Karjalanpiirakat – Karelian pies

It's The VegHog's 100^th blog post and time to celebrate with an old family recipe, a traditional Finnish dish and one of my all time favourites: Karelian pies. These are pasties with a thin rye crust and a rice filling that is similar to salty pudding rice. Karelian pies are normally eaten as a snack between meals but they are extremely filling. Quite often butter or egg butter mix specifically made for the pasties is spread on them. I have tried them with cheese or soft cheese as well and they were very good but just plain butter is the winner for me personally.

The pasties are quite hard work and making them requires patience but it's very rewarding in the end, so please don't be intimidated by the work load. My grandmother always used to make loads of these pies and I loved it. She taught me how to make them and gave me her recipe (I've altered it here slightly so I'm not giving away family secrets). Unfortunately I can't make them as well as she did but it's nice to try anyway! Please try them and tell me what you think!

For the rye crust:

3 dl wheat flour

2 dl rye flour

2-3 dl lukewarm water and milk mix

1 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Melted butter for brushing

For the rice filling:

3 dl pudding rice

4 dl milk

2 tsp salt

Butter or margarine

Water for boiling

Start by making the rice for the filling as it takes a while. First boil the rice in double the volume of water until all the water is absorbed. Then add the butter, salt and milk and let it simmer under the lid at low heat until the rice is tender and a firm porridge is produced. Add more milk during the simmering if needed. Stir often and ideally use a heavy non-stick cast iron pot as the porridge likes to burn easily on the bottom. The simmering stage takes about 45-60 minutes. Let the porridge cool down before filling the crusts.

Then make the dough for the crust. First mix the dry ingredients and then add the lukewarm milk and water mix and the oil and knead. You can make the fluid more milky or more watery depending on your taste. Add more fluid or flour if needed. Knead a firm dough, which will be a little bit similar to a pizza dough. Let it rise under a tea towel for about one hour.

Then take small portions of the dough and roll it out thinly with a rolling pin. Cut the dough into small (about 15 cm long) slightly oval circles. You can use a lid or a bowl of suitable size as cutting help.

Take about two table spoons of the porridge and spread it to the middle by leaving about 2 cm edges without filling. Then make the distinct wavy closing (see photos). Fold the edges over and pinch them starting from the middle and moving towards the ends.

Bake the pies at 225C for about 15-20 minutes until the crust is baked and they are nicely browned. Brush them with melted butter.

They can be served instantly or saved for later. They can be eaten cold as well but I think they are nicest when freshly baked.

Thanks for staying hungry for 100 posts and hopefully many more will follow!

Your VegHog

Fondant potato, cheese and onion pasties

The VegHog has taken its own approach to pasties as well. This is quite a quick dish to make and brilliant to eat even cold the next day, maybe take it with you as breakfast or lunch. The Hog loves to take one with it for long walks in the nature.

Pasties are basically tasty with almost any vegetable filling but I'm going to make these with potato, cheese and onion filling only. My other favourites include just plain cheese and onion or mushroom and pepper filled pasties. I use ready puff pastry sheets form the shop but if you want, you can make the dough yourself.

The twist The VegHog puts in, is to use fondant potatoes. If you haven't made fondant potatoes before I really recommend you to try. They make a great side to many dishes and are very flavoursome in these pasties. Here you can find a good fondant potato recipe.

However I make the fondant potatoes slightly differently for this dish. This is how it goes Hog style: 

New potatoes are the best for this purpose! Dice the potatoes in small cubes, fry them in butter until slightly brown and bake them in the oven swimming in stock and thyme. I don't add any other seasoning as stock gives them the necessary edge.

Chop onions, grate cheese and mix these in a bowl. Later, add the fondant potatoes to this mix when they are cooled down a little.

You can make the pasties any shapes and sizes! Cut appropriate sized slices of the puff pastry: take into account that the easiest way is to use one slice of pastry that you fold over the filling. Place the filling on the pastry, brush the edges with egg and shape the pasty the way you want by folding the top over. Press the edges firmly together with a fork so that pasty will stay nice and closed during baking. You can make any kinds of imprints on the top with a knife or baking utensils, the Hog just made a simple grid on them. Brush also the outside with an egg and maybe throw some sesame seeds on the top.

Then bake in the oven at approximately 180 C until pastry is golden brown and puffy.

Done!