Dear LPG,

You will remember, well you might remember, the very public promise that I made to myself and all the readers of the LPG website when I undertook to recreate one dish designed to represent a nation with a national reason to celebrate each month. 

Today is the day that Lithuania celebrates the signing of their Act of Independence and, as promised, I need to tell you about my attempt to produce a plate of Cepelinai.  I have to say that having a Lithuanian family member and all the videos on the internet did not really help with this and when I mentioned my plans, my Lithuanian influence reacted with an air of trepidation and just one word, Oooooohhhhhhh!’  I blame lockdown and not being able to visit her for my ultimate results.

My first challenge was finding some potato starch.  Although the internet told me which supermarkets to go to none actually had any, so I set about producing some myself. Predictably the internet was full of instruction, but I was not prepared for the way that the potatoes would discolour during the drying process; but enough of that.

I finally found that Holland and Barrett’s had some, and set to work.  With the help of my food processer and liquidiser, it did not take long to grate, mix and squash my version of the grated potato through the cheesecloth, but I am not going to tell you how many attempts it took to get the mince to stay inside the potato ‘shells’. When it came to it, I had a few misgivings about dropping the ‘fruits of my labour’ into a pot of hot water, but I have to report that three of the four that I put in the pot came out and, though they looked a bit soggier than expected, they tasted quite good.

The really interesting thing was that one ended up disintegrating into the water, but the result was in interesting and equally delicious potato soup (although I added a few extra diced vegetables and let it simmer for a bit longer).

So, as the soup looked better than the actual Cepelinai, I have decided to offer a picture of that today.  I have to say that this recipe looked a lot easier to produce in the video but I salute Lithuania and anyone who gets this right first time…

…but upwards and onwards to March…

I have decided to try something that looks a little more basic this month as I acknowledge Tunisia’s Independence day on March 20^th.  While couscous is the first thing that comes to mind, I have found a recipe that I hope even I can’t make too much of a mess of.  It is called Brik à l'Oeuf (Egg Brick) and there are quite a few variations but, as always, there is a downside to my precooking research. Most of the videos I can find will be fine as long as you have some knowledge of the French language, but I did find one English version.

I know that I say it every time but I’ll be back in a month or so, after all, ‘how hard can it be?’

CB, Lewisham

CB offers some variations on a Tunisian theme…

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… and a few for those who speak a little French…

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