Has anyone else taken good recip[es and mixed them with other cultures? For example - my wife is of Ukrainian and Polish background on both sides. Her perogies are great - and we modified the cottage cheese perogies and made them with feta chees instead of the cottage cheese - the result was wonderful. I have often thought since that maybe the Latvian cottage cheese breads might benefit from this as well (largely because goos dry curd is costly and the quality is klacking at times.

How about the rest of you - any experiments on mixing culture in your creations?

Can you share your wife’s perogie recipe?
My friend and I had cottage cheese perogies in Krakow and they were served with a delicious sour cream sauce.  Every time we reminisce about our trip, those perogies are always brought up and how much we enjoyed them.  Our ethnic store has them in freezer bags but neither of us feel they compare to what we ate in Krakow.

I will get the recipe for you soon - busy for a few days, but my wife will be happy to share

I would also mention that (for those of us shopping at supermarkets) that farmer’s cheese is much more appropriate/more like the “cottage cheese” you use for biezpienu maize et al.

You are so right, Peteri.  My friend who visited me from Latvia tasted our cottage cheese and said the same.  Our cottage cheese, no matter what size the curds or what percent of fat, salt, is used is not “biezpiens”.  I will have to try farmer’s cheese when I get Sniks’ perogie recipe.
Thank you for your advice which I value, considering that I am still baking piragi from your recipe of a few years ago. Actually,I have become quite good at making them.  My family and friends can never get enough piragi.

I am not the cook in our family, but often get the ingredients. When my wife makes Jāņu sieru (John’s day cheese) I go shopping for the farmer’s cheese. One can usually find quite a selection at the Russian delis, sometimes you can even find Latvijas biezpiens (Farmerś cheese from Latvia).

Good you mentioned that, Lauri.  Greensboro now has an International Market with foods from around the world as well as a Polish deli. No Russian markets, though. I will check both for biezpiens or the next best thing.  We also have a large Farmer’s Market that carries dairy products. I’ll have to check them as well.

Arija et al.,
” will check both for biezpiens or the next best thing.  We also have a large Farmer’s Market that carries dairy products. I’ll have to check .........”

Real latvians make their own “biezpiens”.

Visu labu,

Bruno, please post your biezpiena recipe.  I’ll try and make my own.  I want to be a REAL Latvian.

Arija et al.,
“Bruno, please post your biezpiena recipe.  I’ll try and make my own.  I want to be a REAL Latvian. “

I do not make my own “biezpiens”.  I do, however, make my own “rūgušpiens”.  Making “rūgušpiens” is the first step towards making “biezpiens”.  I am sure there are latvian ladies who can teach you how to make “biezpiens’.  It is a little like “taking coals to Newcastle” for latvian women.

Visu labu,

Well, rugushpiens will be a start then.  Can you post that recipe, Bruno?
I just checked my two Latvian cookbooks and neither has a recipe for either rugushpiens or biezpiens.  They both have recipes using biezpiens, assuming it has already been made, but no recipe for it.
Peteri, can you post a biezpiena recipe,too?

Ārija et al.,

:Well, rugushpiens will be a start then.  Can you post that recipe, Bruno?”

I have posted about it before, and as much as I hate to repeat myself, here it goes just for you:

Take milk and add a teaspoon   of sour cream, made by natural fermentation, shake it up, let it stand on the counter for a day or two, and you have ruguspiens.  Let it stand on the counter a few days more, till the whey separates from the curds.  Strain the curds separating from the whey, and you have biezpiens.
In the countryside in Latvia, where almost every homestead has a cow, asking how to make biezpiens is akin to askining how to boil water.  The same for ruguspiens.

Visu labu,

Well, that couldn’t be easier, Bruno.  Thank you for repeating the recipe.  I must have missed it when you posted it before.

If you can get raw milk somewhere, (and make sure the farmer is known for a good, clean product),  then if you let the milk sit in a bowl in a warm place for a day or 2, it will sour naturally.  (At this point sprinkle cinamon sugar on it & eat with a spoon; tastes like natural yogurt!). 

When the milk has soured a bit, simmer it ever so gently (do NOT boil)  until the milk curd separates from the whey.
Strain this mixture through a thin cotton cloth and save the whey to use in other cooking (bread making).  You don’t get a lot of cottage cheese this way,  (1/4 cottage cheese,  3/4 whey) and you can appreciate why cheese products have such a high price.

The simmering separates the milk solids from the whey, but if you boil it, the milk solids churn apart again, don’t hold together, and you essentially have a mess on your hands.

Hm, Ilze, this sounds a lot more complicated than just adding a spoonful of sour cream to milk and letting it sit two days on the counter.
Couldn’t I get cottage cheese without the simmering process?  Is the simmering necessary to kill bacteria?
I’m having second thoughts about doing this on my own.  Don’t want to make anybody sick with my cottage cheese perogies.  Maybe getting the farmers cheese at the store is a smarter move. 
When you make the cottage cheese does it always turn out right?  With just 1/4 cottage cheese to 3/4 whey, how much milk would I have to start with to get a cup or two of cottage cheese to fill my perogies?

Arija et al.,
“......., this sounds a lot more complicated than just adding a spoonful of sour cream to milk and letting it sit two days on the counter”

The fermentation is done by lactic acid bacteria.  Lactic acid bacteria are good bacteria to have in your gut(part of the reason for my “ruguspiens”). However,  lactic acid bacteria fight other bacteria for a place in the gut and till they establish themselves, one might or might not have a queasy stomach for a few days.

Visu labu,