Seven years ago (almost to the day), I wrote a column while traveling in Europe — in Austria to be exact — about being homesick and finding comfort in delicious dumplings I ate in restaurants and those my aunt made for me using a traditional Austrian recipe.
Now, amidst this global pandemic, stuck at home, and nostalgic for my traveling days, I turn to memories and food for comfort.
After reminiscing with a friend about the delicious and comforting cuisine to be found in Lithuania, I made cold borscht and potato pancakes.
Summer borscht is a delicious and seasonal option. A few months ago, I wrote about hot borscht. Both of these renditions share beets as the main ingredient and are very easy to make, but they offer different experiences.
For this dish, I cooked a handful of beets in water. Once they’d cooled, I grated them, along with two peeled cucumbers. The recipes I looked up for this delicious Lithuanian summer meal called for just adding yogurt and/or buttermilk or kefir to the grated veggies, garnished with green onions and fresh dill.
This soup brings back memories for me, all of them fond. My maternal heritage connects me to Lithuania, and I shared cold borscht with many friends — new and old — while traveling around the country.
Traditionally served with a boiled potato or hard boiled egg on the side or right in the bright pink soup, it makes a great whole summer meal or works as a side dish. Many variations of cold beet soup are popular throughout the Baltic countries, Finland, Ukraine, Poland and Russia.
Potato pancakes are another comfort food, although in a different way than the soup. Cold borscht is refreshing and light, and potato pancakes are greasy and best with a large dollop of sour cream. To make these pancakes, I simply grated potatoes and added one egg, a couple tablespoons of flour and some salt.
When traveling, I never ate potato pancakes that weren’t cooked in a generous amount of fat. Occasionally, restaurants would have different sauce options, but sour cream has always been my go-to especially when making them at home.
After my next grocery curbside pick-up, I plan to make the dumpling recipe my Salzburg aunt taught me. These were sweet dumplings, filled with apricots.
Since it is peach season, I’m hoping to get my hands on some delicious fresh peaches and try recreating this Austrian dish, while fantasizing about visiting Vienna and other Austrian cities again someday.
Luckily, when I wrote seven years ago about these and other dumplings, I also wrote down the recipe; 1/2 kg Topfen (a soft fresh cheese — probably closest is cream cheese, or a light curd cheese), 50 grams melted butter, 30 grams bread crumbs, 60 grams Gries (the kind of wheat you use to make cream of wheat — I substituted semolina), 50 grams flour, pinch of salt, 2 eggs, 3 tablespoons sugar.
Mix eggs, add butter and sugar. Mix in Topfen, then add dry ingredients. Rest batter for half an hour. Form dumplings around fresh, washed and dried apricots (or other fruits). Simmer in slightly boiling water for 15 minutes. Serve with bread crumbs, which have been roasted in melted butter. Put some powdered sugar on top, if desired.
I miss not only traveling but also eating at restaurants locally. But lately I’ve also been reminded of something a sweet, old, Italian wife of a former landlord once told me: “The best restaurant is in your own kitchen.”
