Švilpikai

A Dzūkija potato dish

Švilpikai are often associated with Dzūkija, where potatoes and forest mushrooms are an important part of the kitchen. In the Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia's overview of Lithuanian foods, švilpikai are also identified as potato bulbonai, one of the many potato foods that spread in Lithuania in the nineteenth century, when the potato became a foundation of the everyday table.

The name is playful, but the dish is highly practical: boiled potatoes become a filling hot meal. Yesterday's potatoes work especially well because they are drier and easier to shape.

For that reason švilpikai are an economical example of potato cooking: not a new luxury dish, but a way to re-bake and raise a plain boiled potato into a separate meal.

Why use little flour?

Švilpikai dough needs to hold its shape without turning into a floury dumpling. In a Beatos virtuvė recipe, only a few spoonfuls of flour are used for half a kilogram of boiled potatoes, which shows the principle of the proportions well.

If the potatoes are wet, it is tempting to add more flour, but then the švilpikai become hard. It is better to cool and dry the potatoes and shape them patiently.

The sauce is half the dish

Švilpikai themselves are fairly mild, so mushroom, crackling, or sour-cream sauce supplies much of the flavor.

Dried mushroom sauce fits the Dzūkija character especially well.