitamin C powder to the raw potato mixture early in the grating process to avoid color change and inhibit oxidation
    use a potato ricer to "mash" the boiled potatoes

    [edit] Boiling the cepelinai
    One of the most common problems is the potato wrapper dissolving once the cepelinai are added to the boiling water. Some or all of the following techniques can be combined to keep the potato wrapper together and obtain the proper result:

    make sure that as much liquid as possible has been squeezed out of the raw potato mixture
    use high-starch potatoes, such as russet or Idaho potatoes. Yellow (such as Bintje or Yukon Gold) may be acceptable. Waxy, low-starch potatoes (such as red potatoes) are not recommended. In general, large, older potatoes will contain more starch than small, young/new potatoes.
    add extra potato starch to the potato mixture. This may be necessary if you cannot find potatoes that are sufficiently high in starch. Other starch (such as cornstarch) may be used if potato starch is not available.
    add one egg as a binder to the potato mixture. This is non-traditional, but may help in certain cases.
    add all-purpose wheat flour as a binder to the potato mixture. This is non-traditional, but may help in certain cases.
    reduce heat of water just before adding cepelinai from a rolling boil to a simmer
    lower cepelinai carefully into the boiling water using a slotted spoon or bamboo spider
    keep cepelinai in water at a simmer
    stir the cepelinai very gently
    Vincas Alisauskas visiting NC
    vincas.alisauskas@gmail.com
    ReplyDelete
  4. link to kogelis (bulviu plokstainis)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kugelis
    ReplyDelete

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