I visit Finland every few months, for about a week at a time. Once the jet lag has been slept off, one of the first things to do is to go to a supermarket and stock up on the ready meals I hold dear: liver casserole, liver sausage from the meat company HK and its lenkki (the ring of mild sausage every Finn grows up on), meat pasties, spinach pancakes and Yosa, a pudding of fermented oats (at which the younger of my little brothers pulls a face).
What little free time these trips leave flashes by in seeing family and friends. There is some irony in the fact that at these gatherings lately the food on the table has, without fail, been Indian in spirit. My impression is that Indian grub is the prevailing megatrend in Finland, one that may yet rise to threaten the hegemony of the pizza-kebab joint and the lenkki sausage.
As the blog Mitä söin tänään ("What I ate today"), which commendably dissects the restaurant life of Helsinki and the rest of Eastern Europe, found when it put the matter to the test, even Sir Olavi, a fair-and-square people's restaurant near my workplace in the Pikku-Huopalahti district of Helsinki, has a better command of vindaloo than of läskisoosi, the brown gravy of fatty pork. (I read somewhere that vindaloo is an import in India as well, for the Portuguese took their own meat in wine vinegar and garlic to Goa, and vindaloo is a corruption of its name.) The sad part is perhaps mainly that places serving traditional Finnish food are a vanishing natural resource (do tell if you know of good ones around Helsinki). For me, by a clear margin, the best restaurant experience of the year in Finland was chancing upon a traditional buffet lunch at an anonymous camp centre somewhere near Lake Tuusula.
But while I lived in Finland I naturally cooked Indian food often myself. In the spirit of the vegetarian theme at the blog Pastanjauhantaa, here come two dishes I make often, and a raita to go with them.
The quick chickpea stew is made from two tins, an onion and spices. I add the garam masala only just before serving, so that its fragrance has no time to boil away. The stew can also be made in a slightly more involved and very much better version, with spinach and pumpkin. The trick of that one is whole coriander seeds, coarsely ground just before use. Ready-ground coriander will not do, because it loses its flavour easily. The seeds taste faintly of bitter orange and are nothing at all like fresh coriander (cilantro). The dish is very pretty in colour, with the pumpkin orange, the chickpeas yellow, the tomato red and the flecks of spinach green. It should not be stirred too much.
When I lived in Helsinki I would sometimes fetch a couple of freshly baked naan breads from the nearest Nepalese restaurant to go with these chickpea dishes. Naan can probably be had from grocery shops these days, but the open-minded will try Lapin rieska, the soft flatbread of Lapland, in its place, or some other flat, pliable, unleavened bread. With warm naan it is worth making a date, apple and raisin raita as well. The dates are sticky, so they are best snipped up with scissors.
Recipe card
Quick Chickpea Stew
- Serves 2
- Simmering 10-15 min
You will need
| 1 tin (400 g) | chickpeas |
| a couple of tbsp | cooking oil |
| 1 | onion |
| 1 ml | (one Finnish spice measure) cayenne pepper or Rajah extra hot chilli powder |
| 1 tsp | turmeric |
| 1 tin (400 g) | crushed tomatoes |
| 1 tbsp | garam masala |
Method
- Fry the onion in the oil until golden brown.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, the chilli and the turmeric. Stir and fry for a moment.
- Add the drained and rinsed chickpeas. Simmer on the hob for 10-15 minutes.
- Add the garam masala just before serving.
- Dish up on plates. If you like, serve boiled basmati rice on the side.
Recipe card
Spinach, Pumpkin and Chickpea Curry
- Serves 4
- Simmering 15 min + a quarter of an hour
You will need
| 3 tbsp | cooking oil |
| 1 | small onion, finely chopped |
| 2 | cloves of garlic, sliced |
| about 5 cm | piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped |
| 2 tsp | whole coriander seeds, coarsely ground just before use (do not use ready-ground coriander, it loses its flavour easily and this spice is the whole point of the dish) |
| 1/2 tsp | cumin (jeera) |
| 1/2 tsp | turmeric |
| 1/4 tsp | cinnamon |
| 1 | vegetable stock cube + 300 ml water |
| 1 tin (400 g) | crushed tomatoes |
| 2 tsp | hot curry paste, e.g. Rajah's Hot Curry Paste (S-market shops in Finland) |
| 300-500 g | orange or yellow pumpkin, peeled and cut into bite-sized cubes (swede or turnip will do instead) |
| 1 tin (400 g) | chickpeas |
| 250 g | frozen spinach |
| salt and black pepper |
Method
- Fry the onion, garlic, ginger and spices in the cooking oil in a sauté pan, or some other very roomy pan with high sides, for about five minutes.
- Add the stock cube, the water and the crushed tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes.
- In a separate non-stick pan, toast the curry paste in a small amount of oil for a minute or so. Add the pumpkin pieces and turn them in the curry paste until they soften a little, about 5 minutes.
- Move the pumpkin pieces and the drained chickpeas into the tomato mixture and simmer for another quarter of an hour.
- Thaw the frozen spinach in the microwave, drain off any water and stir the spinach into the dish just before serving. Do not stir too much!
- Serve at once, either as it is or with basmati rice.
Recipe card
Date, Apple and Raisin Raita
You will need
| 100 ml | plain yoghurt |
| 1 | green apple, peeled and diced |
| about 10 | fresh dates |
| 2-3 tbsp | golden raisins |
| salt and freshly ground black pepper |
Method
- Dig the stones out of the dates and snip the dates into small shreds with scissors (they are sticky, which is why scissors are the best tool).
- Mix the other ingredients into the dates and the yoghurt, season with salt and pepper, and stir.
7 comments
Jee, kikherneitä! Pitääpä ottaa nekin tässä lähiaikoina ohjelmaan. 🙂
Veli tappaa mut heti kun näkee että bloggaan kikherneistä...
Niitä voi työläästi itsekin idätellä ja liotella, mutta kysymys on sellaisesta läträämisestä että olen onnellinen että niitä saa halvalla tölkiss
Taas sivistyksen parissa! 10 paivaa ja yota 35-45 asteisessa outbackissa ilman ilmastointia ja taivasalla nukkuminen kavi vahan voimille, mut oli ainakin erilainen matkakokemus. Itse asiassa pidan nykyisin tsiksibiineista, ei oo montakaan paivaa ku laitettiin niita nuotiolla jossain muhennoksessa. Olisko ollu osa kengurupyttipannua. Nyt on nalka, joten pitaa lahtea metsastaan jotain kivaa Mod Oz -safkaa tai sit vaan shitload halpaa sushia lahijapanilaisesta. Joks sanoin et Sydney rokkaa 🙂
Yo veli,
Juutuit kivikaudelle? En pysty kuvittelemaan sua ilman ilmastointia.
Isä IM:?? myös just sulle terveiset: se lähtee ma klo 10 Seutulasta DC:hen, joten ei pääse valitettavasti sua vastaan, mutta on huojentunut et oot vielä yhtenä kappaleena.
BTW, Peter Elk tunkee Chryssen kohta kontiin ja se esitti erityistoiveenaan viimeistä autollista ateriaa Cracker Barrelissä Jerseyssä. Haute cuisine, kato.
ZZ
Kikherneet ovat kavereita. Samoin Rajahin currytahna (etenkin sitä mietoa palaa meidän keittiössämme paljon, paljon). Kauhukseni kuitenkin totesin, että lähikaupan valikoimaa on uusittu ja ko. brandin tahnat ovat kadonneet. Iik! Hyvät neuvot ovat nyt tarpeen: mahtaisiko joku muu valmistaa mahdollisimman samanlaista, mausteista mutta ei tulisen stydiä currytahnaa? Ja vielä mielellään iloisen keltaista, niinkuin Rajah on...
Niin, ja unohtui: koska sankarimatkailijamme on Australian maaperällä, kannattaa ehdottomasti tsekata Gourmet Gardenin maustetahnat. Joku vuosi sitten testasin ne Sydneyssä ja menetin sydämeni. Voi kunpa niitä saisi Suomestakin...
Paola, Rajah-globalisaatio ei ole yltänyt meidän lähimarketiin, Fairwayhin, mutta ainakin Patak's-merkkiset tuotteet maistuvat ihan päteviltä.
Mulla on muuten reilun puolen tusinan setti vanhoja Rajah-maustepurkkeja (jeera, kurkuma, garam masala, tandoori-mauste, inkivääri, eri pippureita jne) jostain 90-luvun alusta. Niissä on niin kauniit fontit ja toisiinsa sointuvat murretut maustevärit (etiketit rumenivat sen jälkeen), että raahasin ne tänne Amerikkaankin, vaikka voin tunnustaa etten ole tainnut käyttää niitä täällä kertaakaan. Jos ja kun ostan uudet mausteet elähtäneiden tilalle, taidan edelleen säilyttää kauniit purkit. Niiden taakse on sitäpaitsi painettu kivoja reseptejä.
Hei veli, tuo kaikkia kivoja hyvin säilyviä aussituliaisia, etenkin tuollaisia yummyja maustetahnoja - tuun maaliskuussa testaamaan ne.