Folk Festival's flavors celebrate half-century of culinary tradition

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For French author Marcel Proust, a small piece of a shell-shaped madeleine cookie could summon a flood of childhood memories.

For me, the crispy edge of a square of Lithuanian potato pudding, or kugelis, enjoyed 20 years ago at the Pittsburgh Folk Festival called up remembrances of my own long-lost boyhood.

For the past several weeks, volunteer cooks have been busy in ethnic clubs and church kitchens all around Pittsburgh. They have been preparing the often-exotic, sometimes-simple ingredients that will go into making new culinary memories at this year's 50th annual folk festival.

Activities begin tomorrow afternoon at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. More than two dozen ethnic groups will take part in a three-day event that features entertainment, cultural displays and heaping plates of traditional foods.

Only five groups have taken part in all 50 festivals. Volunteers from groups representing Bulgaria, Greece, Lebanon, Lithuania and Ukraine have been dancing, singing, demonstrating crafts or cooking each year since 1956.

Food preparations start well before the event. Few full-service restaurants were busier last week than the kitchen and parish hall at Our Lady of Victory Maronite Catholic Church in Scott. On one rainy afternoon, a dozen parish members were mixing and rolling dough or chopping spinach and onions for Lebanese spinach pies, one of the signature dishes served at the festival. Volunteers would return the next two days to prepare pans of kibbeh, a savory mix of ground lamb, bulger wheat, onions and pine nuts.

Diana Budway Kuzma of Scott, one of the Lebanese food booth volunteers, said other treats will include stuffed grape leaves, a cracked wheat and vegetable salad called tabouleh, and falafel sandwiches. Falafel, a fried dough made of chickpeas, is served on flat bread with tahini dressing, which is made of ground sesame seeds, lemon juice, garlic and parsley.

Most food items at the festival are available both in platters and a la carte, offering opportunities for mixing and matching world cuisines.

"Many Indians are very fond of falafel, since it is all vegetarian," the Rev. James Root said. Father Root, pastor of Our Lady of Victory, also is general chairman of the festival and president of its board of directors.

It is not only food items that blend together at the annual festival. Lucy Koutsavlis, who is of Irish ancestry, has been general chairwoman for the Greek food booth for the past dozen years.

"I think it is very important that children know their ethnic background and understand what their ancestors brought," Mrs. Koutsavlis said. "It gives you a sense of belonging and knowing where you came from."

Both her daughters have performed with the Grecian Odyssey Dancers and have helped her and other volunteers prepare all the dishes served at the folk festival.

The other half of the girls' heritage hasn't been ignored, either. Both also have learned Irish cooking, she said.

Greek dishes will include meat and eggplant moussaka, stuffed grape leaves, pastitsio, a kind of Hellenic lasagna, and spanakopita, spinach and feta pie.

"And gyros -- we always have gyros," Mrs. Koutsavlis promised.

Nick Kotow, general chairman for the Ukrainian group, said the festival offers a chance for cultural outreach.

"We have an opportunity to teach our traditions and dances and share our foods with both our own Ukrainian community and the general public."

Food booth chairs Marijka Jula and Debra A. Walenchok and their helpers will be serving holubtsi, or stuffed cabbage; varenyky or pyrohy, filled dumplings similar to Polish pierogies; halushki, a mix of buttered noodles, cabbage and onions; and kielbasa and sauerkraut sandwiches.

Just as both Greeks and Lebanese make different varieties of spinach pie, ethnic groups from China to Ukraine make some version of filled dumplings.

"Almost every booth will have some kind of potato dish," predicted Angel Roy, who is handling double duty as general food chairwoman for the festival and food booth chief for the Bulgarians.

"People like to sample each other's foods," Ms. Roy said. "I may want to taste everyone's grape leaves before deciding what to take home for a Memorial Day picnic. Parents get a chance to introduce their children to new tastes."

While her own ethnic background is a mixture of French, German and Irish, she has been involved with things Eastern European since age 15 as a Junior Tamburitzan folk dancer.

She is a board member of the Bulgarian-Macedonian National Education and Cultural Center in West Homestead, which is well known for its weekly soup sales.

The Bulgarians will serve their own version of eggplant and ground meat moussaka. The dish is topped not with bechamel sauce, but yogurt, Ms. Roy said.

Other favorites include peppers stuffed with ground meat and rice and simmered in a tomato sauce.

"We use sweet cubanelle peppers rather than green peppers," she said. "They have a better flavor and are not as acidic."

Lithuanians are among the region's smaller ethnic groups. While the local community will sponsor both a display booth and performers, including the Neris Dancers and musicians from Lithuania, there will be no food booth this year.

Members in the region's Lithuanian-American organizations are aging, and the groups lacked sufficient able-bodied volunteers to handle cooking and clean-up chores.

Ah, well. At least I'll be able to hear some of the melodies this weekend that my grandmother hummed.

But if I need the enticing aroma of baked potatoes, onions and bacon combined in a kugelis to summon my personal "Remembrance of Things Past," I'll have to do my own cooking this year.

Folk festival hours at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center are 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. tomorrow, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

Admission is $10 at the door; children under 12 are free. The festival Web site is pghfolkfest.org.

Bulgaria

YAGNISHKO, SPINAK I ORIS (LAMB, SPINACH AND RICE)

PG TESTED

I made this with only one box of spinach, and this turned out to be a really rich dish. Next time, I'll use the full amount of spinach, a little more tomato sauce and more rice.

• 1 medium onion, chopped
  
• 2 tablespoons margarine
  
• 2 pounds lamb, cut into 1-inch pieces
  
• 3 ounces tomato sauce
  
• Water
  
• 1 pound fresh spinach or 2 10-ounce packages frozen spinach
  
• 1/2 cup rice
  
• 3 sprigs chopped fresh mint or 1 teaspoon dried mint
  
• 2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

In a 3- to 4-quart pot or skillet, saute onion in margarine; add lamb cubes and brown. Add tomato sauce and enough water to cover meat. Cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours or until meat is tender.

Add spinach, rice and mint; cook until done (about 20 minutes). More water may be added if needed. Add salt and pepper to taste.

-- "40 Years ... An Ethnic Taste of Pittsburgh," published in 1996 by the Pittsburgh Folk Festival.

Greece

SPANAKOPITA (SPINACH PIE)

• 2 bunches scallions, chopped
  
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
  
• 2 cups thawed, squeezed, chopped spinach
  
• 2 1/2 cups cottage cheese
  
• 3 cups feta cheese crumbles
  
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  
• 1/4 cup dried dill
  
• 9 eggs
  
• 1 pound unsalted butter, melted
  
• 1 pound box of phyllo dough

Mix together all ingredients but phyllo dough and unsalted butter. Brush melted butter in a 9-by-13-inch pan. Layer 10 sheets of phyllo, brushing butter on each layer. After 10th layer of phyllo, spread the spinach mixture evenly over phyllo dough. Layer 12 sheets of phyllo on top of the mixture, brushing each sheet with the melted butter.

Score the top layers of phyllo, 6 rows by 4 rows.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until golden. When spanakopita is slightly cooled, cut the original scored pieces through to the bottom. Uncooked spanakopita can be frozen for later thawing and baking.

-- Lucy Koutsavlis, Greek food booth chairwoman

Lebanon

TABOULEH (CRACKED WHEAT SALAD)

Cracked, or bulgur, wheat is available at stores in the Strip District and at Pitaland, Brookline.

• 3 bunches of parsley
  
• 1 medium onion or 1 bunch onion stems
  
• 1 bunch fresh mint or 2 tablespoons dried mint
  
• 1/2 cup, approximately 4 ounces, cracked wheat (No. 1 fine)
  
• Juice of three lemons or to taste
  
• 4 to 5 medium ripe tomatoes, diced
  
• 1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

Chop parsley, onion and mint. Wash cracked wheat in cold water. Squeeze out water from the cracked wheat after it has soaked for about 10 minutes. Place all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix by hand or with a wooden spoon. May be eaten with lettuce, raw cabbage or fresh grape leaves.

-- "Our Lady of Victory Maronite Church Lebanese Cook Book"

Lithuania

KUGELIS (POTATO PUDDING)

PG TESTED

This recipe can be cut in half, but the dish freezes well, and it's a lot of work, so you may as well make the whole thing.

While the recipe calls for 10 teaspoons of salt, 6 is plenty. The bacon has plenty of salt.

I grate the potatoes and onion in two steps, first using the shredder disc, then using the chopper blade to get a finer texture.

I used two smaller pans -- one glass and one metal -- to bake the kugelis. It was easier to check for bottom doneness with the glass pan.

My family likes a crispy crust and edges, so we cook the potato pudding longer -- about 15 minutes at 400 degrees and at least 90 minutes at 375. We love to add a generous dollop of sour cream to our individual serving of kugelis.

• 1 pound sliced bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces before frying
  
• 3 pounds mild onions, chopped fine (save one onion for grating)
  
• 1 stick butter or margarine
  
• 1 dozen large eggs
  
• 1 can evaporated milk
  
• 10 pounds potatoes, peeled and kept in water to prevent browning
  
• 10 teaspoons salt
  
• 2 teaspoons pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Fry bacon in skillet until halfway crisp. Add all but one of the chopped onions and continue to fry until onions are slightly browned. Add the stick of butter or margarine and allow to melt.

Remove the mixture from the heat and reserve enough fat for greasing the baking pan.

Beat the eggs, add the can of evaporated milk and mix well. Grate the potatoes and the whole onion (by hand or with a food processor) into the egg-milk mixture. Stir often to keep the potatoes from darkening.

Add the bacon-onion mixture, salt and pepper. Stir well.

Grease a 12-by-18-inch pan with the reserved fat. Add potato-bacon-onion mixture.

Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Turn the temperature down to 375 and cook another 1 hour 15 minutes. The top should be nicely browned.

-- Adapted from a recipe by Mary Lucas in "40 Years ... An Ethnic Taste of Pittsburgh"

Ukraine

LOKSHYNA Z YABLUKAMY (NOODLES WITH APPLES)

• 6 large sweet apples (Golden Delicious recommended)
  
• 2 tablespoons sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  
• 8 ounces flat noodles
  
• 3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
  
• 3 tablespoons bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel, core and grate apples, add sugar and cinnamon and let stand for 10 minutes.

Cook noodles al dente, rinse in cold water and drain.

Saute 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs in 1 tablespoon oil, mix with noodles in large bowl.

Cover sides and bottom of casserole dish with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Cover bottom of dish with layer of noodles, alternate with apples and finish with layer of noodles and sprinkling of remaining bread crumbs.

Press down lightly and bake in preheated oven at 350 for 45 minutes until done.

Loosen edges with sharp knife, invert onto a platter, cut into serving wedges.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

-- Luba Hlutkowsky, vice president of the Pittsburgh Folk Festival board of directors