I don’t know the proper pronunciation or spelling- Spec Prevogins?
They are similar to American Perogies. A small pastry or bread shaped like a half moon.
I recall helping mom make these when I was very young, but can’t remember much.
Would anyone know what I am referring to and have a recipe?

Sveika Disa!

I think you are talking about speķis pīrāgi and they are VERY delicious. I am still trying to convince my wife to make some. Unfortunately, I don’t have a recipe, but I am quite sure you will find people here to volunteer theirs. I have tasted some awesome pīrāgi from the Latvian community here in the Boston area.

Laimigi!
Pierre

PS: I am pretty sure I didn’t apply the correct ending to the word speķis, so I hope someone out there will show me the proper spelling.

Below is a good Lithuanian derived recipe for lasinaiciai. Close in style to piragi but much better in my opinion.

2 1/2 cups half and half
1/5 tsp salt
2 packets instant yeast
6-8 cups flour
1 lb. good quality ham - cubed
1/2 lb butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup warm water
2 onions, diced
1 lb. bacon, diced

Cut butter into 1/2” pieces and place in a saucepan.  Add Half and Half, sugar and salt, and heat until butter melts completely over medium heat.  Remove from heat once melted.  In a separate bowl, combine yeast with warm water.  When butter mixture has cooled to warm, add the yeast and water, mixing well.  Do not add yeast when the mixture is hot as the heat will kill the yeast.

Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.  Add flour 1 cup at a time using a wire whisk and mix each cup in thoroughly.  As you add more flour, put the whisk away and use a broad wooden spoon.  By cup #5 set the spoon aside and start kneading by hand.  Pour flour cup #7 on your work surface and continue to work the flour in with your hands until incorporated.  The dough should still be sticky, but not quite as clingy.  Use cup #8 if necessary.

Lifting the dough, brush the bottom of the mixing bowl with a coating of vegetable oil and rub a small amount of oil on top of the dough as well.  This will prevent a crust from forming as the dough rises.  Place a cloth towel over the bowl and let the dough rise for an hour. 

As the dough is rising, dice the onions and bacon into a fine dice.  Chilling the bacon in the freezer for an hour beforehand will make dicing easier.  Place the bacon and onion mixture into a large saute pan and cook over low-medium heat.  Be careful not to overcook - the onions should be golden, but not browned.  Cube the ham to a fine dice and mix in.

When the dough has risen, take an amount of dough, about the size of a golf ball, and roll it flat on a floured surface into an even round shape.  Place a tablespoon of the bacon/onion/ham filling in the center of each round of dough and pinch the edges together making a crescent shape. Place the lasinaiciai on a cookie sheet, seam-side down.  Leave room between the lasinaiciai, brush with an egg wash and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Vidas

Thank you!

Seems very much a piragu recipe to me!

However, it’s a lot easier not to roll out each pirags separately - instead, roll out a larger amount of dough, then use a glass as a sort of cookie-cutter… once you have a number of these circles of dough, you gather the remaining scraps of dough to reroll for the next batch. 

I know at least two families that have a special “piragu glass” - found to be exactly the right size, and not to be used for anything except making piragi!

Oh yes, I remember using a glass to make the crescent edge!
As well mom made it very special with taking my finger and imprinting my fingerprint to close the edge
(wonderful memories!!!!)

When I asked a friend in Latvia of the recipe, he mentioned never having one that was the same, each recipe appears to be unique. (That is quite a comfort for someone as myself who is a disaster in the kitchen!)

Can anyone tell me what you call the recipe of chicken in clear gelatin?
Mom would make treat that had pieces of chicken molded in clear gelatin, she never had a name for it…
If anyone could please advise me on how to cook the chicken I would appreciate it, it seems I recall mom boiling the chicken pieces?
Perhaps I could use the left over scraps from Thanksgiving days turkey?

Sveiki!

Pierre, I am very bad with my ‘galotnes’, Latvian endings, but I think it’s ‘speka piragi’; however, I have no doubt at all I’ll be corrected!

Vidas, that so does sound just like a Latvian recipe for ‘piragi’.  And the Lithuanian ones are better, you say?  Well, everyone does make them differently, has a slightly different recipe—some, no doubt, better or worse than others.

Disa, the name for this chicken in clear gelatin is ‘galerts’ or as a sweet, dear, old grannie I used to know, called it, ‘dzilcits’.  It’s fairly simple to make, just boiling the chicken in water, with salt, peper, maybe a bay leaf, etc. and then letting it gel.  I add a little unflavored gelatin to the mix.

As for piragi, I’ll try and see what I can find.  My mom makes great ones and I"ve only attempted to make them a few times with no great success.  It involved a lot of work—kneading and more kneading—an all day project.  But, right now I have to run and experiment making some pickled pumpkin.

Irena

PS I don’t see why you couldn’t try turkey for the ‘galerts’.

I have used bisquits for almost instant peeragi.
You do need to precook the filling and use
plenty of onions.

“Vidas, that so does sound just like a Latvian recipe for ‘piragi’.  And the Lithuanian ones are better, you say?  Well, everyone does make them differently, has a slightly different recipe—some, no doubt, better or worse than others.”

Just some friendly ethnocentric baiting…

Fatty pork stuffed into dough and baked is probably one of the most common food items on the planet. Every recipe will have its die hard proponents.

Each variation has its particular nuances - but yes, Lithuanian lasinaiciai absolutely RULE.

Even within Lithuania the recipe can be different. Amongst the Dzukai, the fatty pork is stuffed into a hand formed bun as opposed to a crescent.

I applaud anyone who can make these! Surely they must take practice or I’m more of a disaster in the kitchen than I even gave myself credit for!
My first time speka piragi’s were nothing like mom used to make!
They came out of the oven an overstuffed wade of dough, burnt on the bottom with the insides spilling out (sigh) .....Imagine what a softball looks like split open…....
    I have one more package of yeast to start again tomorrow!

Disa,

Thanks for the chuckle.  I can see a movie in the making: “Attack of the Killer Piragi!”.  :-)

My wife has promised to make some this Christmas, hopefully not the “killer” variety. I can also look forward to her delicious piparkukas. Those we have sampled before and they were great.

Pierre

......What time is dinner Pierre ;)

Disa,

Consider yourself invited. :-)

Pierre

Hi!
Disa, don’t despair.  It takes a lot of practice for most to make good piragi and many of the ladies I know have been doing this for a long time.  My mother said that when she first started, she had many flubs.  I think most people like any combination of bacon, onion combined in a tasty dough, crust—that’s pretty basic as Vidas intimated.  And then you can always buy the pre-made bisquick pastry dough, as Pete suggested—not bad, though I still prefer the real thing.

The first time I tried making piragi (many years back, when I was still young and single), my roomates and I had some friends drop by unexpectedly.  Everyone was out in the next room, while I was slaving away in the kitchen, working diligently all by my lonesome.  It wasn’t long before I got mighty tired, frustrated, seeing my freshly baked piragi devoured as fast as I could make them.  So, I went back in the kitchen,  stuffed the rest of the bacon/ham into the remaining wad of dough, made one big whopper of a pirag’, and was finally free to spend the evening with the rest of the merrymakers.  That was my last attempt until many years later.  And, BTW, my first attempt at pickled pumpkin, today, didn’t turn out so hot either—instead of transluscent, I got mush!

Though, I’m sure Vidas’ recipe is very good, I’ll offer this one that I have as well:

cont.

Disa, initial failure on piragi are so common that there’s a name for it… Latvians will tell you that the piragi that split “smaidija” - “were smiling”.  Isn’t that so nice??

“Can anyone tell me what you call the recipe of chicken in clear gelatin?”

Lithuanians call theirs “koselena”. It is super simple. I’ll make it by poaching skinless chicken legs and thighs in water with a halved onion, some carrots and parsley stems. Remove the chicken when cooked through and strain the stock. Cut the cooked carrot up into a fine dice and shred the chicken into small pieces while still warm. Use the poaching liquid to begin preparing the gelatin base with unflavored gelatin, mix in the shredded chicken and carrots. Season pretty liberally with salt and pepper and chill until set up.  Slice and serve with grated horseradish.