Hemp butter ‒ Hamppuvoi

Nowadays it is possible to find domestic hemp seeds from a grocery store. The world's probably most multifunctional and one of Finland's oldest cultivated plants is slowly starting to gain back the wide-used position it had a hundred years ago. Which is great, since it has the potential to solve all mankind's energy and hunger problems plus be used to make better paper, fabric and medicine. Maybe the drug police isn't allowed do anything they come up with after all.

Happy for this discovery I thought I'd try out some of the different dishes you can prepare of hamppu or liina. There are some basic recipes in the pages of the local vegan organisation. Following their instructions I managed to make hemp butter or hempini (named after tahini, a sesame seed paste). Here's what I did:

2 dl hemp seeds
3/4 dl rape oil
4 garlic cloves
1,5 tbsp basil
1/2 tsp salt
1 dl water (more or less, depending on the structure you want)

Roast the seeds on a dry frying pan enough for them to start smell and get some colour. Blend them smooth with the rest of the ingridients. Be sure not to leave those crunchy seed bits there.

The basil part made me suspicious since so far I've only found it useful with tomato soup, (And I'm not saying an Italian cook couldn't make excellent things with it.) but for once I did what I was told. And they were right, it doesn't taste too much, perhaps cause I also used a lot of garlic. (Still, next time I think I'll try a bit more Finnish type of spices.) Mine is rather strong and meant to be used for cooking in the same way as for example Italian pesto sauce is. This is mostly cause I roasted the seeds rather well. If you want to use this on the bread, roast them only lightly and use spices in a more conservative manner.

Nutritional values / 420 g (This varies quite a bit from one hemp breed to another. The one I used is particulary oily and therefore relatively lower than most in protein.)
energy 1814 kcal
fat 150 g
protein 58 g
carbohydrates 80 g
fiber 59 g

Potato Salad ‒ Perunasalaatti

Potato salad is one of those delicious sidekicks Finns tend to eat with every possible meal. And according to a Swedish tradition it's also a self evident part of May Day's (mostly liquid) nutrition.

- 5 large cooked potatoes (This time I cooked them with cabbage soup to give them more taste.)
- 2 pickles
- 1 red onion
- 1 dl oat cream
- 1 tbsp mustard
- black pepper
- bunch of dragon's wort

Chop the veggies and mix with everything else. That's it!

Nutritional values / 1380 g
energy 743 kcal
fat 10 g
protein 19 g
carbohydrates 139 g
fiber 19 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

Cabbage Soup ‒ Kaalisoppa

This is an easy, tasty and light dish that my mom used to make. You can portion it into the freezer or serve to a larger crowd. And the best thing is that the more you cook it the better it gets.

- 1 white cabbage
- 5 large potatoes
- 1 onion
- 3 dl textured soy protein flakes (soijahiutaleet in Finnish)
- 1 chili
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp miso
- 1 tbsp dark syrup
- a bunch of fresh chives

Boil the cabbage for around twenty minutes. Make sure not to throw away the tasty broth. Tear of the leaves from the cabbage. (If you want you can save the biggest leaves to make for example cabbage rolls.) Chop the rest of the cabbage as well as the potatoes and put them back to the broth. Let them cook while you add the rest of the ingredients.

If you want you can fry the soy with the onion, chili and garlic before adding them to the pot. Add water according to your own taste of thickness. The miso should be dissolved in a cup of water before adding it in, which is something you may want to at the very end since boiling destroys some of miso's nutritional benefits. The soup is ready when the potatoes are.

Nutritional values / 2000 g (= without the water)
energy 1110 kcal
fat 12 g
protein 54 g
carbohydrates 185 g
fiber 42 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

Bilberry Pie ‒ Juolukkapiirakka

While the oven was hot anyway, I thought I'd make the dessert as well. So I just improvised a quick sweet pie as well. Used mostly frozen bog bilberries cause I happened to have them left in the freezer (gods only know from which year) but any forest berries will do.

The paste:
- 1 dl rape oil
- 3 dl graham flour
- 1/2 dl sugar
- a dollop of water
- 1 tsp baking powder

The topping:
- 4 dl bog bilberries
- 2 dl whippable oat cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (unless the cream itself is already flavoured)

Heat the oven to 200°C. Mix the paste ingredients together and spread it on a cake tin. Top with bilberries and put it in the oven for 20 minutes. In the meantime whip the cream and flavour with vanilla sugar. Spread the whipped cream on the pie and let it bake another 5‒10 minutes.

My first version of this pie didn't come out exactly as planned. Actually it was quite boggy. So couple of good tips: if you use frozen berries, let them melt a little so you can pour out the extra water. And make sure you've whipped the cream long enough. (Not sure if mine was even meant to foam in the first place.)

It's also possible to leave the cream all out or add it only just before serving on the chilled down pie. Next time I thought I'd try this with ice cream instead of ‒ well, warm cream.

Nutritional values / 900 g
energy 2232 kcal
fat 124 g
protein 31 g
carbohydrates 250 g
fiber 33 g

Anarcho Pie ‒ Anarkopiirakka

One reason more to hope I was an anarchist!

This recipe from Vegaanin keittokirja by Mirka Muukkonen and Anna Särkisilta (Like Kustannus 2008) seems to have almost a canonical status among Finnish vegans. Another version of it has been turned into a punk song by Oi Polloi. Of course I had to try it out!

- 5 cooked potatoes
- 5 dl wheat flour (replaced half of it with graham flour myself)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 200 g margarine (only used 100 g plus some water)

The topping can be be almost anything you happen to have in your kitchen. I used:

- 1 chili
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 broccoli
- 1 onion
- 340 g silken tofu
- 1/2 dl nutritional yest

Heat the oven to 225°C. Mix the dough ingredients together and spread it in a baking tin. Save a piece. Add the toppings. Form a big anarchy symbol from the rest of the dough and decorate the pie with it. Stick it in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until it looks golden on top. Enjoy with punk music and a punch of hippies.

My first try didn't come out exactly perfect. First of all it didn't bake enough in the given time. (I'm starting to suspect there's something wrong with the oven) And even if it did it still might be a good idea to fry the toppings a bit. Second of all that silken tofu isn't that good a topping alone. I knew it's quite tasteless but thought it would melt nicely in the oven which it of course didn't. Have to mix it with something next time. But the pie did vanish in an eye blink anyway.

Nutritional values / 1600 g (Like always, I've estemeted this according to the measures I myself used.)
energy 2665 kcal
fat 100 g
protein 125 g
carbohydrates 311 g
fiber 44 g