Finncrisp Rolls ‒ Hapankorppurullat

Once again I read about algae and how I should eat more of it since it contains iodine and Finnish soil doesn't. (Iodine is added to table salt but I almost never use it.) For some reason only the Celts seem to have eaten algae in Europe. I'm not completely convinced that Finns living by waters could have scorned such a great nutrition source only cause it looks slimy but anyway, raised amongst modern customs I have no idea how to use seaweed. Last time I tried to make crippled sushi my spouse wouldn't come ten metres close to the kitchen. He said the doggone thing smells like fish. I tried to explain fish merely smell like seaweed cause they rub themselves against it all the time but it was no use.

Quite recently, I bought a cook book called Herne rokkaa (Jere Nieminen, Multikustannus) which has nothing but pea recipes. It's more of a picture book with migren launching graphics than a serious receipe book, but there are also some excellent ideas buried between the empty pages. It showed me peas can be used anywhere pretty much in the same way as soy or other beans.

One of them involved rolled finncrisps with a filling, just like the ones served at every birthday party when I was a kid. Nieminen called them ryeish pea sushi but I really wouldn't wanna mock Japanese cuisine which I truly respect. (Much like Finnish cuisine it values local high quality ingredients but also sour tastes. There are also many weird similarities between Japanese and Finnish cultures and languages.) Maybe that's why this filling I improvised involved seaweed. Or maybe it's there only cause I'm trying to foist it somewhere. Or perhaps it's meant to give taste. You decide.

- 20 small and narrow finncrisps (If you'll only find wide ones you can always halve them after rolling.)
- 1 bottle of beer (or broth or soy sauce)
- 200 g peas
- 1 sheet of algae (I used nori which has a very strong sea flavour but not as much iodine than most. Milder arame is a better choice for beginners.)
- 3 tbsp soy yoghurt
- 1 pickle
- 1 punch of fresh mint
- dried chili
- a cucumber piece twice the width of your finnstrips

Dip the finncrisps in beer and lay them down. Mash the peas, the seaweed, the yoghurt, the mint and the chili. Cut the pickle in really small cubes and mix them in the paste. Cut the cucumber piece in 20 strips.

By now your finncrisps should be soft and rollable. If not, find a pastry brush, brush more beer on them and wait another ten minutes. Spred a thin layer of the filling on the not-so-crisps. Place a cucumber strip on one end and roll. Place the rolls close to each other on a plate so they won't open up.

If you leave the cucumber piece out you'll get more Swiss roll looking bars. In the unlikely case I'll ever host a coctail party I'd try that side by side the same thing with a red filling.

Nutritional values / 1 roll / 46.1 g:
energy 37 kcal
fat 0 g
protein 2 g
carbohydrates 6 g
fiber 2 g