Lingonberry Rönttönens ‒ Puolukkarönttöset

Back to Finnish pie specialities. Before I've written about "regular" Karelian pies, with turnip and a more modern filling idea. I've also written about vatruskas of Ilomantsi, supikases and lihapiirakkas. But there are numerous more of them to go.

This has been a bad berry year. Normally there's an overlap of bilberry and lingonberry season, but this time bilberries vanished before I really picked them and lingonberries haven't really appeared either. I hear my friends in the western coast hoard buckets of them though, so perhaps I'm just going to the wrong woods. now that my spouse's mum sent us some of the lingonberries she had picked, I thought I'd finally try making rönttönens.

Rönttönens are considered a speciality of the Kainuu region. They resemble Karelian pies a lot but are rounder, larger and their crust nearly always contains wheat flour besides rye. Typically the filling is made of potato and lingonberries. In the traditional version they are sweetened naturally with low heat with the same method as tuuvinki or mämmi, which together with lingonberries produces a unique flavour for sweet and sour lovers. These days the sweetening is usually done with added sugar like in this quickie version. I got 15 pies from this portion.

The crust:
- 5 dl rye flour
- 2 dl wheat flour
- 3 dl water
- salt

The filling:
- 6 cooked potatoes
- 7 dl lingonberries
- 2 dl rye flour
- 0.5 dl sugar
- salt

For buttering:
- 100 g margarine
- 2 dl oat milk

Knead the crust ingredients together. Cover with a towel and leave to rest for 2–3 hours.

Mash the potatoes and the lingonberries. Mix all the filling ingredients. Roll the crust as thin as you can, flouring the surface so it won't stick to the table or rolling pin. Take circles of about 15 centimetres in diameter from it. Pile them with flour added between them to prevent from drying or sticking together.

Spread a thin layer of the filling on each circle. Lift about a centimetre of their edges and make wrinkles between your fingers so they'll hold up.


Bake in a 250°C oven for 15 minutes. Melt the margarine and mix with the milk. Grease each rönttönen when they come out of the oven. Cover with a towel when they're still hot to help them soften.

Enjoy with hot coffee or tea.

Nutritional values / 1 pie / 149 g:
energy 220 kcal
fat 6 g
protein 5 g
carbohydrates 36 g
fiber 7 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

Mushroom Hunter's Bread ‒ Sienestäjänleipä

At some point this morning I noticed I had accidentally published a completely empty draft with this headline. That was embarrassing. Apparently it had gained 30 views before I noticed anything. Sorry if you were one those people who clicked in vein. Here's the real post.

In the 70's cafés and bars served warm sandwiches instead of hamburgers. To modern reader those classic recipes may sound somewhat dull or not-so-nutritious but then again, that does apply to most hamburgers too. They can be rather filling evening snacks or lunches even today, especially if served with a side salad. Mushroom hunter's bread is my adaptation from a classic called metsästäjänleipä or hunter's bread, consisting of a meat steak or patty and mushroom sauce.

- 4 rye bread pieces
- 4 basic soy or pea patties
- 0.5 l mushrooms of your choice (I used sheep polypore)
- 2 dl oat cream
- 1 onion
- 1 small punch of fresh parsley
- 2 tbsp rape oil
- black pepper
- salt

Chop the mushrooms and sauté on a dry pan until the extra juice has vaporized and they've even caught some colour. Add the oil and the onion, chopped as well. When the onion has become translucent, add the cream and the spices. Let the sauce simmer until it seems thick enough. Finalize with parsley.

Toast the bread slices. Place a soy pattie on each of them. Pour the sauce generously over them all.

Nutritional values / 1 bread / 343 g:
energy 379 kcal
fat 16 g
protein 19 g
carbohydrates 41 g
fiber 10 g

Cloudberry Cups ‒ Lakkamaljat

My spouse prepared us a habanero pie for dinner so I took care of the dessert. This one gets full 10 points for the effort/luxury ratio. The only part that involves cooking is the caramel sauce, but even that only takes 15 minutes or so. Learning how to make it involves some trial and error (I've usually ended up with a chewable fudge instead of a sauce) but even so the result is rarely anything of which you wouldn't enjoy destroying all the evidence.

I've rarely used cloudberries in my recipes though they're among the most delicate tasting berries I know. It's pretty telling how many names it has even in literary Finnish: lakka, hilla, suomuurain, valokki and lintti are the most common ones you hear. The problem is they live in swamps and though Finland in general is the swampiest land on the planet there's barely any anywhere near where I live. So every time I've met a cloudberry I've picked it straight into my mouth. Picking them isn't quite as fast or easy as say, picking lingonberries either since one shrub only bares one berry and you need to move a lot around, bending and stretching. Which is why they also cost several times more than most berries and I bear to buy them only about once a year.

- 500 g cloudberries
- 4 dl vanilla flavoured soy or oat yogurt
- 1.5 dl farin sugar
- 1 dl oat cream
(- 3 tsp instant coffee powder)

Measure the sugar, the cream and if you wish, the coffee powder into a pot. Cook it on a low temperature, stirring most of the time. When it starts to look more like a pile of frog spawn than just regular boiling liquid you can try dropping a small spoonful into a glass of cold water.

If the result sticks together instead of dissolving into the water you are done and should quickly take the pot away from the heat. In case you can even mold the drop between your fingers congratulate yourself for you have managed to prepare fudge by cooking the sauce too long by a minute or two. You can still probably pour it over the dessert but it does require chewing.

Pour half of the yogurt on the bottom of your serving glasses. Carefully add half of the cloudberries and then half of the sauce. Make a second layer of them all. Serve immediately.

Nutritional values / 1105 g:
energy 1787 kcal
fat 23 g
protein 27 g
carbohydrates 158 g
fiber 36 g

Yellowfoot Pyttipanna with Carrot Ketchup ‒ Suppispyttis porkkanaketsupilla

(First of all, sorry about the terrible photo. This is why you should always prepare dinner at noon.) Yellowfoot might just be my favourite mushroom. Partly because hunting them is so full of feelings. First you gaze into the ground, lift trunks and are certain you'll never going to find a single one. But after that one dead leave turned out to be a yellowfoot you have to sit down to pick them. At the end you have to stare at clouds to get out of the forest, because hey, you can't just leave them in the there alone in case you see more of them. They rarely have bad parts or maggots, the whole cute little mushroom is about the curly but sturdy foot which hides half into the ground. The taste and structure are so pleasant they'll fit into pretty much every dish you can think of.

In case you haven't noticed already, I rarely have the patience to follow recipes thoroughly. I use them more for drawing ideas and in case of baking, for proportions. Saara Törmä's recipe's often make important exceptions. They're homestyle and simple but have that certain twist that makes them special. This one is a variation of pyttipannu she's written for the Green party's newspaper. The name sounded fun and so followed it almost literally, only adding a can of beans into it. I even decided to try the recommended condiment too, although it sounded a little odd. A little googling revealed to me that indeed, the word ketchup doesn't imply tomatoes, it's just that we're so used to the tomato version. Somewhat surprisingly ketchup's origins seem to be in 17th century Chinese fish sauce and the tomato version was only developed in the 19th century USA. Anyway, the carrot version here fits pretty great with the rest of the meal, not to mention adds to the foliage colours.

- 1 l yellowfoot
- 1 kg cooked potatoes
- 2 onions
- 0.5 dl rape oil
- 0.5 dl soy sauce
- 2 tsp curry
- 1 tsp thyme
- black pepper
- salt

The ketchup:
- 500 g carrot
- 1 onion
- 1 dl broth
- 1 dl farin sugar
- 0.5 dl rape oil
- 0.5 dl balsam vinegar
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp salt
- 0.5 tsp cayenne

Start with the ketchup if you plan on preparing them both. Peel the carrots and cook them. Save a decilitre of the broth. Chop the onion, heat up the oil and sauté. Combine all the ingredients and purée smooth. Let the ketchup simmer on low heat for half an hour. Cool down.

Fry the mushrooms until the extra liquid has vaporized. Move aside for a moment. Cube the potatoes. No need to peel them unless you want to. Chop the onions too.

Fry the potatoes alone for couple of minutes. Add the onions and the mushrooms. Turn around. Add the spices. Keep frying until the onions are soft and the potatoes have acquired a pretty colour.

Enjoy with the carrot ketchup. The leftover ketchup stores for about a week in the fridge but you can also store it longer by freezing.

Nutritional value / 1835 g (the pyttipanna):
eneergy 1247 kcal
fat 48 g
protein 32 g
carbohydrates 163 g
fiber 29 g

Nutritional value / 850 g (the ketchup):
energy 730 kcal
fat 46 g
protein 5 g
carbohydrates 70 g
fiber 15 g

Milky Caps in Vinegar ‒ Etikkarouskut

Yesterday I went mushroom hunting and got my backpack so full you'll be getting a fair share of mushroom recipes too. I picked one bag of yellowfoot, one of sheep polypode and one of rufous milk cap.

Rufous milk caps are a very common milk cap variety. In countries where it's not habitual to parboil mushrooms they're considered inedible, sometimes even poisonous. Technically speaking they are indeed slightly mutagenic but you wouldn't eat them raw anyway because of the burning peppery taste.  For many Finnish mushroom hunters they're one of the favourite species, especially appropriate for preservation and to be used in basic mushroom salad. Even Finnish officials notorious for excessive cautiousness when it comes to food or medicine consider them perfectly safe. Then again, mycologist David Arora speculates there may be some differences of edibility between European and North American varieties. I wouldn't know anything about that but this basic method fits perfectly well for any milk caps, as well as most other mushrooms you'd like to preserve.

- 2 l milk caps
- 1.5 dl white vinegar
- 1.5 dl water
- 1 dl sugar
- 1 small piece of horseradish or ginger
- 1 tbsp cilantro seeds
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp salt

If your milk caps are large, cut them a bit smaller. In case they need parboiling, boil them in plenty of water for about ten minutes and rinse well.

Measure all the ingredients into a pot. Bring to a boil and then pour into a clean and preferably sterilized glass jar. The liquid amount here should be enough for parboiled milk caps but in case your mushrooms need more to cover them, just add vinegar, water and sugar all in equal amounts. I used a jar too big so it'll be easy to add more mushrooms since this is a species I can be quite certain I'll be finding all autumn.

Preserve in cool temperature. The mushrooms should be ready to eat within a few days and store well until the next autumn. They're especially great in salads or as an accompaniment on the plate. The broth brings taste into soups and sauces too.

Nutritional values / 1447 g:
energy 892 kcal
fat 5 g
protein 19 g
carbohydrates 172 g
fiber 19 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