Carelian Pies are one of my favorite things to eat. In fact most of the 10 lbs (!) I've gained this year in Finland can likely be attributed to them. Joel would probably also say that Carelian Pies with "egg butter" are at the top of his list of Finnish likes. Basically they are a rice (or potato) patty which I think of as a different sort of bread i.e. you can eat it with any toppings you might put on an (open faced) sandwich. I love them with Kalle's Kaviar, a salty Swedish roe paste which you can actually find at IKEAs around the world. Sometimes I have Carelian Pies with cold cuts and/or cheese or even just pickles. I also love to eat them in my Carelian Stew (a beef/pork stew) to soak up the delicious juices using them as a potato substitute.
To me Carelian Pies are childhood comfort food. My father's father's side of the family is from Carelia. Carelia is the south eastern part of Finland lost to Russia during WWII; an area that Carelians had to abondon with very little warning (my uncle's mom had 15 minutes to leave her house) and were never able to return to. My grandfather's family had relocated to small mining town called Outokumpu in eastern province now called "North Carelia" from Carelia proper already before WWII. I spent a lot of my childhood visiting my grandparents and got spoiled by my grandmother with regional dishes and baking. She would bake carelian pies for me almost every morning. I happily gobbled them down and had no idea they are actually somewhat labor intensive to make.
I remember my grandma rolling out the wheat-rye mix dough, using a drinking glass to cut out circles, using another special tapered rolling pin to form the circles into oblong cigar shape pieces and then placing rice porridge or mashed potatoes in the middle of the dough. She'd then quickly fold the edges to make the distinct Carelian Pie pattern and stick them in the oven. When they were done my grandfather would brush them or even dip them in melted butter. As a little kid my favorite part of the process was the clean up: grandma would sweep the flour off the table using a traditional tool, her trusty rabbit foot (yes, a real furry dried up rabbit foot!)
Carelian Pies are a staple snack in most coffee shops. Usually they are served with "munavoi" i.e. "egg butter" which is chopped boiled eggs (and salt) mixed in butter. The delicious combination is best served heated up a bit. Nowadays you can also buy industrial bakery Carelian Pies in all the grocery stores. One of the major grocery chains sells them for 25 cents a piece. They sell all kinds of new variants, for example with mashed carrot or barley filling, but I'm old school and prefer the tradition rice porridge (riisipiirakka) or mashed potato (perunapiirakka).
Back in California we'd managed to find a home bakery, run by an Indian lady whose friend taught her how to make all kinds of Finnish treats, that sells Carelian Pies: they cost 2 dollars each! At that price, we order them only as a special treat for Christmas. I really should make them myself... That never seems to happen but luckily we may have a new "source": our middle schooler learned how to make them in his home economics class at school here in Finland. Meanwhile, while we're still in Finland and I can buy 8 Carelian Pies at the Finnish grocery store for the price of one Californian Carelian Pie, I'll continue to enjoy them daily.
Comentarios