Lithuanian Cuisine

We were inspired by N's earlier nationality, and decided to prepare a two course Lithuanian dinner. We wanted to make foods that he would have lovely childhood memories of, and so chose kibinai and tinginys.

Kibinai is a salty pastry which is filled with meat. Us not being so handy with our hands, didn't make it exactly as it's supposed to look like, but according to N the taste was exactly as it was supposed to be, which we're both proud of. 

The original recipe which we used can be found both in Lithuanian and English from here. We didn't touch the recipe of the dough but tried to follow that as closely as possible. The only change we made was dividing the amounts in half, because they sounded way too large for just the two of us to eat. 

In the filling we used minced pork meat, onions, pepper, salt and some herbs.

Kibinai is commonly served with a soup. We made it from vegetable stock and a bunch of fresh parsley. Simple, but fits really well.

Then the tinginys. A dessert which will silence the cravings for sweetness and chocolate immediately. It was a bit difficult to try to find the proper recipe for it in English. Finally we ended up in a forum where we could find the translated and an authentic one.

I read that condensed milk can be produced at home easily, it's just quite time consuming. It's as easy as pouring milk into a wide based saucepan (preferably teflon) and leaving it on the stove on low heat for a few hours to condense/evaporate. So if you're feeling like being a true homemaker, go ahead. We just bought a can from the store. If you're unfamiliar with this ingredient and are wondering whether to buy the sweetened one or the other one, we recommend the other one. The unsweetened one is already so sweet that you can eat only a few spoonfuls. 

We used half the amount of nuts and half the amount of biscuits that the recipe suggested (because the packages I bought were too small...) but it turned out amazing nevertheless. This way it just turned out more chocolaty, which is not in this household considered a minus at all. 

Lastly, if you're busy or just feeling an uncontrollable desire to eat the dessert already, it's possible to reduce the freezing time by instead of a fridge putting it in a freezer, where it will turn good in about an hour already. If you'd ever decide to make this, we guarantee, it's totally worth it (especially because it's really easy to make) if you love sweet things. 

Posted by K & N