Finland's traditional food culture has left a deep imprint on people's lives. At the same time, Finns are blessed with a natural environment that allows them to enjoy fresh, unpolluted natural food from fields, forests, lakes and seas. The modern view of food trends emphasizes purity and health, and traditional Finnish cooking is particularly in line with this trend.

In an authentic Finnish meal, the protagonist is always brown bread.

Brown bread is just a colloquial name, and the scientific name should be called bran bread, or whole wheat bread. Because the raw material is not all refined flour, but mixed with bran such as the cortex, germ, aleurone layer and a small amount of endosperm that are milled off during the grinding process, it is more nutritious than refined flour bread.

Although black bread is a staple on the Russian table, and at first glance it looks like a Chinese sorghum noodle nest, the texture and taste are completely different.

This home-baked bread is as common in Finland as it is, and bread made with rye is especially popular and is a staple food in homes and even in military camps, and the Finns call themselves the "Kingdom of Brown Bread".

In fact, brown bread can be roughly divided into two types, one is fermented by yeast and the other is fermented with bread baking powder. Therefore, one is very hard to eat and suitable for bread sauce, which is the black bread that Russians like, while Finnish black bread is softer, and the surface of the bread is generally coated with buckwheat husk, wheat kernels, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, plant seeds, etc., to increase the flavor and taste.

Mix and mix the coarsely ground rye flour and wheat flour and dig a hole in the center. Add the dough, wrap the dough in a clean towel, leave in a warm place for 20 minutes, add the remaining warm water, yeast and salt, mix the dough for 20 minutes, shape the dough into the desired shape, and let it sit for another 1 hour. Then place it in the oven, remember to grease the bottom of the pan and bake it over medium heat for about 1 and a half hours to avoid the bottom and crust of the bread from being baked. The dough can be wrapped in Chinese cabbage leaves. Then put some appetizing and spleen-strengthening grass seeds into the kneaded flour and bake for 20 minutes, then slowly turn off the heat, and the hot bread can be eaten with butter and honey.

This rye-fermented ring bread with a hole in the middle is very soft when baked. In the past, this thin, flat bread was passed through the middle with a stick and hung under the beams of the farmhouse. It can be stored for a long time. Brown bagels with a special lactic fermentation aroma are known for their thinness and crispiness. It is a very popular export food. It is popular among the inhabitants of the southwestern coastal islands to make a dark brown malt bread with a sweet and sour taste and a booze aroma that gets better the more you chew it. It is famous "island bread".

Pure cereal bread is also a very popular healthy food in Finland. There are many varieties of bread made entirely from corn, oats and other grains, and they are constantly changing shapes and seasonings, with many new varieties appearing from time to time. Finns are convinced that rye bread and pure cereal bread are "the best foods to keep you healthy and smart". Ancient traditions, village crafts and locally grown grains characterize Finnish bread culture, which has survived to this day.

After lunch, Batisian provided a venue for Sikong Yao and Ta Jasmine to have a cooking duel, even though it was in her own house, but all the utensils and ingredients needed for baking desserts were available.

Sikong Yao asked with interest, "Ta Jasmine, what kind of dessert will you make?" ”

Tajasmine smiled: "I want to make a dessert that Finns are proud of, Karelian pie." ”

Sikong Yao pondered for a moment, and couldn't think of any plan to deal with it for a while, so he chose to wait and see, and said with a smile: "Okay, then I'll look at the desserts you make first, okay?" ”

Ta Jasmine nodded, since it was only a friendly match, there was no need to take it too seriously.

This specialty, called Karelian pie, originates from the Karelian region of eastern Finland, and the Karelian people are one of the oldest tribes in Finland and retain the most authentic Finnish folk customs, so Karelian pie is also considered to be the most national food snack in Finland, and enjoys a status in Finland like Chinese dumplings.

Whenever there is an important event or a major holiday, Finns make this food for guests. The first time I ate this pie was at the ambassador's Christmas lunch, and my colleagues called it the sole of the shoe, which is much more than its real name, because of the shape of the pie that we often see every day.

The difference is that the authentic Karelian pie has an oval crust made from Finland's famous black barley wheat, which is filled with mashed potatoes or rice, which is cooked in milk to taste much more mellow than ordinary rice, and then folded around the crust to make it in a small tray and wrapped in the middle and then baked in the oven. To eat, spread a sauce made with hard-boiled egg yolks, butter and other Finns' favourite foods, and sprinkle your favorite toppings on top of the cake to fill the flavor.

Karelian pies are so popular in Finland that they are available in many supermarkets at affordable prices, making them a must-have food for every household and an indispensable part of the table.

It's simple, but it's amazing how much Finns value and love Karelian pies!

Although the pie may seem like nothing more than a "big roasted wheat wrapped in rice", a variation of "bread" or "rice", it has a very high place in the Finn heart. For any important occasion or time, as long as the Finns eat, as long as they think that the meal has a great meaning, Karelian pie must be missing.

Karelia gave birth to Finnish culture, but during World War II, the "Winter War" and the "Ongoing War" between Finland and Russia led to the great migration of people half a century earlier, which gave Karelian culture an important opportunity to spread throughout Finland.

However, with the passage of the war and the style of the map plates, Karelia is no longer a part of Finland and has forever become a memory of the past in the hearts of the Finns.

Before Karelia was annexed to Russia, during the period when Finland was at war with Russia, many Finns living in Karelia fled to the north. From Karelia in the south to various parts of northern Finland, there has been one of the largest migrations in Finland's modern and contemporary history. At that time, most of the children who lost their parents to the war were adopted by Swedish families, so much so that now Finns are closer to Sweden and disgusted with Russia.

Although tolerance and forgiveness are virtues, forgiveness does not mean forgetting the past.

Just as the Japanese always complain that "the Chinese are holding on to the tail of history." But what nation or country in this world can really forget the pain of history? And what nation or country that has been trampled on and trampled on can spit out a "it's okay" in a dashing posture and indifferently, and then, as if nothing had happened.

So when Ta Jasmine was making Karelian pies, the kind of emotion poured into it, Sikong Yao could feel it more or less.

When a food expresses the feelings of the whole nation and the sorrow of history, it is far from being as simple as ordinary food......

Once the food is poured into the chef's affection, it will change in essence, and Sikong Yao can feel that Ta Jasmine's attainment in desserts is definitely not low.

But despite this, it is still certain that the craftsmanship of Tajasmine has recognized the deliciousness of Karelian pies.

Pour the low-gluten flour into the basin, add salt, stir well and add water to know that the flour can be kneaded into a ball, repeatedly knead until it is smooth, put it back into the basin, cover it with a damp cloth, stand at room temperature for 15 minutes and take it out, knead it into a long column, cut it evenly, and roll it into a round sheet with a diameter of about 5 cm.

Sprinkle some dry flour on the rolled dough sheet to prevent sticking, cover it with a damp cloth, let it stand, wait for the milk porridge to be ready, put the washed rice into a thick-bottomed soup pot, add salt and water, and cook on high heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until the rice absorbs enough water, turn to medium-low heat, during which you should keep stirring to prevent the bottom from sticking.

Pour the beaten egg mixture into the milk rice porridge and stir quickly with a blender while pouring it, and the cooked rice porridge is the filling filling.

Take a slice of pie dough, add about two tablespoons of rice porridge, squeeze out the lotus leaf-shaped indentation with your fingers, it looks a bit like the folds on the lid of beer that has been squeezed into an oval shape, after the oven is preheated to 220 degrees Celsius, put the pie in the middle layer of the oven, bake for ten minutes, take it out, brush with a thin layer of melted butter, put it in the oven again, and continue to bake for five minutes.

While it is a traditional way to mix hard-boiled eggs with butter and spread them on Karelian pies, Tajasmine uses butter to stir-fry tender eggs on top of the pies.

The Finns love the food culture of game and whole grains, so that the Karelian pie brings a strong special flavor, Sikong Yao tasted one, the roasted rice porridge was already cooked very viscous, after heating, it has a thick feeling like jam, and the seasoning of milk gives it a smooth taste, giving people a wonderful enjoyment.

The buttered eggs sprinkled on top of the Karelian pie also add just the right amount of flavor to the pie, and the tender mayonnaise falls on the rice porridge, and the thick warmth ripples in the mouth until it reaches the depths of the human heart. (To be continued......)