Karelian pie

If someone asks from Finnish people, what is the most traditional and iconic Finnish food, I bet most of the answers would be "Karelian pies". These are rice porridge filled rye pasties, eaten with Egg Butter or butter, -and they are amazing. Nowadays people doesn't bake these at home so often than few decades ago, because more or less every store sell these. The quality of the pies varies a lot in stores, but still many think these are way too challenging to make by themselves. I know quite many people who haven't even tried to do these, not even once.

I can't brag about my skills either, since this was the first time for me too. But anyhow, I think I can still give some compliments to myself, because these pies turned out to be pretty nice looking. Or what do you think? The taste is usually easy to get right, but the looks... Oh dear, that's the hard part. Everyone has their own handwriting, and there is even saying in Finland about shape of these pies compared to bakers privates... But I'm not go to that... :D

Karelian Pie
24 pcs
For the crust
1 ½ dl of water
1 tbsp canola oil
3/4 tsp salt
3 dl rye flour
1 dl all-purpose flour
For the filling
2 ½ dl of water
2 dl uncooked rice 
7 ½ dl milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
For brushing
Melted butter and milk

Prepare the filling first. Stir rice into boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Add the milk and let the porridge simmer for 30 minutes. Leave the filling, lid on, for 10 minutes. Season with salt and let it cool. Stir the egg in the cooled porridge.

For the crust: Mix cold water, oil, salt and flours with a wooden spoon. Knead the dough until smooth and solid. Sprinkle on the table rye and wheat flour mixture and pour the dough onto the flour. Shape the dough into a log and cut into 24 portions and shape each into a round. On a lightly floured board, roll out each round into a 10-12 cm circle.

Spread filling evenly on each round. Fold two opposite edges of the pastry over the filling and crimp the edges of the dough toward the center to make an oval-shaped pastry, allowing about 1 cm of the crust to overlay the filling and leaving the center of the filling exposed.

Slide the pies on the prepared baking sheet and bake the pies 275 C for about 10-15 minutes.
In a small bowl, stir together the melted butter and hot milk and brush on the pastries. Pile the pies in a bowl and cover with parchment paper and cloth.
Serve with butter or preferably with Egg Butter

Sushi or Kimbap? Which I made?

Sushi is very familiar to most of the people nowadays, and korean food starts to be. I have eaten sushi many times in Korea, but as many, I have eaten kimbap. And they are both so delicious there. Unfortunately I have never had a change to eat sushi, or anything, in Japan, but hopefully that will change soon. I like them both, and today I couldn't choose which I wanted more, so I made seaweed rolls inspired by both of them.

But what is difference between sushi and kimbap? They are both basically rolls of rice wrapped in a sheet of nori seaweed.

The only rule for kimbap seems to be that it be some kind of rice wrapped in seaweed. The rice is usually steamed medium grain white rice, but it can also contain other types of rice.The rice is usually flavored with salt and sesame oil. The one rule for sushi rolls is that the rice itself is flavored with rice vinegar, salt and sugar. The term sushi itself refers to this vinegar-flavored rice. If the rice is not flavored with that vinegar mix, it's not considered to be sushi even if it's wrapped up in nori.

I made sushi rice but I wrapped very kimbapy ingredients in seaweed. So I really can't tell you which one I had...

Seaweed Rolls
for 2 persons
Sushi rice
2 sheets of gim (=nori)
1 small carrot pickled
1 thin omelette
5 cm piece cucumber cut in stripes
wasabi to taste

Place a sheet of gim on a bamboo mat with the shiny side down. Evenly spread half of the sushi rice over top of it, leaving about 2-3 cm uncovered on upper side of the gim.
Place wasabi, pickled carrot, omelette stripesand cucumber in the center of the rice.
Roll the mat (along with gim and rice) over the fillings.

***

Sushi Rice
250 g sushi rice
330 ml water
Seasoning
30 ml rice wine vineger
35 g sugar
5 g salt

Rinse the rice in a strainer or colander until the water runs clear, 3-4 times. Combine with water in a pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Remove heat and let it stay 25-30 minutes. Do not open the lid.
In a small saucepan, combine the rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Cool, then stir into the cooked rice slowly. Do not crush the rice but stir it very gently. Keep stirring and the rice will dry as it cools.
If you are not use rice immediately, let it stay in room temperature, covered with wet cloth.

Pickled carrots
1 small carrot
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
½ tbsp sugar
½ salt

Peel carrot and cut it "julienne".
Mix all other ingredients together. Stir until sgar and salt are totally dissolved. Add carrot sticks and let them marinade at least an hour.

Thin omelette
2 small eggs
salt

Crack eggs in a bowl and add salt. Beat it with fork.
Drizzle a few drops of oil on a heated pan. Wipe off the excess with a paper towel so only a thin sheen of oil remains. Turn down the heat to low and pour the egg mixture into the pan. Spread it into a large circle so it fills the pan.When the bottom of the egg is cooked, flip it over. Remove from the heat and let it cook slowly in the hot pan for about 5 minutes, with the ultimate goal of keeping the egg as yellow as possible, and not brown.
Cut it into 1 cm wide strips.