“Debesmanna” in vanilla sauce (Silvija Gurtiņš Mežgailis)

Silvija says that her mother and mother-in-law used to make debessmanna in the traditional way — first boiling the berries, then pressing them through a sieve to obtain a smooth mixture.

She herself does it a little differently — she grinds cranberries in a food processor and uses them with all the skins and seeds, because, as she says, that way there are more vitamins.

In her childhood home, milk was poured over the debessmanna, while her mother-in-law made vanilla sauce. She has also made the sauce herself, and some people even prefer the sauce to the semolina mousse itself.

If she is especially busy, she uses a trick taught to her by her mother-in-law’s friend Ilga — to “make” vanilla sauce simply by thawing vanilla ice cream.

That is her debessmanna story.

Photo from Silvijas private archive.