FIVE KEY LITHUANIAN INGREDIENTS

Potatoes

‘We’d have them five times a week: mashed, roasted, boiled, as rösti or fries. Like cepelinai, kugelis pudding is made with grated potatoes but oven-baked with eggs, chicken legs or pigs’ trotters. Lithuanians learned to do lots with potatoes.’

Smelt

‘We eat smelt during the winter ice-fishing season. It’s a tiny fish which you cook whole with the head on, pan-fried as a snack. Fresh, they smell like cucumber.’

Pork

‘Lithuanians use the whole animal in dried meats and salamis. The fridge could be full but if there wasn’t any ham, mum would say, “we’ve nothing to eat”. As kids, we’d take a piece of rye bread and top it with soured cream, raw onion and smoked meat to have as a snack while we watched telly.’

Cottage cheese

‘In Lithuania, cottage cheese curds are thicker and drier. My brother and I would have it for breakfast with fruit in summer. Then cottage cheese products came in flavoured with strawberries or chocolate. In Eastern European shops, you can buy cottage cheese snack bars.’

Horseradish

‘As a kid, I don’t remember chillies. Horseradish was the spice. Mum would grate it fresh with soured cream and keep it in the fridge to eat with smoked meats or to make mash.’