Sydney Baker's Latvian Styled Onions

Latvian cuisine

Latvian cuisine typically consists of agricultural products, with meat featuring in most main meal dishes. Fish is commonly consumed due to Latvia's location on the east coast of the Baltic Sea.

Latvian cuisine has been influenced by other countries of the Baltic rim.] Common ingredients in Latvian recipes are found locally, such as potatoes, wheat, barley, cabbage, onions, eggs and pork. The Latvian cuisine is markedly seasonal - due to pronounced four seasons in the climate of Latvia, each time of the year has its own distinctive products, tastes and flavors. Latvian food is generally quite fatty, and uses few spices.

Contemporary Latvians usually eat three meals a day. Breakfast is normally light and usually consists of sandwiches or an omelette, with a drink, often milk. Lunch is eaten from noon to 3 p.m. and tends to be the main meal of the day; as such it can include a variety of foods, and sometimes also soup as an entrée and a dessert. Supper is the last meal of the day, with some choosing to eat another large meal. Consumption of ready-made or frozen meals is now common.

Common foods and dishes

Latvian cuisine is typical of the Baltic region and, in general, of northern countries. The food is high in butter and fat while staying low in spices except for black pepper, dill or grains/seeds, such as caraway seeds. Latvian cuisine originated from the peasant culture and is strongly based on crops that grow in Latvia's maritime, temperate climate. Rye or wheat, oats, peas, beets, cabbage, pork products and potatoes are the staples. Meat features in most main meal dishes. But fish also is commonly consumed due to Latvia's location on the east coast of the Baltic Sea: smoked and raw fish are quite common. Latvian cuisine offers plenty of varieties of bread and milk products, which are an important part of the cuisine. A lot of popular dishes in contemporary Latvia come directly from other countries, at times as a result of their historical domination. For example dishes adopted from Soviet cuisine include siļķe kažokā (herring and beetroot salad), various dumplings, šašliks (shashlik) and many others.

The most popular alcoholic beverage is beer.A national liquor is Riga Black Balsam.

This is one of a number of historical recipes I am posting from Sydney Baker  that he used at his Restaurant “Sydney’s” in Cape Town. Sydney. Sydney Baker was one of the founders of Fair Lady Magazine and the Fashion Director for over 25 years . He died in Cape Town on November 30th 2013 . He was 80 years old.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons bacon drippings
5 large onions, sliced medium-thick
1/2 cup toasted breadcrumbs
melted butter
1/2 cup grated mild cheese
salt
pepper

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 350°F.
2.Heat bacon drippings in a large skillet.
3.Add onions and saute until lightly browned.
4.Place onions in a baking dish and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
5.Drizzle with a little melted butter.
6.Sprinkle cheese on top.
7Bake about 15-20 minutes, or until browned.

Serves 4

Sydney Baker's Spicy and Sweet Yam Latkes

Yams have pretty much stayed on the lowest rung of my list of favorite vegetables until I discovered the gateway to yam heaven – latkes! Latkes are shredded potato pancakes usually made around the time of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, which is coming up and actually coincides with Thanksgiving this year. I guess unknowingly I came up with a ‘Thanksgivukkah’ recipe by making latkes out of yams, a popular Thanksgiving menu item usually paired with marshmallows. And this is how it all began…







I love the original latkes recipe, but I was forced to get creative when I picked up some yams at the local market mistakenly. In the store, they were labeled as sweet potatoes. I don’t know why I believed the sign because clearly they didn’t look like sweet potatoes. Upon cutting into the first one, I realized the flesh was white, which led me on a long journey on the Internet all about the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. Apparently, mislabeling and confusion about sweet potatoes and yams is rampant across the nation and people are up in arms about it….

Anyway, instead of lamenting about all of the yams I bought and didn’t know how to cook – mine were Japanese purple yams I found out – I figured I couldn’t go wrong with making them into latkes spiked with Kashmiri mirch, a mild and sweet Indian chili powder that resembles paprika. Kashmiri mirch is bright red and provides the coloring for a lot of popular Indian dishes like tandoori chicken.


Background: While living in London and working for the Sir Norman Hartwell , the Queens fashion designer , in his 20's ( 1960's) Sydney Baker shared a flat with two Indian friends and grew to love Indian cooking.
In this recipe, you can definitely use paprika if you don’t have Kashmiri mirch or the other similar mild Indian red chili powder, deggi mirch. Any of these chili powders will do the trick to make your yam latkes sweet and spicy. I also used chickpea flour, which is usually what is used to batter fried foods in Indian cooking, but you can use all-purpose flour if that’s what you have.

I served them with a dip I made of Greek yogurt, dill and lemon and a salad with my tomato achaar whisked into a tahini dressing. I hope you enjoy!

Yam is the common name for some plant species in the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae) that form edible tubers.These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Oceania. There are many cultivars of yam. Although some varieties of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) are also called yam in parts of the United States and Canada, sweet potato is not part of the family Dioscoreaceae but belongs in the unrelated morning glory family Convolvulaceae.
Ingredients
1 large yam (3/4 pound) or if Yams are hard to find, potatoes are admirable substitutes
2 tablespoons oil
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon plain yogurt (Greek is what I used but I’m sure regular is fine)
1 tablespoon chickpea or all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Kashmiri mirch, paprika or deggi mirch (more if you like hotter)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Method
Peel your yam and grate it into a bowl. If there is moisture in your yams you can squeeze out with a cheese cloth. To the yams, add in your beaten egg, plain yogurt, Kashmiri mirch, cumin, salt and pepper. Next add in the chickpea flour – add more if you like your latkes more cakey and less if you like them a bit more hashy.

Place a plate lined with a paper towel on the side of the stove. Coat a non stick frying pan with oil under medium heat. When the oil is heated, put heaping teaspoons of the latke batter in the pan and flatten with your spatula. Make sure that your latkes comfortably fit in the pan because you will be flipping them. Cook until golden brown on bottom (1-2 minutes) and flip and cook until golden brown on the other side (1-2 minutes). Place the cooked latkes on the plate with the paper towel. Repeat for the remainder of your latke batter and add more oil as needed to the pan.

Sydney Baker's Spicy and Sweet Yam Latkes

Yams have pretty much stayed on the lowest rung of my list of favorite vegetables until I discovered the gateway to yam heaven – latkes! Latkes are shredded potato pancakes usually made around the time of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, which is coming up and actually coincides with Thanksgiving this year. I guess unknowingly I came up with a ‘Thanksgivukkah’ recipe by making latkes out of yams, a popular Thanksgiving menu item usually paired with marshmallows. And this is how it all began…







I love the original latkes recipe, but I was forced to get creative when I picked up some yams at the local market mistakenly. In the store, they were labeled as sweet potatoes. I don’t know why I believed the sign because clearly they didn’t look like sweet potatoes. Upon cutting into the first one, I realized the flesh was white, which led me on a long journey on the Internet all about the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. Apparently, mislabeling and confusion about sweet potatoes and yams is rampant across the nation and people are up in arms about it….

Anyway, instead of lamenting about all of the yams I bought and didn’t know how to cook – mine were Japanese purple yams I found out – I figured I couldn’t go wrong with making them into latkes spiked with Kashmiri mirch, a mild and sweet Indian chili powder that resembles paprika. Kashmiri mirch is bright red and provides the coloring for a lot of popular Indian dishes like tandoori chicken.


Background: While living in London and working for the Sir Norman Hartwell , the Queens fashion designer , in his 20's ( 1960's) Sydney Baker shared a flat with two Indian friends and grew to love Indian cooking.
In this recipe, you can definitely use paprika if you don’t have Kashmiri mirch or the other similar mild Indian red chili powder, deggi mirch. Any of these chili powders will do the trick to make your yam latkes sweet and spicy. I also used chickpea flour, which is usually what is used to batter fried foods in Indian cooking, but you can use all-purpose flour if that’s what you have.

I served them with a dip I made of Greek yogurt, dill and lemon and a salad with my tomato achaar whisked into a tahini dressing. I hope you enjoy!

Yam is the common name for some plant species in the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae) that form edible tubers.These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Oceania. There are many cultivars of yam. Although some varieties of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) are also called yam in parts of the United States and Canada, sweet potato is not part of the family Dioscoreaceae but belongs in the unrelated morning glory family Convolvulaceae.
Ingredients
1 large yam (3/4 pound) or if Yams are hard to find, potatoes are admirable substitutes
2 tablespoons oil
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon plain yogurt (Greek is what I used but I’m sure regular is fine)
1 tablespoon chickpea or all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Kashmiri mirch, paprika or deggi mirch (more if you like hotter)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Method
Peel your yam and grate it into a bowl. If there is moisture in your yams you can squeeze out with a cheese cloth. To the yams, add in your beaten egg, plain yogurt, Kashmiri mirch, cumin, salt and pepper. Next add in the chickpea flour – add more if you like your latkes more cakey and less if you like them a bit more hashy.

Place a plate lined with a paper towel on the side of the stove. Coat a non stick frying pan with oil under medium heat. When the oil is heated, put heaping teaspoons of the latke batter in the pan and flatten with your spatula. Make sure that your latkes comfortably fit in the pan because you will be flipping them. Cook until golden brown on bottom (1-2 minutes) and flip and cook until golden brown on the other side (1-2 minutes). Place the cooked latkes on the plate with the paper towel. Repeat for the remainder of your latke batter and add more oil as needed to the pan.