Soy Stroganoff ‒ Soijastroganov

There's a lot of debate about what the original Stroganoff's beaf contained. There was an influential Stroganoff family who used to own practically half the Siberia. A recipe bearing their name was created in the 18th century, perhaps by one of their French chefs. Of the many competing recipes some feature mushrooms, sour cream, mustard or onions while others don't. Most versions of today mention tomato paste though tomatoes weren't even known in Russia at the time.

With not enough historical knowledge I'm not going to take part in this guessing game. Instead, I'm going to tell you how a dish called stroganoff became popular in the Nordic countries during the last century. In Finland different versions of it were served at practically every gas station. One very staple item in them, along with some form of meat and tomato paste, is pickles- Especially sausage stroganoff is still thought as a typical Finnish home food.

Sausages are fine too, but I used textured soy protein strips to make a cheap and easy winter dinner.

- 125 g soy strips
- 2 onions
- 2 pickles
- 2 dl oat cream
- 0.5 dl tomato paste
- 1 tbsp mustard
- 1 dose of stock
- oil for frying

Cook the soy strips for ten minutes in stock flavoured water. Chop and sauté the onions. Drain the soy strips and add them on the same pot with the onions.  Dice the pickles. Mix everything and let it simmer for ten more minutes.

Serve with barley or potatoes.

Nutritional values / 917 g:
energy 1052 kcal
fat 51 g
protein 74 g
carbohydrates 74 g
fiber 29 g

Pumpkin and Yellowfoot Spelt ‒ Kurpitsa-suppilovahverospeltti

Pumpkin isn't exactly a plant I grew up eating. Then again, few veggies are. I usually buy one during the harvest season just because they look so adorable and they're only around once a year. Then I start to scratch my head, wondering how to use it and what kind of dishes would it fit into. They taste so mild I'm afraid I'm going to loose that aroma, but then again it doesn't seem to be at its best just eaten raw either. Somehow everything I try always ends up delicious though.

To combine autumnal flavours, this time I used my pumpkin with yellowfoot mushrooms in a risotto type of dish. For garnishment I also fried some soy flakes and since this has been sort of a hit among Finnish vegans with the title "vegan bacon", I bothered to actually measure the amounts for them as well.

- 1 pumpkin (about 500 g)
- 500 g yellowfoot
- 2 dl pearl spelt
- 4 dl water
- 1 small piece of celeriac
- 1 small punch of fresh parsley
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp rape oil
- 1 tbsp apple wine vinegar
- 1 dose of stock
- saffron

Smoky soy flakes:
- 4 dl soy flakes
- 0.5 dl soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark syrup
- 1 tbsp chipotle sauce or liquid smoke
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- oil for frying

Peel the pumpkin and the celeriac. Cube both. (Don't throw away the pumpkin seeds. They'll make a nice snack, especially when roasted.) Put them into a pot together with oil and turn around until they've softened up.

Add the spelt. Keep sauteing a couple of minutes more. Then add the water, the stock and the spices. While the spelt is cooking, put the mushrooms on a dry pan. Toss around until the extra liquid has boiled away. Finalize by adding some oil at the end of frying. When the spelt looks done, combine it with the mushrooms and the parsley.

For the soy flakes, measure all the liquid parts into a bowl. Mix. Add the flakes. Let them marinate while you heat up the oil in a pan. Fry until they've acquired some nice colour. Use in a pasta, salad or this spelt right here.

Nutritional values / 1820 g:
energy 1135 kcal
fat 58 g
protein 60 g
carbohydrates 80 g
fiber 33 g

Soy Lihapiirakka ‒ Soijalihis

This is a bit of a deviation from the "seasonal" theme since lihapiirakkas are sold rather evenly around the year. The name literally means "meat pie" which gave me some trouble naming the soy version since I don't think anyone would understand if I just called them soy pies. You do see a lot of naming variance like "meatless pie" or "soy meat pie", but I decided to go with a shortening in Finnish and keep the English name intact since it's already detached from the original meaning. Anyway, they're deep-fried pastries made from a doughnut type of dough and filled with rice and minced meat. Or, in the vegan version, usually rice and TVP.

Lihapiirakkas are an extremely popular fast food in Finland. You can find them cheap from practically every food store's convenience food section. Non-chain-owned street kiosks sell them even in the smallest villages with one shop and no restaurants, along with french fries and hamburgers. In bigger cities you have a chance of finding them all self-made and vegan. Quite often they're cut in half and filled with things.

When I was a teenager, a friend of mine ate at least one of them every day after school, filling them with ketchup and liver sausage, along with a glass of cold cocoa as the drink option. To her and her parents' defence I have to say my diet at the time wasn't exactly from the healthiest end either.

The regular kiosk filling includes what I like to call "the grill spices", the holy trinity of ketchup, mustard and cucumber relish. In case of cheap cucumber relish raw onion is also often added for crunchiness. With a little extra fee the fillings may include different meat products, but nothing stops from using the same forms made from plant-based ingredients, like bean patties, chickpea omelettes or soy weeners. The kiosks often serve their own specialities and understanding the subtle differences takes a real connoisseur. For a little vocabulary, these have become regional dishes known nation-wide:

Atomi and vety (Lappeenranta): "Atom and hydrogen". Vety includes a boiled egg and ham, atomi either one of these.
Hotsi (Hämeenlinna): It's role model probably being hot dog, hotsi is filled with half cut lauantaimakkara or "Saturday sausage", a certain thick and floury sausage type. In Forssa two wieners are used instead.
Möttönen (Helsinki): An especially big and thick lihapiirakka which were originally sold at the main train railway station.
Riihimäkeläinen (Riihimäki): Includes a fried egg and a minced meat patty. In Rovaniemi the same version is called ropsilainen after the local football team.
Lörtsy (Savonlinna): The good people of Savonlinna are probably going to hang me from balls for implying these are the same thing, and I do need to write a separate post about them sometime later. I haven't been able to find a recipe for lörtsy or any "official" difference in their dough, but lörtsys are about twice as large and always flat. They're one of the oldest variants and have been around since the fifties. Originally they had an apple jam filling instead of meat but nowadays you can find them in all possible sweet and savory flavours.

The dough
- 14 dl wheat flour (many prefer a version where some of this is graham)
- 6 dl oat milk
- 50 g yeast
- 2 tbsp rape oil
- 1 tbsp dark syrup
- 1 tbsp salt

 The filling
- 2.5 dl soy crumble
- 1.5 dl barley grains
- 1 dl roasted onion
- 1 dose of stock
- 2 tbsp rape oil
- 1 tbsp apple wine vinegar
- smoked paprika
- white pepper
- salt

Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water. Add the oil, the syrup and the salt. Knead in enough flour to achieve a consistency that doesn't stick to the bowl but still feels a bit runny. Cover with a towel and let rest for an hour.

Cook the barley. Soak the soy crumble in water where you've added the stock. Fry on the pan, adding the spices as you go. Combine the barley, the soy and the onion.

Divide the dough into 16 pieces. Roll each of them round between your hands, flatten and roll into a disc of about 15 cm in diameter. Keep more flour at hand to help the dough from sticking. Scoop a spoonful or two of the filling in the middle of the disc. Fold one edge on the opposite one and press it to keep it closed. Secure the edges by pressing with a fork.

Deep fry from both sides until golden in neutral tasting oil that is fine with high temperatures, for example non-virgin rape oil.

Nutritional values / 1 lihapiirakka / 114 g (before deep frying):
energy 299 kcal
fat 7 g
protein 10 g
carbohydrates 48 g
fiber 4 g

Dill Yogurt Covered Sea Buckthorn Cutlets – Tilli-jugurttikuorrutteiset tyrnileikkeet

Seems like we're better herb farmers than anything else. Our small field seems to be full of wild mint though we never seeded it there. I really need to get my imagination running if we're going to use it in anything else than tea. And the only plant we did seed and has grown better than we hoped is dill. So now every other dish is spiced up with it. So far I'm not complaining though.

Recipes on how to use dry soy cutlets always sound the same. First they're boiled in vegetable stock and then fried, which means that if you use the same store-bought bouillon cubes you always end up with the similar tasting chunks. Now that's a bit boring, isn't it? So I thought it almost my responsibility to start creating more creative ideas. The idea for a yogurt sauce came from some salmon recipe I happened to see. Originally I used lemons for the marinade, but since berries make such an essential part of Northern cuisine, I thought this sounded a bit classier choice.

For the cutlets:
- 100 g dry soy cutlets
- 1.5 dl sea buckthorn juice
- 1 dl rape oil
- 2 tbsp dark syrup
- salt

For the sauce:
- 2.5 dl oat  yogurt (or soy, as long as it's au naturel)
- 1 small punch of dill
- 1 small punch of chives
- black pepper

Place the cutlets with the marinade ingredients in a plastic bag. Leave in the fridge overnight but turn around a little every time you go to find snack.

When starting to get hungry, place the cutlets with their liquid in a casserole and move around a little to make sure they're marinated evenly. Mince the herbs and mix the yogurt sauce. Spoon the yogurt on the cutlets.

Move into 200°C oven for half an hour. Enjoy with barley or potatoes and some nice sidekick salad.

Nutritional values / 720 g:
energy 1625 kcal
fat 104 g
protein 72 g
carbohydrates 95 g
fiber 20 g

Soy Kebakkos ‒ Soijakebakot

I always thought kebakkos are about as boring as food can get, but actually they're an interesting example of fusion kitchen. Guess this only proves how blind you can get for things common in your own culture. Somehow it should've been oblivious as the name already is a combination of Finnish and Turkish. The Finnish word kepakko means a stick. The Turkish word kebab apparently in English-speaking world usually refers to meat in a skewer, in Turkey to any kind of meat prepared over or next to a living fire and in Finland has come to mean certain type of spicy meat dish cut from a large skewer into strips.

Kebakkos became a popular dish somewhere in the 80's in the same time when Turkish immigrants and their restaurants started to appear in Finnish city environment. They are nowadays sold as a convenience food and at least in my childhood were served at school meals. The dish combines Turkish kebab with Finnish meatloaf. The stick makes them easy to dip and they also fit with such typical Finnish sidekicks as mashed potatoes. I find them an ideal food to warm up in grill or on the flames of a campfire.

- 400 g tomato sauce
- 4 dl soy crumble
- 1 large potato
- water (about 1 dl)
- 1 onion
- 1 dl bread crumble
- 0.5 dl rape oil
- 0.5 dl soy sauce
- your favourite chili sauce
- (smoked) paprika
- marjoram
- black pepper

Cook and mash the potato. Mince and sauté the onion. Mix all the ingredients together. Add water enough to get a structure that feels easy to mold.

Between your hands or with a help of a baking sheet, roll into bars. Place into sticks. Cook in a 200°C oven for about 20-30 minutes or until the surface looks good. If you're going to barbeque them up in a grill later, oil the surface before that so they won't dry up. With my experience of grills, I'd recoomend precooking in the oven anyway.

This could be served with just salad and a good dip sauce, but this time we had it with cauliflower purée.

Nutritional values / 990 g:
energy 1280 kcal
fat 69 g
protein 62 g
carbohydrates 103 g
fiber 26 g

Yogurt Garnish for New Potatoes ‒ Jugurttilisuke uusille perunoille

One of the biggest holidays in Finland, the midsummer or Juhannus, is on the door. As this is the celebration of the Finnish thunder god Ukko, the tradition is to tent or sleep in a cabin by a lake, with lots of friends, do love magic and eat (and especially drink) well. For the first time in years I'm going to spend it in city.  Today we're probably going to see the bonfire in Pispala, a city district known from one of the biggest hippie and artist concentrations in all Europe. On Sunday there's a grill party at a friend's garden, so that still leaves the "official" day open for negotiations. One of the plus sides of a city midsummer is of course being able to use your own kitchen, so I think we're going to take the eating part especially seriously this year.

Usually I belong to the school that thinks new potatoes should have very simple sauces or sidekicks. I usually just eat them with plain margarine or white sauce. When cooking the first batch of the year I add a carton of oat cream, salt and some spring onions to their boiling water ‒ only a step away from summer soup.

This time I wanted to make a use for the fake shrimps I once bought from an Asia store and had been sitting in the freezer for months. I've never quite grasped the urge of Asians to make vegetarian dishes that replicate the look of different meats as perfectly as possible, but oh well, if it tastes good that's all that matters. I've never cooked shrimps in my life but the look kind of lead me to design a dish that uses the same methods I at least imagine would fit with them. I don't know about the (apparently authentic) texture of the "shrimps" themselves, which turned out to be ridiculously low in protein too, but the sauce turned out delicious. It complemented well the sweet taste of new potatoes, but might also be used as a filling for oven potatoes or as a pasta sauce.

- mock shrimps (or simply precooked soy strips)
- 5 dl soy yogurt
- 1 dl white wine (or apple wine)
- 1 rhubarb stalk (or a lemon)
- 1 small punch of fresh dill
- 1 piece of leek
- 2 tbsp margarine
- salt
- white pepper

Chop the leek and the rhubarb. Melt the margarine on a frying pan. Add the "shrimps", the rhubarb and the leek. Turn them around so the "shrimps" get some colour and the rhubarb mashes. Pour the wine on them, stir and let the whole thing simmer for as long as the liquid has reduced.

Mix the shrimp pan with the yogurt. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir. Mince the dill on top. Serve with potatoes or pasta.

Nutritional values / 1145 g:
energy 1780 kcal
fat 40 g
protein 26 g
carbohydrates 67 g
fiber 8 g

Pimped Soy Balls ‒ Tuunatut Soijapyörykät

Soy balls are such a basic everyday meal that nearly everyone has developed their own special way of preparing them. No big surprise, I like to keep pimping them a bit differently every time. Yesterday I seasoned them with onion and pickled beet which gave them not only more taste but also this adorable pink colour. I also tried baking them in oven instead of frying on a pan as normally, but that didn't really work out. The structure came a bit too soft and many of them broke down from the bottom. Oh well, didn't effect the taste.

- 3 dl textured soy protein crumble
- 3 dl water
- 1 dose of stock
- 1 onion
- 1 dl pickled beetroot
- 1 dl breadcrumbs
- 3 tbsp soy flour
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- your favourite chili sauce
- black pepper
- 2 tbsp rape oil

Heat up the water and mix with the stock. Let the soy crumble swallow in it. In the meanwhile, mince the onion and sauté lightly. Mix everything but the oil together in a bowl. Roll the paste into balls between your hands. Cook on a pan or in a 200°C oven for about twenty minutes, in any case with plenty of oil.

Nutritional values /  718 g:
energy 1004 kcal
fat 52 g
protein 57 g
carbohydrates 76 g
fiber 20 g

Cabbage Casserole ‒ Kaalilaatikko

There's something very soothing in these numerous rustic casseroles. They're just the kind of thing I need when days grow shorter and colder and I wouldn't want to leave my bed at all. Unfortunately, this particular casserole is also one of those dishes that many Finns have learned to hate at school. All classics like that are something that I feel everyone should really try to cook themselves just once before judging. After all, if this isn't a comfort food I don't know what is.

This time I was out of barley so I used the rice that has been standing in my food closet for years. Funnily, the casserole seemed dried and more crumbling than with barley. If I'll repeat the rice version I think I'll add some oat cream to the recipe or at least use porridge rice.

- 1 kg white cabbage
- 2 dl barley
- 2 dl soy crumble (TVP)
- 1 onion
- 1 tablespoon rape oil
- 1 tablespoon dark syrup (at least)
- garlic salt
- white pepper
- marjoram
- 2 tablespoons margarine

Cook the barley. Chop and sauté the cabbage to soften it up. Chop the onion and fry together with moistured soy crumble and spices. In an oven proof casserole, mix everything together and spread evenly. Top with margarine pieces. Stick into a 200°C oven until the surface has acquired some colour (at least half an hour). Avoid overcooking since that may also result a dry casserole.

Cabbage casserol is best enjoyed with lingonberry jam.

Nutritional values / 1415 g:
energy 1391 kcal
fat 51 g
protein 54 g
carbohydrates 177 g
fiber 51 g

Körpäkkä

This should be no big surprise to anyone who's talked five minutes with me but I'm a rather careless person when it comes to smaller-than-life scale things. When camping for example, I grap along a bit of this and that and only figure out what I'm able to cook out of them when I'm at it.

Körpäkkä is a perfect dish for meals like that as the very idea is making use of things available, usually the remains of the previous meal (much like in pyttipannu). The name just couldn't sound any more traditional but actually it's only about twenty years old, invented by Jaakko Juvonen for his pike dish. Since then it has started to live a life of its own. Sometimes I've seen it explained as something to combine both pork and fish but then again there are quite many versions without either one. This time I wanted to cook something out of golden chanterelles since the forests of Eura were all yellow of them (false chantarelles actually, but I can't really see or taste the difference). Too bad they loose their colour on the pan! I forgot to bring oil or spices so I used the marinade I had made for my seitan cutlets instead.

Maybe it's the outdoors but the sweet combination of chanterelles and turnip spiced up with lemon pepper turned out the most delicious thing I have come up with for a while. My friends noticed it as well and kept stealing yummies right under my nose!

- 5 dl golden chanterelles
- 1 turnip
- 1 onion
- 2 dl soy strips (TSP)
- 100 g Brussels sprout
- 1 dl oat cream
- 1 tablespoon spruce syrup
- 0.5 dl oily seitan marinade (consisting of rape oil, lime juice, ketchup, peanut butter, salt and lemon pepper)

Chop the onion and the turnip and sauté in the marinade. Add the soy strips (no need to moisture beforehand) and the sprouts (halved if they seem large). Let them cook while you was the mushrooms. Add them on the pan as well. When things have aquired some colour, complement with cream and syrup.

For perfection, use large cabbage leaves as plates, enjoy together with unleavened pea bread and finish off with unfiltered coffee.

Nutritional values / 770 g:
energy 609 kcal
fat 31 g
protein 31 g
carbohydrates 50 g
fiber 21 g

Gratin for Four Brassicas ‒ Neljän kaalin gratiini

Once again I had some problem with translating the title. Technically, the Brassica genus covers a rather wide sounding range of plants from mustard to turnips. To my understanding you can't just use 'cabbage' as an umbrella term for the varieties of the species Brassica oleracea as with the Finnish equivalent kaali, so I thought it better to label the dish with the whole genus' name. Maybe mustard would work as a nice spice here.

If you ever have the misfortune of attending to a Finnish funeral you'll almost certainly find some form of this gratin in the menu. And yet, these are all veggies that seem to divide opinions among Finns. My theory is that haters have only eaten them poorly prepared and covered with cheese so no one would taste the bland stuff underneath. (Cheese is an almost certain sign that there's something severely wrong with any given gratin. And I'm not alone with this opinion.) Most recipes tell to precook the kraut but I prefer to save some of the crunchiness.

- 1 cauliflower
- 1 broccoli
- half a white cabbage head
- half a red cabbage head
- 1 portion of white sauce
- yarrow
- white pepper
- rape oil for buttering
(- bread crumbles on top)

Prepare the sauce. Chop the veggies and mix them with the spices. Butter an oven casserole and lay the brassicas into it. Pour the sauce evenly on them. Cook in a 225°C for 25 minutes. Turn them a bit in the middle of the cooking.

Brussels sprouts and German turnips would also fit here perfectly. With some fried soy flakes it turns into a main course.

Nutritional values / 2780 g:
energy 1165 kcal
fat 51 g
protein 69 g
carbohydrates 95 g
fiber 50 g

Rye Waffles ‒ Ruisvohlut

It's hard to stay still. There are loads of stuff I should be doing but all I'd like to is wondering in the forest and traveling around like a tramp. It's bright and warm again, little green leaves have come out from all those brown piles, birds are trying to sing each other into swamp like Väinämöinen and Joukahainen. Nowadays I just can't wait getting to pick the first wild salad or harvest the little herbs on my window sill. The crispy waffles I made today were already accompanied by freshly picked dandelion, wood sorrel, lady's mantle and woodland strawberry leaves.

Root vegetables are nowadays an essential part of Finnish cuisine. That's why it's hard to believe that only a few hundred years ago Finns thought gardening as something that only Swedish-speaking upper class would do. Carrots and beets didn't become popular until 20th century. Previously common folk either ate very simply (and barren of nutrition) or gathered anything edible they found from the nature. Furthermore, after the second world war no one wanted to eat the same stuff they had learned to be just a substitute, used because of the shortage. You still can't find such wildly used ingredients like chicory or pine flour from stores today.

However, there are some week signs that foraging and growing things yourself are gaining more popularity again. Perhaps they will become trendy and then common in all classes? I sure hope so. One of the things I hope to see is my generation learning to appreciate their land and nature. After all, they have so much better chances for it than their parents did. I myself hope to play a squirrel this year and learn more about preservation for winter.

- 3 dl oat milk (or apple juice)
- 3 dl sparkling water (or tab water)
- 2 dl rye flour
- 1.5 dl dark wheat flour
- 2 dl rye flakes (or rolled oats)
- 3 tablespoons rape oil
- 1 tablespoon potato flour
- 1 tablepoon dark syrup (or maple syrup)
- 1 teaspoon apple wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- salt

Mix the dry ingredients together and then add the liquid ones as well. Let the batter rest for at least half an hour. Bake a scoopful at a time according to the instructions of your waffle iron. I got six thick waffles out of this amount.

Rye waffles can be accompanied by many kinds of toppings both sweet and savory. This time I had them as the main dish with salad, well-spiced soy strips and garlicky yogurt sauce but for dessert I'd go with strawberry jam and oat cream, together with a cup of coffee. Some of the toppings you can use as a filling before closing the iron. And of course, they make a perfect picnic food when cold.

If you don't have a waffle iron just use more liquid and make pancakes or ropsu instead. When making ropsu you can also disregard the oil if you wish. With waffles you need to grease the iron between every waffle if there's no oil in the batter itself.

Nutritional values / 1 waffle (165 g):
energy 266 kcal
fat 8 g
protein 6 g
carbohydrates 41 g
fiber 6 g

Pea Soup ‒ Hernerokka

Long flaxes, fine hemps and turnips size of a plate to everyone! That's what you're supposed to shout when sliding down a snowy hill on Laskiainen (the name of which refers to either descending or sliding). You see, today is one of those ancient Finnish holidays that are slowly gaining back their popularity. Connections to English Shrove Tuesday are close but in the Finnish version both Sunday and Tuesday are equally important.

During christianization Laskiainen became so intensely affected by the beginning of the Easter lent that we can now only speculate about its original meaning – and what could possibly be more fun! Slavic peoples celebrated the Sun (eating blintzes to symbolize it) and the end of the winter at this time so some believe this is also true about Laskiainen. One hint is all the well-wishing for the next harvest season. It actually looks like this time of the year used to mark the beginning of the spring all around Europe. Flax and hemp, the most important fiber plants, had a position especially significant as well as combing hair, a clear symbol for flax. All weaving and spinning was paused during the holiday. According to one theory (by Kustaa Vilkuna) it was in a way an ancient Labour Day but this sounds like a rather modern idea to me.

Today was foggy which makes the air feel really cold. So after couple of hours of sliding a thick pea soup is a must. It's an essential dish for Laskiainen but also something even a child knows you're supposed to have on Thursdays. This is how I usually make the basic version, tuned with herbs. Sometimes I like to make a double portion for the freezer.

- 500 g dried peas
- 1.5 l water (more if needed)
- 1 punch of sage
- 1 dose of stock (miso fits here as well)
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 4 dl textured soy protein flakes (or smoked tofu)
- 1 tablespoon rape oil
- yarrow flowers (just a hint)
- salt

Soak the peas at least overnight. (This shortens the cooking time). You can sprout them as well if you have time. Rinse. Add the water, the stock, the salt, the pepper and the yarrow. Cook until the peas are starting to get mushy (the time needed depends a lot on how long you soaked and sprouted, but prepare yourself to at least three hours).

Chop the onion. Sauté on an oiled pan with the soy flakes until they turn golden or even crunchy. Grate the carrot and cut up the sage. Add everything into the soup. The longer you cook or more times you rewarm the soup the better it gets.

Enjoy with mustard and rye bread.

Nutritional values / 2 l:
energy 1922 kcal
fat 29 g
protein 123 g
carbohydrates 277 g
fiber 66 g

Piny Cutlets ‒ Mäntyiset leikkeleet

Marinades are fun to play around with. Much like stocks, they can be made out of anything your imagination allows you to. Just for inspiration, here's one that I used for textured soy protein cutlets I've had lying in the closet for ages but can't see no reason why it wouldn't work just as well for precooked seitan or firm tofu.

The fallen but still fresh pine twig I used here sort of followed me home from a forest trip. Another thingy I wanted to get rid of was half a bottle of Gambina ‒ theoretically red vermut and juniper-spiced gin sound like a great combination but I found this way too sweet for me. It was probably a fine aperitif drunk from a stemware when first introduced in 1932 but is nowadays mostly consumed by teenagers and boozers straight from the bottle because of the cheap prize.

- 3 dl pine needles
- 2 dl Gambina
- 2 tablespoons rape oil
- 2 tablespoons apple wine vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves
- salt
- lemon pepper (continuing with the theme "something I just want to get rid of")

Crush the needles and smooth down with the rest. Move into a plastic bag with your cutlets for a few hours. Turn around now and then.

If you'd rather use a bowl, add some water to achieve a thinner mixture and soak your cutlets for the whole night.

Brush out the biggest bits and pieces and cook on a pan. One thing I noticed is that the surface gets burned quite easily so don't go reading food blogs while you cook!

Barley and Raisin Casserole ‒ Ohra-rusinalaatikko

Happy Yule! The Sun has born again! You can clearly see how the day is now longer again... Well, at least if you use a lot of imagination.

One of the four classic casseroles of the Finnish Yule table is liver casserole. That's something bound to divide opinions even amongst meat eaters. Some get repulsed by the sheer idea of eating organs while I remember loving it as a child. One person I know even explained she's a vegetarian most of the time but has this perversion (that's the term she used herself) of eating a whole liver casserole once a year.

Making a vegan version without that dreaded body part isn't complicated at all but it's much harder to make up the name. Yeast is what gives a special flavour into this but using it in the name has the same problem as its predecessor: doesn't sound too appealing, no matter how quickly the stuff tends to vanish at our home. So instead I named this after the other distinctive ingredient, raisin though I think I could try some dried berries next year instead. Feel free to suggest a better title.

The original version of this was posted here.

- 2 dl barley grains
- 2 dl soy crumbles (TSP)
- 0.5 dl soy sauce
- 1 red onion
- 1 dl raisins
- 2 dl oat cream
- 2 tablespoons dark syrup
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon marjoram
- 100 g yeast paté (for example Tartex or Marmite)
- 2 tablespoons margarine

Soak the raisins in water. Cook the barley. Chop the onion and sauté together with the soy crumbles and soy sauce. Mix all the ingredients in a buttered casserole. Top with margarine pieces. Bake 45 minutes in a 175°C oven. Enjoy with lingonberry cram.

Nutritional values / 800 g:
energy 1613 kcal
fat 73 g
protein 55 g
carbohydrates 180 g
fiber 37 g

Warmer Röstis ‒ Lämmitysröstit

This time of the year I tend to long for all kinds of things that warm my bones. Therefore this challenge for hot recipes circulating in Finnish food blogs seemed to come straight from heaven. I've never taken part of these before but as you may have noticed already, I use chili in everything but strawberry cake (well there's an idea), even though my own babies never seem to grow old enough to bare fruit. And so I thought I'd post a dish where chili is truly essential part and not just my personal soft spot.

Röstis are fried root vegetable patties most often made of potato. For some reason I've most found of the beet version, perhaps cause the colour won't reveal whether I've managed to grate some of my fingers in them as well. (You wouldn't believe if I told you how good I am in that. At the moment I've got a plaster in my right index finger and two smaller cuts in my left hand.)

A must spice with any beet dish is chili. The amount of course depends on your choose of species and how used you are to capsaicin. The ideal dosage should give that heavenly endorphin stimuli but not block all the taste which is what happens if there's more chili than your tongue buds can handle. In my household a good balance means about 4-5 small rawits or 1 habanero.

- 1 kg beetroot
- 3 dl soy crumbles (TSP)
- 3 dl rye flour
- 1 onion
- chili peppers
- 1 tablespoon dark syrup
- 1 teaspoon salt
- white pepper
- dragon's wort
- rape oil for frying (about 0.5 dl)

Peel and grate the beets. Chop and sauté the onion. Mix all the ingredients except the oil together. Pat the mush into thin discs.

Fry the röstis from both sides on a hot pan to get both a crispy surface and a soft inside. Beet turns dark when fried but don't mistake that as scorched. If you're hosting a dinner party or posting to your food blog, cut the röstis into heart shapes. Otherwise, enjoy as such.

Warmer Röstis are best accompanied by a sour sauce that softens the burning sensation a bit and emphasizes the sweetness. The next day they're terrific on a rye bread.

Nutritional values / 1659 g:
energy 1833 kcal
fat 66 g
protein 68 g
carbohydrates 238 g
fiber 71 g

Sunroot Puré Soup ‒ Maa-artisokkasosekeitto

Purés and mashes are an easy form of enjoying the new root vegetable harvest. Carrots, beets or rutabagas are just cooked soft, mashed and spiced. For a change I used sunroots instead of potatoes for this lunch soup but don't think the difference between them is that huge.

The recipe is mostly from Kotimaiset kasvikset.

- 500 g sunroots
- 1 small parsnip
- half a leek (the white part)
- 7 dl water
- 1 dose of stock
- 1 dl oat cream / 100 g soft tofu
- 2 tablespoons rape oil
- nutmeg
- black pepper
- chervil
- 1 onion
- 3 dl soy flakes

Peel the sunroots and the parsnip. Chop them and the leek. Boil until soft. While waiting, fry the onion together with the soy flakes until crispy. Add the spices into the pot and puré the soup. Sprinkle the soy flake mixture on top of the soup after you've scooped it to your plate.

Nutritional values / 1 l:
energy 917 kcal
fat 49 g
protein 34 g
carbohydrates 79 g
fiber 37 g

Macaroni Salad ‒ Makaronisalaatti

Finland is all about forest. Even if you live in a city centre as I do forest is never that far away. You can do a little walk and return home with a bag of veggies you found there. That's what I call the right way to live. I sincerely believe a person's every meal should contain something he's picked with his own hands. Of course that's much harder in a real metropolis with no real nature anywhere near. But even then you can grow herbs on your window sill.

Just remember that just like rhubarb, common wood sorrel contains a lot of oxalic acid so you shouldn't eat it on a daily basis. When I was a kid teachers told us to pick and eat wood sorrel to get vitamins. Nowadays I think they more like warn kids not to. This is a great lunch or party salad even without it but I think it really gives the final touch.

- 2 dl macaroni
- 3 dl textured soy protein flakes
- 1 chili
- 3 red onions
- 2 apples
- 2 dl common wood sorrel
- 2 dl soy yogurt
- 2 tbsp vegan mayonnaise
- oil for frying

Cook the macaroni. Fry the soy flakes together with one chopped onion and chili. Cut the rest of the onions and the apples to pieces as well. Combine. Enjoy.

Nutritional values / 1073 g (without the wood sorrel):
energy 1403 kcal
fat 32 g
protein 53 g
carbohydrates 120 g
fiber 26 g

Macaroni Casserole ‒ Makarooniloota

We often eat some fiber or protein rich pasta as a sidekick for the main dish. But me and my spouse haven't been able to make a deal about how to cook pasta. He thinks it should be al dente in South European style, I find crunchy pasta plain raw. So the ideal way to steamroll my opinion through is to make macaroni casserole. It's so easy to make that pretty much the only way to ruin it would be using raw macaronis. No one could ever want stony macaronis in their casserole.

This is one of those dishes that all the Finns love. (And I'm next to certain that the comfort food of Americans called macaroni and cheese resembles this a lot.) First it was just a sidekick, nowadays it has developed into a main course. But it can still be used as both. If you just want a sidekick leave out the soy, the cauliflower and the broccoli. And probably part of the milk. I shold test that myself.

- 4 dl full corn macaroni
- 3 dl soy crumbles (or pea)
- 1/2 cauliflower
- 1 broccoli
- 1 red onion
- 2 dl soy yoghurt
- 50 g blue-style soy cheese
- 3 dl oat milk
- 1 stock dose
- 1 chili
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 pucnd of fresh dill
- black pepper
- mustard powder
- oil for frying
- margarine for the casserole and on the top
- breadcrumbs for the casserole

Cook the macaroni with the stock. Soak the soy with the remaining broth. Chop the onion and the chili. Fry the onion and the soy together with the chili and other spices. Crumble the cheese into the yoghurt. Butter your casserole and cover with breadcrumbs. Mix everything except the milk and the remaining margarine in the casserole. Pour the milk evenly and top with a few margarine pieces. Bake in 200°C for half an hour.

Many peoople like to eat their macaroni casserole with ketchup. It's worth trying although this is quite delicious on its own.

Nutritional values / 1600 g:
energy 2454 kcal
fat 88 g
protein 104 g
carbohydrates 207 g
fiber 43 g

Mushroom Soup ‒ Sienikeitto

I used to hate mushrooms. Every autumn dad took me to the nearby forest to pick up russulas and milk-caps. It was fun. But when we got home he minced our mushrooms and fried them with a half a kilo of butter into a sloppy mush I thought repulsive. Later on my attitude was strengthened by those slimy canned champignon slices that cheap eateries use.

One day I just got disgusted by my own pickiness, bought a box of fresh champignos, chopped them a little, fried well with a drop of oil and realized they were delicious. Nowadays I even eat canned mushrooms from time to time. Next autumn I'm planning to go hunt them from the forest myself and dry for the winter.

Besides frying, another simple way to use them is in a creamy soup.

- 500 g or 1 l mushrooms (chanterelle is a classic)
- 1 red onion
- 1 stock dose (in my case 1 dl)
- 5 dl water
- 2 dl white wine
- 2 dl oat cream
- 1 tbsp potato flour
- 3 garlic cloves
- black pepper
- margarine for frying
- (2 dl barley grains)

In case you use barley first cook it with the water and the spices. Chop the mushrooms into chunky pieces. Chop the onion into semicircles. Sauté both and add to the soup. Let it boil for couple of minutes.

This also makes a nice sauce. Just leave out the water and the barley and only use 200 g mushrooms. And of course the same method can be used with many different soups. Just replace the mushrooms and the barley with your favourite veggie and soy strips. The fun thing about soups is you can experiment a lot without much fear of failing.

Nutritional values / 1 l (with barley) :
energy 1250 kcal
fat 32 g
protein 34 g
carbohydrates 167 g
fiber 31 g

Cabbage Rolls ‒ Kaalikääryleet

I just love cabbage. It's savory and one cheap head feeds a family for a week. One of the home made dishes everyone's mum used to make is of course cabbage rolls, though I suspect the recipe was originally borrowed from Russians. Which is probably why one thing you should definitely also try is a mushroom filling.

- 1 white cabbage
- 3 dl textured soy protein crumbles (that is, soijarouhetta)
- 2 dl barley grains
- 1 dl oat cream
- 1 onion
- 1 chili
- 3 garlic cloves
- syrup
- margarine
- blue-style soy cheese (For example Sheese)
- broth

Boil the cabbage head for about twenty minutes. Be sure not to throw away the tasty broth. Peel of about 15 biggest leaves. (The rest of the cabbage can be used to make a cabbage soup.) Thin the petioles with a knife. Cook the oat grains and fry the soy with chopped onion, chili and garlic. Mix the cream into the oat pot.

Now you're ready to roll! Everyone has their own technique with this. The main thing is just not to stuff them too full. I usually lay one teaspoon of oat and one teaspoon of soy on each leaf, top the thing with a pat of cheese and fold both ends together so that the result is more of a square than a roll. Now quickly turn it over into a casserole, so the seam side stays closed. Lay the rolls tightly side by side. Scoop broth on them enough to fill the casserole half way through. Pour syrup on the rolls with a liberal hand. Top with margarine pats and let them bake in 225°C for an hour. If they start to look dry in the oven baste them with a little more broth and syrup.

Serve with lingonberry jam and potatoes.

Nutritional values / 1 roll / 100 g
energy 116.7 kcal
fat 5.1 g
protein 4.5 g
carbohydrates 13.1 g
fiber 3.1 g