Last May I published my first Finnish “laatikko” aka casserole recipe with cabbage as the leading star. This time, this second casserole, features rutabaga, a very strange vegetable for me as I had never eaten before I moved to Finland. And I specifically chose this one because it is one of the most loved Christmas dishes in Finnish cuisine.
A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the birthday of one of my close friends here, Zeynep, together with many other friends and family. I made the sweets for this gathering, while Zeynep’s parents-in-law prepared the salty snacks. It was this event where I got to taste this incredibly delicious bread!! I fell in love with it immediately, and I asked David and Tiina for its name and recipe. And so here comes one of the most delicious bread recipes from Finnish cuisine!
I didn’t know lingonberry until I came to Finland. I didn’t even know its existence. I ate it for the first time on my second day in Helsinki, as a sauce for a savoury dish (can’t remember what the dish was hmm…). After that my relationship with lingonbery has been quite formal with mutual respect!
So, this pancake is baked. However, it is extremely easy so no baking related excuse can be accepted, anyone can do it.
Finnish cuisine is full of different kinds of delicious “pulla”s. These are basically buttery buns with cardamom, which is the most Nordic ingredient ever. Some also have cinnamon, some have more butter than the others, some have extra sugar on top, some have cream in between… Their common characteristic is that they are all extremely delicious and they all look very elegant.
In Finnish cuisine, there is a series of laatikkos, aka casserole dishes: porkkana / carrot, peruna / potato, lanttu / rutabaga… and this one right here, cabbage casserole, with ground meat and rice. I knew about this grand “laatikko family” but I never ate any, until I made the first one today.
I love fish. I love tons of dishes with tons of different kinds of fish. And I love soup! But I could never be so much fond of fish soup. For some reason, the idea of fish in a lot of liquid did not appeal to me (although they come from tons of liquid!). Until I met Finnish salmon soup…
I am writing this blog post in a very, veeeery relaxed mode at the moment. I just came home from swimming and then a hot, nice sauna! Once you start enjoying sauna, you easily get addicted to it! Anyway, after that very Finnish sauna, I had to come home and continue the blog post series about Finnish Christmas cuisine! So here is a colourful and delicious salad for your Christmas table (and of course you can also make it in other times of the year too!). If you know a different version of this salad, write about it in the comments below!
I know that I said in my previous post that I will focus more on Christmas recipes for now. But this is one recipe that I have been planning to add to the blog for a very long time! Besides, I know that a cinnamon roll is something to eat all year round, but it also perfectly fits Christmas spirit because of cinnamon! (This is my understanding of Christmas, which is still quite new for me, so forgive me if I’m wrong!)
So, November is here once again. We could not skip it again. But, November means that the year is almost over and hope for a better year is right around the corner. I want to wipe out most of 2015 from my memory! November is also the soft welcome to Christmas season – which is something that I always forgot until now. For me, Christmas did not mean anything until I moved to Finland since we do not celebrate in Turkey. That’s why I always skipped to make any plans for it and thought what to do the last minute. But not this year. This time I am prepared, already thinking of possible scenarios. The plans are also on for the blog: I will be publishing (mostly) Christmas related recipes until the end of December.
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A Biologist who spends all her time baking!
