Cultural Heritage Through Cooking

Food is often at the heart of family traditions that get passed down, and it's a powerful tool to connect your children to their cultural heritage. Abby Brown makes pīrāgi with two young women in celebration of their Latvian heritage.

Ingredients

Dough
2 pkgs. yeast
1 teaspoon Sugar
¼ cup warm water
¾ cup warm water
1 ½ sticks butter, chopped about the size of sugar
cubes
3 tablespoons sour cream
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon cardamom
2-2 ½ cups flour

Filling
1 lb. Bacon
¼ lb. Ham
½ small onion, finely chopped
¼ - ½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sour cream
Egg wash
1 egg
1 teaspoon sugar

Directions

In a small bowl, combine yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar, and ¼ cup warm (not hot) water. Allow yeast to rise.

In a large bowl, combine ¾ cup water with chopped butter, sour cream, salt, sugar, and cardamom. Stir until butter has melted and sugar has dissolved. With a fork, stir in 2 cups of flour until combined. Add risen yeast mixture continue to stir until dough becomes smooth, adding the remaining ½ cup flour as needed so that the dough no longer sticks to the fork. Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel and allow dough to rise in a warm area doubled in volume. Place bacon in freezer for 20-30 minutes to harden. Finely chop bacon, ham and onion. (A food processor can be used here, but take care not to puree the onions.) Lightly fry combined bacon, ham and onions. Pour off bacon fat. Once mixture has cooled, combine bacon, ham and onions with sour cream and black pepper.