Rīga, the capital city of Latvia, is a growing northern European tourist destination. It is notable for its many song and dance festivals and as a world heritage center for its blocks of Art Nouveau architecture.
Natives of Rīga, in 1944 my family and I fled the Soviet invasion and emigrated to the United States. In 1991, after decades of Soviet occupation, Latvia was once again a free, democratic country. Nostalgic, I returned to Rīga in 2000 to meet my extended family and to teach at the University of Latvia. A five-month Fulbright Scholarship in 2011 was followed by another several years later, and I now spend a few months teaching each year in Rīga.
RIX, Rīga’s airport, might be an unlikely location for some of Latvia’s best countryside cooking and comfort food, but whenever I fly I stop at RIX’s second-floor Lido restaurant for potato pancakes (kartupeļu pankūkas).
Lido is an upscale cafeteria chain serving hearty Latvian food in a Latvian design motif. Servers often wear traditional festive clothing: long full skirts for the women, and vests and patterned belts for the men. The airport Lido features a bar-in-the-round with a chef who prepares fresh food in front of the patrons. I have had some of Latvia’s best kartupeļu pankūkas there.
Most recently, I got to see one of Lido’s chefs, Elvijs Krēgers, at work. While the pankūkas fried, he prepared Lido’s trademark side dish: diced salmon salad with dill, red onion, a hard-boiled egg, a little salt, and mayonnaise.
Latvian smoked salmon differs from the kind served in New York City on a bagel with cream cheese. It’s less chewy and has more of a melt-in-your-mouth texture. Latvian salmon also appears on many menus as a baked or grilled specialty, often creatively presented. I’ve enjoyed it as a tartare on toast points topped by a raw quail egg and as an aromatic, highly satisfying, krēmzupa (cream soup). Indeed, if you are in Latvia, do try the salmon and its many variations. They are a garšīgs (tasty) alternative to the familiar fare of pork and chicken, oven baked potatoes and caramelized sauerkraut.
While relatively more expensive than other dishes, Riga’s excellent salmon – the fish sourced from the cold Baltic sea and shores and rivers of Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden – can be had for twenty to forty percent less than in the United States.
Done cooking, Elvij slides the pankūkas – crisp, golden brown, and hot – onto a waiting plate with a mound of smoked salmon and salad greens. With a beer – like Užavas from the coastal city of Ventspils – the pankūkas never fail to bid me a warm welcome or a fond farewell.
John’s Note:
Mairis, my favorite chef at the Lido for several years, would squeeze by hand the shredded potatoes and collect the liquid. I note that current practice appears to skip the squeeze step. That there’s now more liquid in the pan makes a textural difference in the result, at least for me.
As with most comfort foods one has to find the “best mix” to suit personal tastes. For an easy evening meal that is satisfying and tasty, and quick to prepare, my wife and I serve up kartupeļu pankūkas with spoonfuls of black caviar and sour cream. Ar labu apetīti! (Bon appétit!)
Kartupeļu Pankūkas by Dace
This recipe is from my cousin Dace. Dace tells me there are lots of pankūkas recipes, but this one she regularly uses.
Ingredients
- •several large potatoes
- •one onion, finely chopped or grated
- •one egg
- •Salt and pepper, to taste
Dace’s tips:
• It’s best to use big, “floury” potatoes rather than waxy or “new” potatoes.
• In order to avoid the grated potatoes turning dark, you can add a couple of tablespoons hot milk directly after grating.
• Potato starch helps the pancakes to be crisp. Those who want softer pancakes can add flour instead.
• If you wish you can add a bit of chopped or grated garlic.
Preparation
Wash and peel the potatoes. Using the large holes on a box grater, grate potatoes into a large bowl (If the potatoes are too finely grated they do not hold together well when fried.) Drain off excess liquid into a small bowl. The potato starch will settle down in the bottom of the bowl; this will be used later.
Add one finely chopped or grated onion, and salt and black pepper as desired. Then mix in the egg.
Add a bit of potato starch from the bottom of the smaller bowl with the potato liquid. If there is very little potato starch, add 1 or 2 tablespoons flour to thicken the mixture.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Drop 1½ to 2 mixture tablespoons into the hot oil and flatten. Fry and turn once, until golden brown. Keep warm at low temperature until serving. Best to be served directly. Serve with skābs krējums (sour cream) and a fine quality fruit preserve, like bilberry.
Pankūkas
This recipe is by my language tutor, Alise, who says about her recipe, “I never make them the same way twice.”
Ingredients
- •1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of grated potatoes
- •2 eggs
- •1 onion, grated
- •3 tbsp flour
- •salt
To the ingredients above, she may add mayonnaise, pepper, garlic, sour cream, bacon, dill, cheese, or salmon.
Preparation
Mix all ingredients and form patties. Fry in oil in a “čuguna panna” (cast iron pan).
