Monday 9 February 2009

Japan and Finland, unite!

Ultimate food experience day included Carelian pies, sultsinas and Japanese udon noodles and rice cakes. For me making these old-fashioned pies was kind of trip to my Ilomantsi time -> I used to work in Ilomantsi for 5 summers as a journalist. That village is everything there's left from the old Carelia in my opinion and old traditions like making sultsina and vatruska are still strong. I didn't even know what sultsina was before I went there :) My own family roots come from Savo and Carelia, so after living almost my whole life in Kuopio, I felt like I got to know my "Carelian side" in Ilomantsi. I hope that in the future I know all the recipes of different Carelian pies by heart and I can keep that old tradition alive even a little bit.

I learned to make Carelian pies (karjalanpiirakka in Finnish) also in Ilomantsi. I wrote a story to the newspaper about "my first try ever to make real karjalanpiirakka" and I interviewed an olderly woman for that. She taught me how to make the dough, how to shape the pies and finally how to dip pies into melted butter after baking. This was my first try to make karjalanpiirakka after that and it succeeded better than I thought. New attempt coming soon! I also prepared some egg butter to eat with the pies and the taste was...awesome. I used riihiruisjauho (kind of smoked ryeflour) in the pies and I'm sure the taste was so special because of them.

And here comes a short picture story about sultsina making! Sultsina dough is made from ryeflour, water and salt and it's baked over the stove, greased with melted butter and when you start eating, you put rice (or potato) porridge on top of it and wrap it correctly :)


I'm sad that nowadays people don't make karjalanpiirakka or sultsina anymore at home. I thought it would be a lot of work, but in fact it was very easy!

Besides Finnish pies, we prepared Japanese food. We ate noodles with seaweed and the dessert was always so delicious - rice cakes. I just love rice cakes, because they're sticky and the feel great in your mouth :D They're also easy to make, just mix glutinous rice flour with water, that's it :)

After boiling the rice cakes in the water, we made sweet and salty dressings for the rice cakes; soyflour with sugar and salt and soy sauce with sugar in it. This was unquestionably the easiest dessert ever to make, just a bit mixing and boiling :) I'm going to make these next time when I feel like eating something sweet but healthy!

In the end I ate so much that I'm still feeling a bit bad. But it was worth it! Thank you for food and company Yuki and Merja :) I'll spend the rest of the evening watching Weeds and reading the biography of Dalai-Lama.

"If a pot is cooking, the friendship will stay warm"
Arab proverb

9 comments:

  1. näyttää ihanalta! sultsinas are a bit like tortillas, aren't they?
    -h

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  2. Hei :) Sultsinas are kind of traditional Finnish tortillas in my opinion :D Just the dough is a lot healthier than in basic tortillas (just rye flour, water and salt) and also the porridge you put inside. Hmm, now I'm wondering how sultsinas would taste with typical tortilla sauces and fillings! Maybe I have to try one day :) Thank you for your message!

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  3. oh, this food looks so tasty!

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  4. can i join next time you make the pies? i really want to learn. i heart karjalanpirakka!

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  5. Katten försvann, thank you :)

    Monika, of course you can join! Just let me know when you have time and I can teach you :)

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  6. Nälkä! Herkullisilta näyttävät nuo - sultsinoita ja karjalanpiirakoitakin, toisin kuin täällä suunnassa, jossa on vain riisipiirakoita.
    Pitäisi varmaan joskus kokeilla tehdä fuusio: kimchipiirakka. Kuulostaa kyllä oudolta :D

    Nim. Ilomantsissa vuosittain ähkyilevä.

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  7. Moi Jani :) Ihan samalla tavalla mulle on tullu nälkä kun olen sun korealaisia kokkailuja ihastellut! Kimchipiirakka voisi kyllä olla kokeilemisen arvoinen...Ainakin kaalipiirakka on hyvää ja hapankaalipiirakkakin varmasti syötävää, niin miksei kimchiversiokin :D

    Ootko sinäkin Ilomantsista kotoisin? En siis itse ole, mutta mulla on paljon tuttuja, jotka on sieltä lähtöisin.

    (Nykyään sultsinoita ei saa enää mistään kaupasta Joensuusta, ainoa paikka taitaa olla tori aamulla kello 7)

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  8. After reading about sultina in a Finnish Cookbook (in English) I've been looking everywhere for what sultsina are supposed to look like--and particularly how they are to be folded. The instructions are unnecessarily complex. One look at your pictures explains it--and leaves one hungry too.

    Thanks for the pointers.

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  9. I'm happy I could help!! If you have other questions about Finnish cooking (I'm not professional, but I know a lot about traditional Carelian pastries at least :D), just ask :) tainanen(at)gmail.com

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