Skābputra

Ingredients

• Pearl barley250 g
• Water1.5 l
• Curdled milk or buttermilk1 l
• Soured cream150 ml
• Spring onion40 g
• Dill30 g
• Potatoes — to serve600 g
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Rinse the barley and soak it in cold water for two hours.

   10 min

2. 2

   Boil the barley in a litre and a half of water for an hour, until it collapses entirely.

   65 min

3. 3

   Salt the porridge and cool it completely, stirring so no skin forms.

   30 min

4. 4

   Work the curdled milk into the cold porridge gradually, to the consistency of a thick soup.

   8 min

5. 5

   Leave it four hours somewhere cold so the sourness develops and evens out.

   10 min

6. 6

   Boil the potatoes in their skins and serve them hot alongside.

   25 min

7. 7

   Ladle it into bowls, add soured cream and scatter with spring onion and dill.

   6 min

About the dish

The barley is cooked until it collapses and cooled completely before the milk goes in. Into warm porridge soured milk splits into curds.

The soured base is made with curdled milk or buttermilk rather than fresh milk. The acidity is the whole flavour, and on sweet milk it becomes a different porridge.

It is eaten cold, in summer, in the field. It is functional food — cold, sour and filling — and Latvia has placed it on its list of protected culinary heritage.

Worth knowing

• — The porridge has to be completely cold. Even warm it splits the milk, and instead of a smooth mass you get curds.
• — Adjust the thickness with milk rather than water. Water dilutes the acidity the whole thing rests on.
• — Hot potatoes with a cold porridge are an obligatory pairing. The temperature contrast works exactly as in Lithuanian šaltibarščiai.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

340 kcal

Protein

14 g

Fat

8 g

Carbs

54 g

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