Beggar's Nettle Purses ‒ Kerjäläisen nokkosnyytit

My spouse loves making crepes although I need to watch his back since he can get quite picky on which ones looks absolutely perfect and which ones he tries to dump into bio waste bucket. It usually falls into my responsibility to decide how to top them. This time the fresh nettle leaves I had just been picking  were the oblivious choice.

I do fully admit using nettle inside crepes is really just another variation of making classic nettle pancakes. But it's a nice one, no way around it. And wrapping the crepe around the filling into a surprise package does give it a whole new touch. Somehow wrapping thing inside each other always feels more exciting than just placing them next to each other on the plate. The original beggar's purses are mini-size appetizers filled with caviar so for these more filling versions, I came up with the idea of using beluga lenses which are sometimes called "vegetarian's caviar".

The crepes:
- 1 litre oat milk
- 3 dl barley flour
- 3 dl wheat flour
- 1.5 dl melted margarine
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- oil or margarine for frying

The filling:
- 1 l fresh nettle leaves (or 150 g blanched and frozen)
- 2 dl beluga lenses
- 2 dl oat cream
- 2 tbsp tar liqueur (or 1 tbsp dark syrup and 1 tsp liquid smoke)
- salt

For decoration:
- Spring onion stalks

Whisk the flours into the cold milk little by little. Add the rest of the crepe batter. You can also sprinkle a little bit of turmeric Leave alone for an hour or so. Heat up the frying pan and make sure you're using enough oil to keep the crepes from sticking. Pour a ladleful of batter evenly on the pan. Tilt the pan to make sure it spreads evenly but thinly. When the edges start look golden and the center also holds together. Loosen with a spatula and turn around. When the other side is done as well, move aside and add more oil before continuing with the next crepe.


Rinse the lenses. Wash the nettles, cut out bad parts or stalks and chop the rest into smaller pieces. Put all the filling ingredients into the same pot and add enough water to almost cover them. Cook until the liquid has absorbed and the lenses are done. About 30‒40 minutes should do.

For the serving, place a spoonful of the filling on the crepe. Collect the edges into a perfect looking package.and tie carefully together with a string or a spring onion stalk.

Nutritional values / 2337 g (without the frying oil):
energy 3671 kcal
fat 149 g
protein 114 g
carbohydrates 452 g
fiber 68 g

Tarry Barlotto ‒ Tervainen ohratto

One-pot meals are quick to prepare which is just perfect this time of the year when you just want to get all the possible extra minutes to take a walk outside. I'm not always so certain whether they really require a recipe but at least different recipes are good for sharing combination ideas. This is a colourful, savoury dish that features some of my favourite ingredients.

- 4 dl whole barley grains
- 150 g tempeh (or smoked tofu)
- 2 turnips
- 1 carrot
- half a leek
- 5 dl water
- 1 dl oat cream
- 0.5 dl tar liqueur
- 1 tablespoon rape oil (I prefer cold pressed type)
- 1 dose of stock
- rosemary
- curry
- salt

Sauté the barley. In the meanwhile, peel and chop the veggies. Cut the tempeh as well. Move the barley aside for a moment and do the same for the turnips, the carrot and if you wish, the tempeh. When they're starting to look tasty, throw in the rest. Let the barlotto simmer until most of the liquid has vaporized (about half an hour).

Nutritional values / 1300 g (not counting the liqueur):
energy 1726 kcal
fat 48 g
protein 72 g
carbohydrates 256 g
fiber 52 g

Chocolaty Sauerkraut Stew ‒ Suklainen hapankaalipata

My favourite food is called mush. Others have invented flashier names for it though I think they're only designed to hide the truer essence. You hardly need a recipe for them since their very idea is to take a pot and stuff it with anything you find from the closet or the refrigerator. This can sometimes lead into quite dubious looking concoctions. I'm still sincerely wondering if I should divide this ingredient list into two, just for the sake of people with further developed taste buds than me. But then again, perhaps there are some other twisted minds out there.

If you can't stand sauerkraut but would like to give this a try nonetheless, flush the sharpest taste out of your kraut with water ‒ or just use freshly shredded cabbage instead. One warning: I've never run into this problem myself but little birds told me that using vanilla-flavoured chocolate in salty dishes may result in even weirder taste results.

- 300 g seitan strips
- 5 dl sauerkraut
- 2 dl beans
- 2 large apples
- 40 g dark chocolate (semi-sweet, at least 70 %)
- 1 tablespoon rape oil
- 1 tablespoon tar syrup
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
- 4 dl beer (I only had dark lager this time but I imagine stout or thick porter would fit even better)

In a large pot, heat up the oil. Fry the seitan and the beans until they've acquired some colour. Drain the sauerkraut and add it into the pot. Add the spices as well. While they warm up, peel (or just wash if you're using organic) and cut the apples. Mix in the apple chunks, the beer and finally, the chocolate. Let the stew simmer for few more minutes so everything becomes just one big mess.

Decorate with pickled onions.

Nutritional values / 1510 g:
energy 1778 kcal
fat 45 g
protein 126 g
carbohydrates 182 g
fiber 52 g

Seitan

I was going to write a stew recipe using seitan but then I realized I've never posted any basic directions on making the stuff so I could just easily link to it. Of course, in some countries you can just buy seitan on a reasonable prize, here in Finland it's usually a better idea to use gluten flour. Some extra trouble perhaps, but that way you'll also get to flavour it the way you want to, tweak the structure and shape it creatively.

Seitan flour is the closest thing to pure protein. It contains over 70 % of the stuff (for comparison). When making white bread it's a terrific way to improve the structure. If you just add water into it you'll get a rubbery clump that has almost no taste. To make it chewier you want to add something extra, for example mashed beans, soy flour, pea flour or hemp flour. When making roasts I even use normal wheat flour. And to give it some taste you'll need to add spices. Lots of them.

Here's one basic combination I use. Try playing with your favourite spices. Instead of red wine and maple syrup I often use tar liqueur and a teaspoon of vinegar for a smoky result. And to get a zesty sea-flavour I might apply apple juice plus some seaweed in the broth. But of course, you won't necessarily need any of them.

The seitan:
- 4 dl seitan flour
- 1 dl pea flour
- 0.5 dl red wine
- 0.5 dl nutritional yeast
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 dried chili
- 2 tablespoon rape oil
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- smoked paprika
- salt
- water (approximately 2.5 dl)

The broth:
- 1 dose of stock
- piece of ginger
- dried yarrow
- 0.5 dl soy sauce
- 2 l water

Combine all the dry seitan ingredients. Mix in the wine, the oil and the syrup. Start adding water little by little, kneading all the time. Be careful not to use more water than you necessarily need unless you really do want your seitan soft. Knead for at least five minutes.

Combine the broth ingredients and let it come to a boil. Cut seitan into pieces, flatten with your hands and drop one by one into the boiling broth. Let them simmer for half an hour. Notice that seitan will swell quite a bit so use a big pot.

Some people bother to fish the seitan pieces out of the broth and cover them into an oily marinade. I'm usually so lazy I just leave them stand there overnight. What ever you do, don't throw the tasty broth away. It's a terrific base for a soup.

Next day, fry on a pan with plenty of oil. Or proceed to make something else.

If you can't find gluten flour you can also use normal wheat flour. It takes some work and flavouring can only be done through marinating but the good thing is that it's hard to fail. You'll first have to knead 11 dl flour and 4 dl water for about half an hour to achieve a tight ball. Let it stand in cold water for a moment. Then start flushing the carbohydrates away, changing the water turned white every now and then. (It helps to keep changing between cold and hot water.) This should take about half an hour. When the water just keeps looking clear no matter how much you knead you can proceed to the boiling part.

Nutritional values / 661 g:
energy 1345 kcal
fat 36 g
protein 174 g
carbohydrates 76 g
fiber 12 g

Karelian Pasties ‒ Karjalanpiirakat

Yesterday was Finland's Independence Day. In most countries, that's a lively carnival. In Finland it has evolved into a more dignified, even pious day, largely consisting of remembering World War II and honouring the veterans who ‒ as the only nation ‒ managed to fight back against Stalin's invasion. For my generation which doesn't even remember there ever existed a place called Soviet Union it's more about gathering together some friends, burning candles, eating well, talking about new laws that threaten our freedom of speech or right to privacy and of course, laughing at the dresses of the president's ball that YLE broadcasts every year.

While others played a game where you get a point every time you know a name of a ball guest and another one from knowing the reason they're invited I pinched up some Karelian pasties. From numerous hand-size Karelian pie types these are the ones that have an almost iconic status so I thought they'd make an appropriate snack for Independence Day. They have a thin rye crust and just about anything as a filling. Nowadays rice porridge is the filling number one and potato second but barley, talkkuna, buckwheat, carrot or rutabaga would make them a bit more "authentic" (what a terrible word). They can even have a sweet berry porridge inside. This time I used a simple turnip filling and a crust recipe straight from a flour bag.

The crust:
- 5.5 dl sifted rye flour (if you can only find normal kind you should replace some of it with wheat flour)
- 2 dl water
- 2 teaspoons salt

The rest:
- 1 kg turnip
- white pepper
- 100 g margarine
- 1 dl oat milk

Cook the turnips. Peel and mash them together with the pepper and half the margarine. While the filling cools down, mix the crust ingredients together with your hands. Roll the paste into a thin layer (use extra flour generously so it won't stick). Take circular pieces from the layer with the help of a floured water glass.

Now roll each circle into an oval. Lay a spoonful of turnip mash on it and fold the edges with your index finger and thumb, from both sides simultaneously, pinching "wrinkles" on the filling as you go along. Bake about fifteen minutes in a 275ºC oven.

Melt the rest of the margarine and add the milk into it. Butter the oven-fresh pastries from both sides and lay them into a bowl over each other. Cover with a towel and let them soften up for about an hour.

Serve hot or cold, perhaps together with tar syrup.

Nutritional values / 1785 g:
energy 2084 kcal
fat 82 g
protein 48 g
carbohydrates 284 g
fiber 78 g

Roasted Pumpkin Salad ‒ Paahdettu kurpitsasalaatti

Many younger Finns celebrate Halloween as the carnivalistic feast of the dead in the end of the harvest season. I'm personally not quite sure whether it's a wonderful continuum for the traditional Kekri or an awful supernational thing with only a commercial value. In any case, the best thing about it is that it's easy to acquire cheap pumpkins right in the beginning of December.

This is something I first thought I'd try with turnip but my, either I was hungry as an Ethiopian during a Red Cross strike or this worked just perfectly with pumpkin. Guess I have to check out the turnip version as well.

- 300 g pumpkin
- 200 g smoked tofu (A home imitation of this is easy to make by marinating normal extra firm tofu in tar liqueur or smoked beer.)
- 1 dl smoked almonds or nuts
- 0.5 l sorrel (I used bloody sorrel or viinisuolaheinä)
- 1 large red onion
- 2 tablespoons lingonberry juice
- 1 teaspoon apple wine vinegar
- oil
- salt
- black pepper

Peel the pumpkin and cut it in cubes. Oil a casserole and put the cubes in it. Pour some more oil on the cubes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast them in a 200°C oven until they turn soft and their edges start to turn golden (about 45 minutes). Remember to turn them around every once in a while.

In the meanwhile, chop the onion and sauté half of it. Cut the tofu in cubes as well. Mix all the ingredients. Sprinkle with vinegar-juice mixture. Serve while the pumpkin cubes are still warm.

Nutritional values / 960 g:
energy 1086 kcal
fat 85 g
protein 56 g
carbohydrates 26 g
fiber 19 g

Black Trumpet Rolls ‒ Mustatorvirullat

I'd probably love autumn if it didn't foreshadow winter. Just like Sundays would be so much comfier days if they weren't followed by Mondays. Two weeks ago, I went to collect two litres of frozen Cantharellus tubaeformis (suppilovahvero) with a friend, almost froze myself as well and decided the season is off for this year. Some of the mushrooms are now hanging from the kitchen ceiling but some of them I've used for a soup and a new experiment.

The idea of black trumpet roll was actually in strong-tasting mushrooms which these are not. But since I have to wait another year to get my hands on black trumpets I thought I could just as well check if the recipe idea works otherwise.

Seitan part:
- 3 dl seitan flour
- 2 dl graham flour or rye flour
- 1 dl tar liqueur or 2 dl smoked beer
- 0.5 dl rape oil
- 3 garlic cloves
- salt
- water (about 1-2 dl, more than you'd normally use)

Mushroom part:
- 2 dl dried black trumpets
- 2 tablespoons soy-based cream spread (for example tofutti)
- 2 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise
- 1 dl oat cream
- juniper berries
- black pepper
- 1 punch of fresh rosemary

Mix the seitan dough and roll it into a flat rectangle. Mix the cream spread, mayonnaise, cream, rosemary and spices together and then add the dried mushrooms as well.

Now you can spread the mushroom filling on the other long edge of the seitan, as if you were making a Swiss roll. Carefully roll the mushrooms inside the seitan and cut it in six pieces (though I do assume this also makes a nice centre piece for a dinner table if you leave it intact).

Arrange the rolls into a casserole and pour some vegetable broth on the bottom so they won't dry up in the oven. Cover with a folio. Cook about 40 minutes in a 200°C. Serve with some strong tasting sidekick that emphasizes the main dish, for example lingonberry cram or sea buckthorn and carrot sauce.

Nutritional values / 1 roll:
energy 330 kcal
fat 14 g
protein 23 g
carbohydrates 23 g
fiber 3 g

Sausages ‒ Makkarat

According to a common saying the most popular vegetable in Finland is sausage. Well, our little household certainly proves the point as we always have soy sausages in the fridge. I never thought about making them myself before I found VeganDad's recipes. And you know what? It turned out to be quite easy. The only real problem with them is that they're too good and I end up eating them all on their own without any veggies or other sidekicks ‒ not such a great idea to fill your stomach with protein only. Ouch.

- 1.5 dl fava beans (or peas)
- 3 dl seitan flour
- 270 g extra firm tofu (or hefu)
- 1 dl tar liqueur
- 0.5 dl nutritional yeast
- 1 dose of stock
- 0.5 dl mustard
- 5 red and green chili peppers
- onion powder
- caraway
- salt
- folio
(- rape oil)

Mash the beans. Chop the chili. Crumble the tofu. Mix everything together with your hand. Divide in six pieces and shape into phallic symbols. Wrap them tightly into folio and steam for 45 minutes.

Nutritional values / 1 sausage / 158 g (without the oil and once again, liqueur):
energy 291 kcal
fat 6 g
protein 34 g
carbohydrates 18 g
fiber 6 g

Stuffed Turnips ‒ Täytetyt nauriit

Another nice thing to stuff and cook in the grill is turnips. Anything you normally use as a stuffing for baked potato works terrificly with these sweeties as well, only they have more taste of their own. This time I decided to use smoked tofu and tar liquer which both taste like they were designed especially for turnips.

- 1 kg turnips (about 7)
- 270 g smoked tofu
- 1 onion
- 2 dl tar liqueur (or beer and 1 tablespoon dark syrup)
- 50 g soy cheese (or margarine)
- breadcrumbs
- salt
- black pepper
- oil for frying
(fava beans, barley grains, mushrooms...)

Cook the turnips about ten minutes in salty water. Hollow them carefully with a sharp knife and set the scooped out pieces aside. (Some people use them in the stuffing. I find the idea of stuffing turnips with turnips a little dull so I just foil them into the next meal I cook.) Chop the onion and the tofu and sauté them. Add some black pepper and stuck them in the turnips. Pour the liqueur on them. Put a piece of the cheese on each turnip and perfect by sprinkling some breadcrumbs on top. Grill until golden brown.

Nutritional values / 1 turnip (without the liqueur):
energy 154 kcal
fat 8 g
protein 10 g
carbohydrates 11 g
fiber 4 g

Stock ‒ Liemipohja

One characteristic feature in Finnish cuisine is soups. They aren't just appetizers or snacks but quite often very filling main courses of the day. And all the cooks in the world know that the secret of a good soup is the broth, which is why they keep their special stock recipes secret. You should always have couple of different kinds of them available cause otherwies all your foods start to taste the same. Cooking a stock is all very easy but if you make a larger portion at once it quickens things up for busy days.

Some general guidelines:
1. Making a stock is a perfect way to recycle all the vegetable leftovers like peels and heads. If you use whole vegetables wash them normally and remove the clearly rotten parts but don't bother to peel. Remember you're not going to eat them.
2. Try to add something from all the basic tastes (except fat which has also got into this category lately): bitter, salty, sour, sweet and savory (aka umami).
3. Keep fat out of this since it doesn't store well. You can always add margarine or cream to the soup itself to make it richer.
4. Many alcohol drinks like wines or brandies fit this purpose well. But as much as I love beer this isn't the place for it since it turns bitter when boiled (as I learned when trying to make beer soup).
5. Don't exaggerate with any of the ingredients. If you want your broth to taste like white wine add white wine to the broth itself. Try to keep the stock well balanced and multifunctional.
6. Frying the veggies isn't necessary but it adds to the taste. The one you shouldn't fry is garlic since it may turn bitter.
7. If you for some weird reason want to clarify the stock use for example a clay called bentonite which is widely sold for winemaking.
8. When you're using the stock remember to let it come to a boil to get the taste out of it.
9. How much you should use the stock at once depends on your personal likings, the amount of other spices you're going to use and the denseness of your stock (aka how tighly you concentrate it). It may just as well be 2-3 ice cubes or 1 dl at a time.

Just to show you a couple of examples, here are the recipes for three stocks I've made so far. Next time I might try for example yeast pate (for example Tartex), cider, laurel, lovage, juniper berries or birch sap. Perhaps even a hint of strong tastes like salmiakki (Ammonium chloride), tar or horseradish might work.

Hearty stock:
- 0.5 rutabaga plus the skin and the head of the other half
- skins and heads of 500 g carrots
- skins and heads of 500 g beets
- 1 onion
- 1/2 garlic
- 1 punch of dill
- 8 whole black peppers
- 0.5 dl dark syrup
- 0.5 dl miso (dissolved in water)
- 0.5 dl apple wine vinegar (more aromatic than apple cider vinegar)
- 1 tsp monosodium glutamate
- 1 tsp salt

Zesty stock:
- leftovers from 1 white cabbage
- leftovers from 1 cauliflower
- cores and peels of 3 apples
- 1 sheet of algae (nori)
- 2 tsp dried yarrow flowers
- 2 dl white wine
- 0.5 dl lemon juice
- 0.5 dl mustard powder (Remember mustard condiment also contains oil and sugar.)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp monosodium glutamate
- 1 tsp salt

Spicy stock:
- 1 leek
- 500 g tomatoes
- 1 bell pepper
- 1 chili pepper
- all the dried herbs I had in the closet but couldn't recognize anymore
- 2 dl red wine
- 0.5 dl mämmi
- 0.5 dl sea buckthorn juice
- 1 tsp monosodium glutamate
- 1 tsp salt

Chop and fry the veggies on a dry pan. Put them in a cattle with the rest of the ingredients and 1.5 litres of water. Let them simmer without a lid. The stock is ready when at least half of the liquid has vaporized and the veggies have turned mashy (after approximitely two hours). Filter the stock, pour it into an ice cube tray (if you've saved plastic soy yoghurt cups or such they're also ideal for this) and freeze. The part that didn't fit there stores a few days in the fridge.

Tar Turnips ‒ Tervanauriit

Tar turnips implement pretty much all the ideals of Finnish cuisine. They're extremely simple and transforming, their main tastes are their main ingerients which happen to present Finnishness to an almost iconic level and they're best enjoyed by the campfire with good company.

This is probably the best tasting dish I've ever come up with. I recall I saw the name on some otherwies boring recipe book when leafing through them in a book store. Besides that I could honestly call it my own but then again, it's not that hard to figure out. Here's what you need:

- 1 kg turnips
- 2 dl tar liqueur

If you wish:
- black pepper
- 50 g margarine
- 0.5 dl syrup (Don't use if the liqueur is already sweet. Unless you want a dessert.)
- 50 g blue-style soy cheese

Peel and chop the turnips to sizeable cubes that fit nicely into your mouth. Throw the cubes into a casserole or portion them out into folio pieces. Add the tar liqueur and possible other condiments. Mix up a bit. If you use a casserole cover it with a folio piece and put it into a 200°C oven for at least an hour. Remember to stir from time to time. If you use folio pieces close them well and arrange next to embers (not into a fire). Check occasionally to see when they're done.

Like most root vegetable based dishes, this just keeps getting better and better when you rewarm it. Or you can eat it cold too.

Nutritional values / 1170 g (Again, not counting the tar liqueur since in Finland the label doesn't need to tell anything besides the alcohol percent.)
energy 906 kcal
fat 48 g
protein 17 g
carbohydrates 99 g
fiber 20 g

Rutabaga Kukko ‒ Lanttukukko

Kukkos are a Savoyard and Karelian speciality available with any imaginable filling. The most famous ones I believe are kalakukko (filled with fish), lanttukukko (rutabaga) and mustikkakukko or rättänä (bilberries). If you look the dictionary, you'll find that kukko means cock in the official language. This however isn't official language. The name of the dish refers most likely to kukkaro (wallet), cause the rye cover hides (kätkeä) something.

For my very first lanttukukko I looked help mostly from a kalakukko recipe and another lanttukukko recipe that has a lot of helpful photos about the different stages.

The cover:
- 5 dl water
- 1/2 tbsp salt
- 100 g margarine
- 9 dl rye flour
- 3 dl white flour, for example wheat or spelt

The filling:
- 1 kg rutabaga (actually I used turnip which I find tastier)
- salt
- sugar
- tar liqueur (I'm quite certain beer would work as well)
- margarine
- barley grains (about 2 dl)

Peel and slice the rutabagas. Put the slices into a pot and shake with sugar and salt so the slices start to “sweat”. Mix the cover ingredients and spread it on the table to a circle so that it's diameter is about one metre. The edges should be about one centimetre thick, the centre may be thicker. Spread a thin layer of barley grains in the centre and on it a layer of rutabaga. Also sprinkle salt, tar liqueur, barley grains and margarine on them. Then add the next rutabaga layer and keep going until you've finished all your slices. Top with salt, tar liqueur and margarine. Now you can seal the kukko. Even the cover with wet hands so there are no holes or lumps.

Put it in the 250°C oven for half an hour so the cover hardens up and gets some colour. Lower the heat to 125°C. Wrap the kukko in moist parchment paper and after that into folio. Cook four hours more. When you take the kukko out cover it with towels so the cover won't get hard.

There are different schools in how to eat this thing. Some say you should cut the top open and start eating from the insides. I like to slice it like bread. Either way you'll notice it's a very versatile dish.

Nutritional values / 2700 g
energy 3076 kcal
fat 98 g
protein 116 g
carbohydrates 669 g
fiber 141 g

Tar Triangles ‒ Tervakolmiot

Continuing with the theme "simple cooking", today I made crusted tofu with potatoes and basic brown sauce. Too bad I forgot the lingonberry jam from the photo.

- about 350 g firm tofu (smoked or marinated in tar liqueur)
- 2 dl oat or soy milk
- 3 tbsp potato flour
- bread crumbs
- nutritional yeast
- small seeds for decorative purpose, for example hemp seeds, oat grains or pine kernels
- dry spices, for example onion powder, paprika powder, curry, black pepper and chili powder
- 1.5 dl tar liqueur (my new favourite seasoning)
- rape oil

Pour a good pond of oil in a large frying pan and turn on the stove. Cut the tofu in 16 flat pieces. (For me, triangle shapes look the nicest.) Dissolve the flour in the milk. Mix all the other dry ingredients in a bowl. Dip the tofu pieces in the milk, roll them in the crust mixture and put them on the pan. When you've fried the triangles from both sides, pour the tar liqueur on them and let most of the liquid vaporize before serving.

And by the way, the remainings of the crusting materials can be used to make a sauce.

Nutritional values / 1 piece / about 30 g (This doesn't include the liqueur cause I can't find any information about it's contents besides the alcohol percent)
Energy 71.4 kcal
Fat 3.9 g
Protein 4.5 g
Carbohydrates 4.9 g
Fiber 0.5 g