Hello,

So many people inquire about the Latvian recipes, so I decided to post a mini series of most popular Latvian recipes.

One of my personal favorites is so called ‘Herring in a Jacket’ or ‘Siļķe Kažokā’.  Here it is:

You will need (Serves 2):

• 1 salted herring
• 150 g (5.25 oz) boiled vegetables – carrots, beetroots and potatoes.
• 1 boiled egg
• 50 g (1.8 oz) sour cream
• 50 g ( 1.8 oz)  mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon horseradish
• Spring onions to decorate
• Salt and sugar to taste

Soak herring and peel off a skin. Slice the herring fillet into medium sized pieces.  Leave aside.

Cut in small chinks boiled egg

Grate beetroots and carrots, grate or cut potatoes in small chunks. Slice vegetables. Make a layer of vegetables on the larger plate.

Arrange the pieces of the herring on top of the vegetables.

Mix sour cream, mayonnaise, horseradish, salt and sugar in a bowl and then pour over the herring/vegetable arrangement.

Put sliced egg and spring onions on the top.

You can also decorate with dills, slices of boiled carrot or chopped spring onions

Other option – you may arrange vegetables, herrings, sour cream/mayonnaise in layers  as well as put chunks of boiled egg within the layers. In that case at least double the required quantity of ingredients.

The dish is ready for you to eat.  Alternatively, you can put it into a fridge for couple of hours. Some prefer it in room temperature, while others like it cold.

Labu apetīti!

Just returned to US from summer holidays in Latvia. This was the hottest summer in a century, 53 days in a row exceeding average temperature norm.

In Riga the street cafes were buzzing with people who were enjoying the seemingly never ending warmth and beaches in Jūrmala packed with dark tanned crowd.

What stroked me was the number of quality cultural events given the population of the country. Latvia was pulsing with number of summer festivals, from Latvian Youth Song and Dance Festival in Riga to Medieval music festival in Rundāle palace; from Opera music festival in Sigulda to Arts Festival in Cēsis and Inese Galante Summertime concert series in Jūrmala.

From the other side, I saw hundreds of hectares of uncultivated land and depressed areas like in Latgale. There is no doubt that Latvia needs a heavy boost in its economy. The good news are that first signs of economic recovery are visible, with growing exports and manufacturing output.

For me the hardest thing was to listen to people in Latvia who kept talking about gloom and doom that Latvia face.  The funny thing,  it is very easy and somehow more natural for humans to notice bad things around.  As we keep talking about negativity, we somehow  notice more evidence that supports it.

The opposite is true as well.  I see that golden key to Latvia’s future prosperity  are entrepreneurial people  who are able to think and act globally. There are already many  bright, positive minded and energetic people who are  starting to shape the country. There are some examples:

Inventors and manufactures of the first  vertical wind tunnel for human flying.  From 2006 Olympics in Torino  to World Expo in Shanghai 2010 – Aerodium
http://www.aerodium-technologies.com/en/

Old idea,  creative interpretation – Handmade soap and body products with shops all around the world – Stendera  Ziepju Fabrika
 http://www.stendersshop.com/

Fashion designer Alise Trautmane, former corporate executive turned fashion designer in few short years with fashion shops in Riga, Moscow and London and regular fashion shows internationally, including New York on September 2010- Narciss
 http://www.narciss.lv

As Henry Ford said: If you think you can’t do it, you are right, but if you say you can do it, you are also right. I prefer the second part.

Have a great day! Don’t be shy and share your thoughts.

Have you been faced with dilemma how to get Latvian fonts or Latvian letters like ķ, ģ, ā ē ū on your computer? There has been great program, called Tilde Birojs from Latvian company Tilde around for more years than we can remember. You can buy the program on internet for around 40 US dollars.   But… as an old saying goes ‘Nothing is more permanent than change’, and it is particularly true in technology.

Recently I came across a guy named  Kaspars Foigts. He is a young Latvian programmer and  interesting personality (see his blog  www.laatz.lv ( in Latvian only)). Kaspars has developed a program, called APOSTROFS to install Latvian fonts on any Windows run computer. His program is used not only by his many followers, but also by some of the big companies in Latvia like TELE 2 and TV3
He is happy to share his program with everyone for FREE. THANK YOU, KASPARS!
Here it is:
Download  this ZIP file:
http://laacz.lv/f/misc/apos/apostrofs_punkts_vista32.zip

Then unzip it. In case you don’t have WIN ZIP program, here is a link to free download ( works for free 45 days) at: http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm

Once you have downloaded Win Zip, then click Unzip the Apostrofs file using WIN ZIP Evaluation  version and click on setup.exe file. This will automatically install the program on your computer. ( I have intstlled it on Windows 7 and it works perfect)
Now, whenever you need to switch to Latvian fonts, click on  the icon ( usually lower right corner on your screen) which most likely says EN ( for English) and you will see option LV ( for Latvian). Click on LV and you are on Latvian letter mode. To get letters ā, š ņ and so on, before typing any of these letters, type : ‘  and then type a letter you need. To get back to English typing mode, click on icon EN.
If you have any technical questions about the program, please contact Kaspars at:
http://laacz.lv/sazinas-forma/

Have a great day!

Unquestionably Jāņi (pronounced [ja: ɲi]) or the Midsummer is the most celebrated festival in Latvia and it overshadows even Christmas. Jāņi is held in the night from 23 June to 24 June to celebrate the summer solstice (Midsummer), the shortest night and longest day of the year.

The festival’s eve Jāņu vakars ([jaːɲu vakars]) is held in the evening of June 23rd  and goes on all through the night, where people Līgo (sway) into the following day.

Jānis is also the most popular men’s given name in Latvia and is corresponding to English name John.  All men who are called Janis on that day hold a special status and are given oak branch crown to put on. Liga, a very popular women’s name and who has a name’s day on June 24th is also celebrated.

People usually spend Jāņi in the countryside and there is always a bonfire. Because of Latvia’s position far in the north, the night is quite short.  According to tradition, you have to stay up all night until the sunrise, which occurs already around 3 in the morning.

In Jāņi we love to sing and dance, as well as jump over the fire. We believe it helps to attract prosperity and fertility. Jāņi also is thought to be the perfect time to gather herbs, because it is believed that they then have magical powers.

Traditional food during Jāņi is a special type of cheese with caraway seeds, and the traditional drink is beer.  Many people make the cheese of Jāņi themselves; a few also make their own beer.

Here is a recipe of Latvian traditional Midsummer (Jāņi) caraway cheese :

Ingredients:

• Cottage cheese 3 kilograms or 6.6 lb
• Butter  250 grams or ½ lb
• Milk 300 ml or 10 ounces
• 3 eggs
• salt
• caraway  seeds ( few table spoons or according to your preferences)

Preparation:
Put cottage cheese in the blender, add milk, eggs, salt, and caraway seeds and mix well.
Melt butter in a big casserole and add the mixture. Continue heating and stirring until the mixture transforms to shiny and homogeneous mass.
Grease big bowl with butter. Put the cheese into the bowl and keep refrigerated until the cheese hardens.
Preparation time: 60 minutes

Labu apetiti!

May 4th for Latvia is a very important date. In 1990 we declared our Independence. That is why I decided to write this blog post about the history of Latvia.

The territory of the present Latvia has been inhabited since the third millennium BC, and became a center of the European trade. The amber found in Latvia was as valuable as gold, being the material of precious jewels in the ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. The ancient people of Latvia were farmers and hunters in the inland, many of them became sailors and fishermen along the Baltic Sea.

The territory of Latvia has always been the target of many nations, because of it’s strategic location. In the 12th century German traders and preachers established settlements in Latvia. The largest of them, Riga, founded in 1201 became part of the Hanseatic trading alliance. After the arrival of the crusader knights no tribes opposed to Christian faith.

In the following centuries the neighboring lands occupied Latvia. In the 16th century Latvia became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom, but in the 17th century it came under Swedish rule for a century, often remembered as the golden era compared to other occupiers. In the 18th century Russia was victorious in the northern wars, bringing all of what is now Latvia into Imperial Russia. In the 19th century the Russian reforms dispossessed the peasants of their land, thus the numbers of urban population increased, and Riga became a large industrial center and one of the largest cities in the Russian Empire. Latvia preserved it’s national identity against forced Russification, but the uprising in 1905 was suppressed by the Tsar.

Russian influence weakened after the Grand Revolution, and Latvia retained independence after the First World War in a war against German and Russian forces. The devastated country had a brief period of democracy and economic recovery, but a coup in 1934 established a nationalist dictatorship. The new regime tried to keep it’s neutrality and independence in the early years of the Second World War, but it’s fate was decided by the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Soviet troops re-occupied Latvia, and remained there until 1994.

On May 4th, 1990, the Supreme Council of Soviet Republic of Latvian declared the Independence. Officially Latvia’s Independence was recognized in 1991, the time of  collapsing USSR. The democratic government returned to the old currency, denationalized the state property, liberated the market, declared that official language is Latvian and successfully reoriented the country to the Western states. Latvia has been a member of the European Union since May 1, 2004, and member of the NATO since April 2, 2004.
Click on the picture below to see 5 min video about History of Latvia.

Can anybody explain the phenomena of so many Latvian musicians performing at the top New York music venues within a period of a few months?

From mid November to January alone, the Metropolitan Opera in New York has staged 4 Latvian musicians. Andris Nelsons was conducting Pucinni’s Turandot. Tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko was singing Luigi in Pucinni’s ‘’Il Trittico”. Mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca was Carmen in a new production by British producer Richard Eyre. At the same performance, a winner of the 2006 Domingo Operalia competition, Maija Kovalevska was singing Liu’s role, in a lavish Zeffirelli stage set.

No doubt that every Latvian’s ego was boosted with regular good critics of Latvian musicians in the press. The magazine Opera News featured Elina Garanca on the cover page. New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini said, ‘’…she [Elina Garanca] sings with rich sound, anunerring feel for the nuance and subtext of a phrase, and alluring sensuality. The clarity in her singing makes this Carmen seem intelligent and wily’; and

‘’….Andris Nelsons, [..] led a fresh, intricately textured and unusually probing account of the score..’’

And that is not all. In February, another outstanding Latvian conductor, Mariss Jansons, is performing in New York’s Carnegie Hall with Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The 2006 Grammy award winner for best orchestral performance, Mariss Jansons, is considered to be among the top conductors in the world. In fact, in December 2008, the leading British music magazine Gramophone ranked the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as the “World’s Greatest Orchestra,” chosen by a panel of prominent music critics from all over the world.

How can a country, the size of one quarter of New York, create so many world class musicians?

In my opinion, it is a combination of the strong tradition of music and singing. It spans from folk songs that are devoted to almost any life’s occasion to phenomena of Song Festival’s colossal 18 000 people chorus. From the Riga Opera to the Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera.

Music is very deep in the Latvian DNA indeed.

In Latvia the Christmas celebration is known as Ziemassvētki or winter festival. The festival is a direct descendent of ancient winter solstice celebrations.
Christian Traditions are mixed with ancient Pagan Traditions in Latvia. Many people go to the Christmas Mess at Lutheran or catholic church at Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day.
Old Pagan traditions are still alive too, like rolling a wooden block around the house to keep evil spirits away.

Family dinner at Christmas Eve is undoubtedly the most important event during Christmas. Dinner is usually followed by opening of the presents.

According to old traditions, there has to be 7 different plates on the table on the Christmas dinner, like gingerbread cookies (piparkūkas), cabbage (sauerkraut), pork and gray (black) peas with bacon sauce. It is important to eat all gray peas; otherwise you will cry a lot next year!

To my mind the most traditional of all dishes and the best one is PĪRĀGII (bacon rolls). I attached recipe  at the end of the post.

On the Christmas Eve, the real fun starts when Ziemassvētku Vecītis (or Santa Claus) comes to house, or, more often, he leaves a bag full of presents somewhere in the hallway. To get the presents, everybody has to perform – children and adults too. There are no excuses! It can be anything, like telling a joke, citing a poem or doing musical performance.

Here is a recipe for PĪRĀGI or Bacon rolls, if anybody wants to try it:

BACON ROLLS (PĪRĀGI)
8 ounces of milk
3 ¾ cups flour
25 grams yeast
1 ¼ Tablespoons sugar
¼ cup butter
Salt
(or can substitute a hot roll mix)
4 cups chopped ham
1 lb. chopped Bacon
Onion
Black pepper
4 Eggs, lightly beaten

Make the yeast dough by blending the flour, milk, yeast, sugar, butter and salt. Leave dough to rise, covered, in a warm dry place.

Chop bacon and onion together and add pepper. Fry ham, bacon, onion and pepper. Set aside.
Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll in a long rope. Cut into equal sizes and roll each piece into a ball. Flatten each piece, place bacon mixture in the middle and fold the ends together, pinching to seal. Form into a crescent shape.

Let the crescents rise for 5 to 10 minutes, then brush with beaten egg.

Bake at 350 degrees.
Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Prosperous and Healthy New Year!

This song was created 2 years ago by famous Latvian group Brainstorm or Prāta Vētra together with Latvian Institute ( www.li.lv) and since then has been viewed by more than 300 000 people worldwide. I hope you will like it.