The Sauna

Sauna is an integral part of the Finnish culture, we have wanted one for a long time.  In the U.S., not many are in the habit of using a sauna, but it is wonderful for cleansing.  I've had a couple of requests for a tour of the sauna we just finished building...hope you enjoy it!  

This is the view into the sauna, we ordered a kit from Canada, and my husband modified for the 45 degree angle door.  The sauna is extremely well insulated and heats up fast with an electric heater.  It is 5x7 feet.

 Every sauna needs a thermometer, I found this one (cheap!) on ebay.  I love the retro look.

 I found this wooden Paula Deen soup ladle at Wal-Mart!  Works great to throw water...

We took out a door and made a dressing area--I love all the hooks and open shelving, so functional with kids and teenagers!

We put in a prefab shower stall to minimize cleaning.  My husband used leftover cedar to make trim.

Our whole family is really enjoying the sauna, and we took an unusable part of the basement and gave it a purpose.

Runeberg Tarts--Runebergin tortut

We're a little late this year, Runeberg's day was February 5.  Johan Ludvig Runeberg is the national poet of Finland (born 1804), here are some photos from when we visited his summer cottage:

The museum wasn't open, but we took advantage of the nice little porch to escape the rain as we ate some delicious smoked fish for lunch.  It is a beautiful property just outside of Jakobstad.

In honor of Runeberg's birthday, we made his favorite tarts.  Multiple versions of this recipe exist, but I adapted the one from my favorite baking book, Parhaat Leivonnaiset.  I haven't found this book in English.  Some recipes include almonds, but this one is completely nut-free.

First, I whipped 1 3/4 sticks of butter and 3/4 cup of sugar until fluffy.  To this I added two eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  

In another bowl, I combined 1 cup of flour with 1 teaspoon baking powder and 2 1/4 cups of graham cracker crumbs.  You could also use plain bread crumbs, in which case I would increase the sugar in the first step to 1 cup.  I probably should have ground up the graham cracker crumbs a little more, but it didn't really matter much to the end result.

Here is what the sugar, butter and eggs looked like after being whipped, you can also see the flour mixture in the background.

After combining the two, I put the bowl in the refrigerator for about half an hour.

After preheating the oven to 400 F, I divided the dough into 24 portions and put each in a lined muffin cup.  Next, I made a deep indentation in each with my finger, and filled it with jam.  I used strawberry today, but traditionally this should be raspberry.

Into the oven they went for 15 minutes.

The recipe says that the jam has to stand up to baking.  Evidently the one I used (low sugar spread from Aldi's) did not.  I am not sure how you can tell if the jam can be baked without testing it, I haven't seen any markings on U.S. jelly or jam jars.  This didn't really matter, I just added a little more jam on top after baking.

For icing, mix 2/3 cup of powdered sugar with a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice.  Drizzle this on top, and the tarts are ready!

They were delicious!  Next time I may experiment with different additions instead of graham crackers.  Some recipes use half dry bread crumbs and half gingerbread cookies or ground almonds.  Yum!

Grated Potato Casserole--Riivinkropsu

Tonight I had no idea what to make for dinner, so I opened up The Finnish Cookbook and started looking for recipes using the ingredients that I had available.  This casserole jumped out at me, it is basically shredded potatoes in a batter which contains the same ingredients as a baked oven pancake.  I don't remember ever eating this before, but the book says that it is a traditional dish in Satakunta in Western Finland.  Anyway, no strange ingredients in this one, just a simple casserole.

I started by grating six peeled potatoes.  This photo also shows some rutabagas in the background--I can't decide whether to eat them or wait for spring and plant them, they are sprouting so well!

Next, I beat six eggs in a bowl, then beat in three cups of milk, half a cup of flour and two teaspoons of salt.  This only took a few minutes, but notice the color change of my potatoes in the background--next time I'll soak them in cold water then pat them dry before using them in the casserole, or maybe I'll just use frozen shredded potatoes!  I stirred the potatoes into the egg/milk mixture.

I used a large casserole dish (4 quart).  I put about three tablespoons of butter in the dish and put it in the oven as it preheated to 375 F.  Once the butter melted, I made sure to cover the pan well with it, then poured in the potatoes and baked in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes.  So simple!

This made a huge casserole, but it was so good that the kids really dug in and ate most of it.  My husband didn't remember ever eating it, either, but I will definitely be making this again.  It has become a new family favorite.

Jansson's temptation--Janssonin kiusaus--Janssons Frestelse

For supper we made Jansson's temptation, a delectable potato casserole with lots of onion and anchovies.  My daughter, who loves pickled herring, gravlax, cold-smoked salmon, sushi, etc., was a little worried about eating anchovies.  She said that her friends told her they were disgusting.  She loved this dish, just goes to show that any ingredient can be delicious if prepared correctly!

I used a recipe out of an old Time/Life book, but changed some ingredients to fit what I had in stock.  The original recipe is:

7 medium boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into strips 2 inches long and 1/4 inch thick

2 1/2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 to 3 large yellow onions thinly sliced (4 cups)

16 flat anchovy fillets, drained

white pepper

2 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs

2 tablespoons butter, cut into bits

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup milk

I started by slicing onions, I used an old mandolin to slice them quickly and very thin.  I have a much newer mandolin that isn't stained up, and was much more expensive, but this old one that was "as seen on TV" and purchased at an outlet mall some 15 years ago is the one I prefer.  I used red onions because that is what I had.  They lost most of their color when I sauteed them, anyway, I don't think it was an important difference.

I also peeled about 8 yukon gold potatoes, I prepared the dish rather quickly, otherwise you would want to soak them in cold water so they don't turn brown.

I sauteed the onions in an old cast iron pan in two tablespoons oil and two tablespoons butter and a dash of salt.

I have given up on all of my nonstick pans.  The old nonstick pans have a toxic coating, and my newer "green" ones are barely nonstick at all.  I have a full set of cast iron pans that belonged to my paternal grandmother, and if you treat them correctly, they cook so much better than the new pans.  I originally was afraid to cook on the glass cooktop with these pans, but I have been careful and haven't caused any damage (yet).  Cast iron cookware is not for procrastinators, though, it is important to clean them right away, without using any dishwashing detergent.  Also, put them back on the hot burner to dry thoroughly before putting them away, or they will rust.  The turner that I am using here actually was a brownie server that belonged to my maternal grandma...it works great to scrape the bottom of the pan!

After preheating the oven to 400 F, I used my mandolin to slice the potatoes directly in the buttered baking dish.  (If you cut up the potatoes earlier and soaked them in water, dry them before putting them in the dish)  This is what the first layer looked like:

Next, I layered on 1/3 of the onions and some sardine slices:

After sprinkling this with white pepper and just a little salt (remember that the anchovies add quite a bit of salt to the dish), I repeated the layers two times, then ended with a layer of potatoes.  White pepper is a little spicy, but we enjoy its flavor.  I didn't have bread crumbs, and was in a hurry, so I crumbled up some saltine crackers and dotted the top with butter:

I checked the carton of cream in the refrigerator and it was spoiled!  Not to panic, I put about 3/4 cup of powdered milk in a measuring cup and added skim milk to equal 1 1/2 cups.  I've used this substitute lots of times, it adds calcium to the dish and greatly reduces the fat content.  I heated the milk in the microwave for a couple of minutes, then poured it over the casserole and baked it for about 45 minutes.

The topping got a little overdone, I think my oven temperature might be a little higher than the thermostat reads.  Next time, I will probably cover it for half of the cooking time.

Even with all of the substitutions, the dish turned out really good.  This was a hearty, warm supper that was perfect for a traditional sauna evening.  A fun way to teach the kids about their heritage!

Pytt i Panna--Pyttipannu--Hash Swedish Style

Tonight my husband requested one of his favorite dishes for dinner, pytt i panna.  This is a Swedish style hash, with all of the ingredients cut in similar size pieces, and fried separately.

Leftover small cubes of roasted or boiled beef is a main ingredient, lamb or pork could be substituted, but I didn't have any.  Fortunately, I had a chuck roast in the freezer, but it was frozen solid.  I covered it and put it on to boil in water seasoned with salt and pepper, then cut it in smaller pieces after it thawed.  After about an hour, it was ready to cut into small cubes.

I made a double recipe, so I used about 2 pounds of beef, along with 12 potatoes.  After washing the potatoes, I peeled them and cut them into small cubes.  To keep the potatoes from turning brown while waiting to be fried, I soaked them in cold water.

Next, I diced three fairly small onions.  Note that I tried to make all the ingredients into approximately the same size cubes.  I also cut up about a pound of ham.  All we had was thin-sliced ham, so it was not possible to get this to the same size.

I heated a couple of tablespoons of oil and a couple of tablespoons of butter at 350 degrees Fahrenheit on my griddle.  I decided to use a griddle instead of a frying pan because of the double recipe.  Since the griddle is nonstick, it didn't take much oil or butter, if your pan is not nonstick, you should use more and drain the cooked potatoes on paper towels after cooking.  First, I cooked the potatoes which took about 20 minutes to brown and cook through.  I salted the potatoes during cooking.

Next, I put the potatoes to the side and cooked the onions in a little more butter.  I salted the onions a little, also.  Be careful not to brown or burn the onions.

Leaving the onions on the griddle, I added the beef and ham, and cooked this for about ten minutes, stirring most of the time.

Then I added the potatoes back in, and the dish was ready.  Often, it is served with a fried egg, or a raw egg yolk.  I wouldn't feed the kids a raw egg yolk unless it were from a pasteurized egg.  This had enough meat in it that we didn't miss the egg.  You could also put a little parsley on it, we didn't have any fresh, so I omitted it.

We served it with mustard, ketchup, and marinated cucumbers.  It was delicious!

We have snow in the U.S., too!

Here are a few pictures of our blizzard, we are still supposed to get about seven more hours of snow.  The kids are home from school, they got up early so they wouldn't miss any of their snow day!  The street by our house has not even been plowed, I went out with the snowblower but didn't have anywhere to turn around.

Our chihuahua who loves snow has no where to go in this!  I tried to clear a path for the dogs, but the snow was so deep.  It is a good day to stay in and cook and paint.

I have a new cookbook with grilling recipes, but I don't think we'll be trying them today, here is a picture of our grill and picnic table:

This is the birdbath, doesn't it look like a big ice cream cone:

The back patio door is about to be completely covered by a snow drift, I need to find the roof rake and clean this off.  Unfortunately the roof rake is in the shed...the cords in the picture are for a roof heating system to reduce ice damming, but they won't help until the weather warms up and the snow starts to melt.

Cured salmon--Gravlax part 2

Today we ate the gravlax that I cured a couple of weeks ago, it was delicious!  Much better than the cold smoked salmon that we usually buy at the grocery.  The only comment that I got that might be negative was from my husband.  He said, "This isn't raw salmon, is it?"  The kids and I loved it, although we did end up eating it in a very un-scandinavian way, with bagels, cream cheese, thin sliced sweet onions, and capers!

I've had the cured salmon in the middle of my chest freezer for a couple of weeks.  According to several internet sources, it is advisable to freeze fresh salmon for at least 7 days at 10 degrees Fahrenheit to eliminate any parasites.  You can also buy frozen salmon and then you don't have to freeze it, most refrigerator freezers do not get cold enough.  Next time I would probably buy pre-frozen salmon.

Slicing the salmon was much easier because I used a very sharp boning knife and sliced it while it was slightly frozen.  I sliced it diagonally in thin slices off of the skin.