Sour cream and red pepper cream

If there is one product that Latvians are crazy about (way too much), it is sour cream. It seems there is no other way to eat food than with sour cream. We are ready to boil stock for 4 hours or more, add the best ingredients to make soup, and at the end make it taste just like any other soup by adding a spoonful of sour cream. I believe this is nonsense, but that’s the way it is. For me, sour cream is something special: we eat it maybe a few times a year, and only if it is exceptional. After visiting my local farm Grasbergs, I just had to use it because I got is as a gift, and also because it is very, very tasty. I ate sour cream just one more time this year. 

Ingredients

500 g sour cream
250 g red peppers in oil, sliced thinly
20 g parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp hot paprika powder
1 lemon zest, finely grated 
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
smoked salt or sea salt, to taste
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Prepare

12 h before you begin to prepare the cream, place the sour cream in strainer lined with cheesecloth. Cover with cling film and set in the fridge to drain for at least 12 h, but 16 h is better. 

When the cream has drained, place it in a bowl with the remaining ingredients, mix, and let sit for another hour to let the flavours combine. 

Recipe and pictures: Signe Meirane
Camera: Sony Alpha 7s