Starting A New Tradition

 My heritage is Latvian. Latvia is a very small country on the Baltic sea, a country rich with history and traditions. My parents fled during WW2 and made a new life in Australia. I was born in Australia, but didn't actually speak English until I was three.


Latvian food, of course, was a big part of my childhood and Christams Eve was when we had our main Christmas meal. We'd sit around the dining room table (only used at Christmas and birthdays) and enjoy such delicacies as pickled herrings, smoked eel and potatoe salad. Mum wasn't much of a baker, so she'd get one of her friends (who was a faaaabulous baker) to make a batch of Piragi - bacon rolls.

Ask any Latvian what food would they associate most with their country and the answer will be Piragi. Small yeast buns filled with a bacon and onion mix. So good! It's impossible to stop at just one.

Because mum never made them, I never learned how. It's only in my later year now that I'm thinking about traditions that can be passed down the family. LI told my kids I was going to give it a try for Christmas, and last year I searched Google for a Piragi recipe. I finally found one that didn't look too complex and I tried my hand. And failed. And had to tell my kids 'not this year'.

lthough I'm not hugely involved in Latvian life, I do belong to a couple of Baltic and Latvian Facebook groups and when a few weeks ago a post came up, advertising Piragi baking class I knew it was my chance to do get this tradition happening.

The class was fabulous. An interesting mix of people, some of who didn't even have any Latvian heritage, but knew about Piragi and wanted to learn how to make them. Because the dough uses yeast, and needs to prove, we didn't actually get to make the dough. That has been the daunting part and while being hands-on would have been ideal, at least watching an expert (who has literally made thousands of them for the cafe at Latvian House) gave me a good idea of how it all works.

We did get to roll out the dough and learn how to fill and fold them into the right shape. Then they

went into the oven and twenty minutes later we got to taste test. And they were just like I remember from my childhood. We left the class with the recipe and a bag full of still warm Piragi. Ok, they didn't all quite make it home because I kept dipping into the bag on the drive home.

So now I'll be doing a test batch or two in the next few weeks, and the kids (well they're adults) have already said they're excited about having them for Christams to remember mum/nana and our Latvian heritage.

For now, I'm crossing my fingers that my next attempt will be a success and by the time it's Christmas Eve, I will have started a new family tradition.

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