Lithuanian Potato Casserole: Kugelis

A friend of mine was of partial Lithuanian ancestry. I can't remember for sure, but I believe his maternal grandparents were from Lithuania and they settled here in Cleveland, where other Lithuanian immigrants formed a Lithuanian community in the northeastern part of the city in the East 185th Street area, where it still exists to this day. My friend once prepared this dish, "Kugelis," for a party, many years ago, which gave me my first time to try "Kugelis." Unfortunately, my friend passed away quite a number of years ago.

There are some variations to "Kugelis," but generally those variations are about supplemental ingredients, not about the basic ingredients of potatoes, onion and bacon, although it can be made without bacon, to make it a vegetarian dish. "Kugelis" is a common dish for holidays (not just Christmas), and it is often served topped with sour cream and/or with fruit preserves or compote, like lingonberries (Americans and Canadians can easily use whole cranberry sauce/cranberry relish). By the way, sour cream is a common ingredient in dishes, or as an accompaniment to dishes, in that part of the world, as that overall region of the eastern Baltic area and transcending many national borders, has long had a strong tie to dairy farming.    

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and grated (best to squeeze out excess liquid from the potatoes too)* 
1/2 cup onion, grated
1/3 cup bacon, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons flour 
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped dill 
2/3 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt

In a skillet, saute the bacon over medium heat for about 3 minutes, then add the onion and saute further until the onion softens, then remove the skillet from the heat and set it aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, dill, salt and pepper. Add the grated potatoes, the bacon/onion mixture and sprinkle the flour over the mixture, then thoroughly mix everything together well (I do it by hand). Butter a baking dish or pan and put the potato mixture in and smooth it over. Bake at 400 F for 45 minutes or until nicely browned. Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top.

* A few things about the potatoes: Russet/Idaho potatoes are good for this dish. I grate the potatoes on an old style vegetable grater, and I use the side of the grater with relatively small holes (maybe some say "medium"?), but not the small or extra small grating parts. It's best to wait to grate the potatoes until just before you add them to the mixture, or they will begin to oxidize (turn brownish in color). When you grate the potatoes, they will likely give off at least some liquid, which you can just pour off. I then give the grated potatoes a squeeze by hand to get any really excess liquid out of them. I don't try to wring them dry, although from what I understand, some Lithuanians do just about that.  

WORD HISTORY:
Epic-This noun and adjective is distantly related to "voice," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French. "Epic" goes back to Indo European "wekw," which meant, "to speak." This gave transliterated Ancient Greek "epos," which meant, "a word, one's word;" that is, "a promise, heroic story often told in poetry." This produced the transliterated Ancient Greek adjective "epikos," meaning, "relating to heroic story or stories of poetry." This was borrowed by Latin as "epicus" with the same meaning. This gave French "épique," which was borrowed by English in the late 1500s, with likely reinforcement by Latin "epicus." The noun developed from the adjective in the early 1700s meaning, "an extended poem or narrative centered around a heroic figure." The adjective has taken on the additional more general meaning, "(usually) a story or event staged or told in a grand way."