Grey peas with bacon - typical christmas meal Islice, Latvia…

Grey peas with bacon - typical christmas meal Islice, Latvia

Fat, But Tasteful Christmas Meal

"It gives lots of energy, but nowadays urban people have nowhere to spend that energy. In the countryside, in the days when there was more physical work to do, the meal was exceptionally acceptable."

Iadviga, an SOS mother from the SOS Children's Village Islice, Latvia, tells how to cook the Latvian traditional Christmas meal - grey peas with bacon.

The meal is a feast, which is nowadays cooked only at Christmas. "It's quite fatty food that was eaten in the countryside formerly," Iadviga explains. "It gives lots of energy, but nowadays urban people have nowhere to spend that energy. In the countryside, in the days when there was more physical work to do, the meal was exceptionally acceptable."

The bacon is to blame for the fat in the meal. To cook this food you need bacon, onion, salt and grey peas. Cooking is actually more time consuming than one could presume when looking at the list of ingredients.

Urban versus countryside

Cooking the peas takes 1.5 hours (add some salt as well), in the meantime you can slice the bacon and the onion into small cubes and fry them together.

When frying, Iadviga is analysing the changes in Latvians' habits of cooking. "Younger, urban people are more oriented towards Western food, because they have more money. In the countryside, where people have less money, the traditions are stronger - they eat also like our ancestors: potatoes, pork etc."

In Iadviga's house at the village, the habits of cooking are somewhere in the middle of city and countryside. "My boys, a fifteen-year-old and a twelve-year-old, love to cook. Their favourites are noodles, baked potatoes and chicken filets."

The children's favourite meals in the village change very often during the years. "My experience shows that when children come to the village they hate salads. They eat, for example carrots, but they hate carrot salad. I can't tell you why, but fortunately it changes over the time."

Special dishes

Now, let's change the topic and get back to the peas. After cooking the peas for 1.5 hours, deplete them and put them into a special dish. The traditional Latvian Christmas meal is eaten from the dish, which has high brims and is made of clay.

Add the fried onion and the bacon and enjoy! Oh, one more thing, don't forget the kefir - a fermented milk drink originating in the Caucasus.