Pete's Food Blog

28. Dec, 2021

Flour sweetened mashed potato bake, Traditional Finnish Christmas meal

Ingredients:

2½ kg floury potatoes

¾ dl plain flour

3 dl potato boiling water

2 dl thick cream

3 dl milk

salt

( 1 tbl syrup optional)

6 knobs of butter

3 x 1½ l foil baking tins

Method:

This Christmas treat is sweetened by means of a chemical reaction between the protein of the flour and the mash, which occurs only between 55°C - 70°C.

Peel and boil (DO NOT USE SALT) the potatoes until they are mashable.

Reserve the potato boiling water.

Thoroughly mash the potatoes leaving no lumps (a potato-ricer would be useful here). Leave the mash to cool down to hand temperature, then thoroughly mix in 3 dl of the potato boiling water.

Sprinkle in and mix in half the flour, then leave in the oven set at 60°C with a lid on - for 30 mins.

Sprinkle and mix in the remaining flour and return to the oven for 5 hrs. after which turn the oven off and leave the mash in the oven overnight.

Mix in the cream and enough milk (about 3 dl) to form a very loose porridge consistency.

Season to taste with salt and if so desired 1 tbl syrup - depending on how sweet the mash has become and according to your own taste (I do not use syrup at all).

Divide the mash into the three greased foil tins. They should be no more than half full, because the mixture bubbles and expands in the oven.

Top each tin with 2 knobs of butter and bake for 2 hours at 150°C.

"Rosolli" salad - Traditioanl Finnish Christmas meal salad

Peel 3-4 carrots and dice into 1 cm cubes. Par boil the carrots until they still have a bite to them. Strain and drain.

Peel and de-core one apple- dice into 1 cm cubes.

Cut a handful of dill pickles into 1 cm pieces.

Dice two pickled beetroots into 1 cm cubes.

Mix all together and top if desired with two hard boiled eggs cut in halves.

Traditional Christmas forest mushroom salad

The best mushrooms for this are salt preserved Woolly milkcaps. In which case, even after soaking the brine out of the mushrooms, you probably wont want any more salt*.

Ingredients:

4 dl finely chopped mushrooms (If using salted mushrooms - soak out the brine in copious amounts of water 6-8 hrs). Squeeze all the liquid out of the chopped mushrooms.

½ a medium sized red onion, chopped up as finely as is possible

1 dl of sour cream or my vegan sour cream here

1 dl of creme fraiche (I have used vegan creme fraiche "Oatly's imat fraiche")

1 tsp white vinegar

½ tsp sugar

A few turns of pepper * Salt to taste'

Method:

Squeeze any excess moisture out of the mushrooms Mix all the ingredients together. Let it stand for a minimum of 15 minutes. Keeps in the fridge, well covered, for up to 5 days.