Return of the Weird Glögis ‒ Outojen glögien paluu

Exceptionally, this Yule I don't plan to travel around the country but stay home and be lazy. I started it early on 21. with a friend of mine (since he didn't remember Winter Solstice was 22. this year) by raising a pint of Hyvä Tuomas for the rising Sun on the ice of the lake Näsijärvi. We didn't actually see the star of the 5-hour day at all since it was so cloudy but seeing that neverending white horizon I felt sorry I didn't bring my camera. Well, my fingers were all frozen already so maybe it was for the better.

Since I'm defintely not going to do anything useful during these few days the Sun rests on the shoulders of the Great Oak (in Finnish mythology they're called Pesäpäivät, "nest days") I could finally do things I've wanted to do quite a long time: read some novels, install Ubuntu and update this blog for a change. These hot drinks are from the pikkujoulu party me and my friends had. As you may remember, we did the same last year. (If the word "glögi" is all Creek to you, read this post first.) Everyone got to bring one recipe (I did the sea buckthorn version). I've made some minor alterations to them, for example by removing extra sugar if it seemed way too sweet. But feel free to adjust them according to your own taste.

Apple Tea Glögi

- 1 l water
- 2 dl apple juice
- 6 teaspoons of your favourite tea
- 4 tablespoons fariinisokeri or muscovado
- 2 tablespoons glögi spices (cinnamon, clove and ginger)
(- mint liqueur)

Prepare the tea. Remove the tea leaves. Add the other ingredients and let the mixture simmer for another ten minutes. Pour in cups and let everyone add mint liqueur as much as they please.

Black Currant Glögi with Mandarine

- 1 l apple juice
- 2 dl black currant juice (without added water)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 5 cloves
- 0.5 dl sugar
- 1 dl raisins
- 200 g preserved mandarine slices
(- vodka)

Put the juices, the sugar and the spices into a pot and let them simmer for five minutes. Pour the liquid part into cups. Finish off with the raisins, the mandarines and the vodka.

Pirate Glögi

- 8 dl pineapple juice
- 4 dl orange juice
- 2 dl water
- 2 dl dark rum
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped

Cook the ginger in the water for about ten minutes. Add both the juices. Heat the whole thing up but don't boil. Portion the rum into four glasses and pour the mixture on it. Decorate with small Pirate Party flags.

Sea Buckthorn Glögi

- 1 l unfiltered apple juice
- 2 dl sea buckthorn juice
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 star anises
- 1 piece of ginger
(- sugar)

Let the apple juice simmer together with spices for about an hour. Mix with the sea buckthorn juice only a moment before serving. Add sugar if you wish. I don't recommend alcohol with this since we noticed a surprising effect: half the taste seemed to disappear somewhere after adding only a sip of vodka.

Mämmi Pizza ‒ Mämmipitsa

This time of the year every place seems to be filled with pie recipes featuring quark and canned peach halves. Those round, bright yellow peaches look like egg yoiks and are a great symbol for the rebirth of the Sun and the nature. I got a bit fed up with quark after pasha and so I thought I'd try a salty version.

The recipe for the crust comes from Ahmed Ladarsi and the sauce is basically Jo Stepaniak's gooey grill sandwich filling. The latter one could've been a bit thinner and the amount sufficient for two pizzas or a gratin. But at least both turned out tasty. Next time I think I'll fry the tempeh, precook the crust and just warm up the whole.

The crust:
- 200 g (1.5-2 dl) mämmi, not artificially sweetened
- 1 dl rye flour
- 1 dl wheat flour
- 1 dl water
- 20 g yeast
- salt
- 1 tablespoon rape oil

The sauce:
- 2 dl water
- 0.5 dl mutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons pea flour
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1.5 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 teaspoons potato flour
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 garlic cloves
- turmeric
- mustard powder
- salt

The filling:
- 150 g tempeh
- 5 canned peach halves
- 1 dl tomato sauce
- rosemary or marjoram
- black pepper

Dissolve the yeast and the salt into lukewarm water. Knead in the mämmi and the flour. Cover with a towel and let the dough rise for about an hour in a warm place.

In the meanwhile, whisk the sauce ingredients together in a sauce pan to avoid clumps. Let the mixture come to a boil, move aside from the stove and whisk a bit more.

Spread the dough on a baking sheet. Mine came out ⌀ 27 cm. Brush with oil. Sprinkle with pepper. Slice the tempeh. Arrange the slices and peach halves on the pizza. Cover with the sauce and sprinkle with rosemary. Bake until golden (about twenty minutes in 200°C).

Enjoy after cooled down a bit with your favourite chili sauce.

Nutritional values / 1321 g:
energy 1577 kcal
fat 52 g
protein 67 g
carbohydrates 216 g
fiber 35 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

The Weirdest Glögis

A punch of friends invited themselves at my place to throw one more pikkujoulu party. We listened to the greatest Christmas songs (like this or this) and tried the weirdest glögi ideas we could find. These are starting to get pretty far from any definition of glögi but what matters most, all turned out surprisingly delicious. Exceptionally, I'll write just one long post about them.

Carrot Glögi ‒ Porkkanaglögi

This one sounded like the most awful one so we started with it. But the drink came out quite yummy and didn't taste healthy at all.

- 1 l carrot juice
- half a lemon
- 1 tablespoon cloves
- 2 dl vodka (the bottle in the photo actually isn't vodka)

Wash and grind the lemon half (don't peel). Put the lemon and the cloves into a kettle together with the juice and let it simmer for a moment. Filter out the bits and pieces. Pour into mugs. Finalize with vodka.

Beer Glögi ‒ Olutglögi

I bought three bottles of Sinebrychoff's excellent porter for this and felt so bad in advance for having to ruin it. But no, this came out good as well though there was a bit too much ginger in relation to cinnamon.

- 1 l porter
- 2 dl water
- 1 piece of fresh ginger
- 5 cinnamon sticks

Peel the ginger piece. Let the ginger and the cinnamon sticks simmer in the water until you've caught their taste. Combine the liquid part with the beer and warm it up. Be careful not to boil the beer since it turns bitter quite easily. Beer glögi is best enjoyed while still hot.

Snowball Glögi ‒ Lumipalloglögi

The last one was the winner. There are quite many flavours in this drink but they all seemed to stand out. Sadly, the snowball itself melted all too fast.

- 1 l soy milk
- 2 dl water
- half vanilla pod
- green tea (I used a variety spiced with fruit pieces)
- spruce syrup
- 2 dl whipped oat cream
- cinnamon
(- brandy to taste)

Let the vanilla and the tea simmer in the water. Add the syrup and the milk and warm up the whole thing. Filter into mugs. Pour in some brandy if you wish. Let your guests crown the drink with a cream snowball and cinnamon.

Salmiakki Pasta ‒ Salmiakkipasta

As you may have noticed I'm not especially good in sticking with recipes. For once I thought I'd try with this one simply because Okriina's cookings always sound so perfect just as they are. But of course I couldn't help myself. This is the story of how her liquorice pasta ended up as a salmiakki pasta in my hands.

It may not look like the most conventional combination but works surprisingly well. My spouse looked into the kettle with a horror in his eyes but eventually went for the second round. The taste is really round so it needs some full-bodied red wine to go with, just like the original recipe suggests.

- 250 g pasta
- 2 parsnips (or 250 g yellow beet)
- 1 cellery (which I used instead of fennel that I couldn't find)
- 3 large mushrooms (gods created boletes for the accompaniment of pasta but this time I had to go with champions)
- 0.75 dl walnuts
- 1.5 dl oat cream (I might consider leaving this one out)
- rape oil
- half a lemon peel
- 1/2 dl red wine (which I used instead of 1/4 teaspoon of balsamico)
- 100 g fresh salmiakki liquorice (the original recipe actually warned not to use liquorice types featuring salmiakki but think this came out quite nice)
- big punch of fresh parsley
- big punch of fresh thyme
- black pepper

Oil a casserole. Slice the veggies and put them in it with some oil on top. Bake them in a 300°C oven until they start to turn golden from the edges (about 15 minutes). Remember to turn them over every now and so they won't turn black instead. In the end add the walnuts as well in small pieces.

Cook the pasta in salty water. Pour the extra water out and add the veggies as well as the wine, the cream, the pepper and half of the liquorice so it melts nicely. Chop the parsley and the thyme. Slice the rest of the liquorice. Grind the lemon peel. Throw all into the pasta and stir. Shout: "Dinner is ready!"

Nutritional values / 1400 g (with protein rich dark pasta):
energy 2028 kcal
fat 73 g
protein 79 g
carbohydrates 251 g
fiber 40 g

Mämmi Patties ‒ Mämmipihvit

Most mämmi recipes are for desserts. Which is why I wanted to try a salty recipe I found from here, a bit veganized. I was very suspicious about them but at the end they did taste rather good. And even better cold in the next day. The mämmi however just somehow vanished so if you want to get the mämmi taste in them I recommend you try to increase the amount of it.

- 2 cooked potatoes
- 1.5 dl mämmi
- 2 dl soy yoghurt
- 2 dl wheat flour
- 100 g melting soy cheese
- 1 onion
- chive
- parsley
- black pepper
- salt
- rape oil for frying

Mash the potatoes. Grind the cheese. Chop the herbs and the onion. Sauté the onion. Mix everything together. Mold the paste into patties that you fry golden from both sides. (Got myself ten patties.) Put them in a 200°C oven for ten minutes. (Next time I think I'll keep them there a bit longer though.)

Nutritional values / 1 pattie:
energy 194.3 kcal
fat 7 g
protein 5 g
carbohydrates 17.9 g
fiber 2.1 g

Beer Ice Cream ‒ Olutjäätelö

Before recently discovering this site I never imagined making my own ice cream. Turned out it's actually really easy. Ice cream consists of milk (or cream or yoghurt), sugar, possibly some gelatinous substance (like agar or potato flour) and of course aroma ingredients. You only need a special ice cream maker if you want to speed things up. Now I can no longer understand why anyone would want to buy ice cream for the freezer.

At the moment I've got a long list of ice cream tastes I want to try. I promise I'll tell you more about them after I've tried them out but meanwhile read what Agnes has to say. Also check this blog. (The guy has just started the English version but he's kept the same thing in Swedish much longer.) Or buy this or this recipe book. And if you really run out of ideas see the list of the world's most horrible ice cream tastes. Interestingly, nearly all of them are Japanese. There's also a "Finland ice cream" on that list but unfortunately they won't tell what's in it besides xylitol.

The first thing I decided to try was naturally beer ice cream. The idea originates from the Guinness factory so of course there's Guinness in it (Apparently Guinness extra stout is complitely vegan whereas Guinness Draught uses a fish swimbladder product called isinglass.) but after trying that one I'd go for some stronger tasting yet still thick and smooth beer cause my Guinness ice cream tasted more like oat than beer (although yummy it was anyway). Unfortunately my nearest brewery Plevna isn't allowed to sell out their products so instead I'd go with the Norwegian Nøgne Ø or Danish Nørrebro. (This being said without a clue of their possible animal additives. Usually quality beer makers tend to avoid empty extras that don't add to the experience.)

These amounts may seem a bit weird since I've converted them from American cups. Don't think it matters if you round them a bit though. It's funny how nearly every English-speaking country seems have a unit system of their own. In most recipes I just use 2.5 dl instead of one cup though it can be more or less.

4.8 dl oat cream
2.4 dl oat milk
3.5 dl creamy stout (for example Guinness Extra Stout)
1.8 dl sugar

Whisk the ingredients together. Put the bowl in the freezer. Remember to stir occasionally (for example every two hours) to break the icy glitter it would otherwise form. At the end of the freezing you'll need a blender to do this.

Generally speaking, if you put the cream in the freezer when making breakfast you can raise your scoop by the dinner time.

Nutritional values / 1223 g:
energy 1411 kcal
fat 50 g
protein 7 g
carbohydrates 210 g
fiber 7 g

South-Ostrobothnian Beer Soup ‒ Eteläpohojalaanen kalijavelli

\o/ I made it! I cooked edible beer soup! And it only took me two tries.

This is a treat that my granny used to make. For some reason my spouse - and now that I think of it, pretty much everyone not from from South-Ostrobothnia - was very suspicious of this. I guess it just sounds like a weird idea for them to use beer in any other way than on it's own. Still, I recommend you to try. Remember, you've got nothing to loose, only to gain. And there's really only one thing you can do wrong with this: boiling it bitter.

- 270 g firm tofu (This replaces an oven fried fresh cheese called leipäjuusto. It fits great since it has the same kind of squeaky texture, but one day I'm going to try if it's possible to make leipäjuusto from soft tofu. Can't see no reason why it wouldn't work.)
- 1 l beer (traditionally kalja but any "easy" and soft one should do.)
- 0.5 l oat milk (actually, I substituted part of it with oat cream)
- 3 tbsp wheat flour
- 1 dl dark syrup
- 2 dl raisins
- a hint of salt
- margarine for frying

Cut the tofu in cubes and fry them well with margarine and part of syrup. Put them in a kettle with everything else. Whip it up a bit to make sure the flour has dissolved instead of forming clumps. (There also exists a clump soup but that's a different dish not involving beer.)

Warm up the soup until it has thickened. Keep stirring constantly. Be sure not to boil it! Beer will quickly turn bitter and inedible when boiled. (Believe me, I know what I'm talking about.)

Remember: it's better to leave the soup a bit runny than overboil and thus ruin it!

Nutritional values / 1.5 l:
energy 1524 kcal
fat 38 g
protein 58 g
carbohydrates 232 g
fiber 18 g