Finnish Bread

Sour rye bread has been an important part of Finnish diet for a long time, but making a good rye bread at home isn’t easy. Maybe we should have a good wood oven instead of our regular electric oven. Or maybe our sour dough starter wasn’t good enough. Who knows.

Another popular grain has been barley, and barley breads are easier to make at home. We borrowed Jaakko Kolmonen’s book about breads around Finland called “Suomen maakunta leivät”. From the book I found a recipe for Rievä, which is a barley bread originally around Tampere. It’s soft and porous and best eaten fresh. It was also easy to make.

Rievä

5 dl lukewarm water
25 g yeast
1 tsp salt
200 g wheat flour
300 g barley flour

Dissolve the yeast and salt to the water. Add wheat flour and stir until well mixed. Add the barley flour and stir for a while. Sprinkle flour on top of the dough. Cover with a towel and allow to rice about 30 minutes. The dough is very soft and it won’t double in size like usual bread doughs.

Sprinkle flour on table and take the dough out from the bowl. Make sure your hands are well floured, so the dough won’t stick on them. Divide the dough in two pieces. Knead the dough balls with the flour until it’s easier to handle. Make two round breads and pat them relatively flat. Cover with towel and allow to rise 30 minutes. Poke few holes with a fork. Bake 30-35 minutes in 250 Celsius degrees.

Cabbage Casserole

Here’s one more casserole recipe. Many people make their cabbage casseroles with rice, but in my opinion barley is better with cabbage. Grains can also be left out if you prefer only soy and cabbage. Light textured soy protein has a nutty taste, which goes well with cabbage, but dark is almost as good. You can also add couple of desilitres sauerkraut to the casserole.

Cabbage Casserole

1 dl barley (or rice) + water for boiling
1,5 kg cabbage
3 tbsp oil
1,5 dl textured soy protein + water for soaking
1 tsp each salt, black pepper, marjoram and lovage
1 onion
3 dl water or vegetable broth
margarine

Boil the barley according the instructions on the package. Roughly chop the cabbage. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a big pan and sauté the cabbage until soft. Mix textured soy protein with salt, pepper, marjoram and lovage and add enough hot water to cover it. Soak until soft. Chop the onion. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp oil in a pan and sauté onion and soy until the onion is soft and translucent (5-10 minutes). Stir in barley. Add more salt or other spices if needed.  Grease a dish with margarine. Put a layer of cabbage in it, next half of the soy and barley mixture, more cabbage, rest of the soy and barley and finally cabbage on top. Pour in the water and put some margarine on top. Bake in 175 Celsius degrees about an hour.

Casseroles Are Autumn Food

I have noticed, that when the weather turns colder and days get darker I want to eat casseroles and soups. Today we made a casserole using things we had at home. It was quite nice, especially with hot sauce. But I think diced bell pepper, garlic and maybe olives could have made it better.

Edit: We had a lot of leftovers, and I added bell pepper and pickled cucumber before reheating. They made the casserole better, and I’ve added them to the recipe too.

Barley and Lentil Casserole

1,5 l water + 1 tsp salt
2,5 dl broken barley
2,5 dl green lentils
1 parsnip (150-200g)
1 onion
1 small bell pepper
1 pickled cucumber (2 small)
100g chopped nettle or frozen spinach
3 dl oat or soy milk
salt an pepper
1 tsp marjoram
0,5 tsp thyme
0,5 tsp lovage
1 tsp paprika

Bring the water to boil, add salt, barley and lentils, simmer covered on low heat for 20-25 minutes and drain. Peel and grate the parsnip, chop the onion, dice the bell pepper and pickled cucumber. Mix barley, lentils, parsnip, onion, bell pepper, pickle and nettle/spinach in a oven proof dish. Mix oat milk and spices in a bowl and pour on other ingredients. Stir, cover with lid or aluminium foil and bake 30-40 minutes in 200 Celsius degrees.

Simple and Good

We still have quite a lot of preserved vegetables from last autumn. There’s no need to hurry with the dried goods, but the frozen and pickled stuff should be eaten before next autumn. We needed to make an easy meal from the things we had in our pantry and ended up with this stew. You could use fresh chard and kohlrabi instead of dried and frozen, but then you may need to add them few minutes before adding the beans. In the picture the stew is served with Sriracha, garden cress, black currant jam and sauerkraut.

Barley, Lentil and Bean Stew

2,5 dl barley
vegetable broth or salted water for boiling

2-3 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin
0,5 tsp caraway seeds
0,5 tsp ground coriander
0,5 tsp brown mustard seeds
3 onions
3 garlic cloves
1 heaping tsp grated ginger
7 dl water
1 dl dried chard, thin and about 3 cm long pieces
2 dl green lentils
4 dl cooked (or canned) white beans
1 dl corn kernels
1,5 dl kohlrabi cubes or strips

Optional: Sriracha or other hot sauce for serving

Cook the barley according to the instructions on the package.

Meanwhile prepare the other ingredients. Chop the onions coarsely and slice or mince the garlic. Heat the oil in a pot and fry cumin, caraway seeds, coriander and mustard seeds 30 seconds. Add onion, garlic and ginger and sauté until onions are soft and translucent. Add the water, lentils and dried chard. Bring to boil and simmer 15 minutes. Add more water if needed. Add beans, corn and kohlrabi and simmer about 5 minutes. When the lentils are soft but not mushy, add cooked barley. Let sit couple of minutes and serve with or without hot sauce.

I Won!

I participated in a competition at Chocochili nearly a month ago. Everyone had to tell what is the hardest thing in vegan cooking or baking, then the blog hostess Elina chose the answers she thought were best and picked a random winner among them. And I was the lucky winner! I won a silicone loaf pan and 12 silicone muffin cups and they arrived last Thursday. I didn’t have time to bake on weekend, but today I made a bread in my new loaf pan.

Barley Bread

3 dl water
25 g yeast
1 tsp sugar
0,5 tsp salt
1,5 dl sunflower seeds
1 dl rolled oats
2 dl barley flour
1 dl graham flour
1 dl wheat flour

2 dl barley flour
1 dl graham flour
1 dl wheat flour
0,25 dl oil

Mix water, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl and stir until dissolved. Add sunflower seeds, oats, 2 dl barley flour, 1 dl graham flour and 1 dl wheat flour and stir well. Cover with a towel and proof 15-30 minutes. When the dough is foamy add the rest of the flours and knead. Add the oil in the end of kneading. Cover again and let rise until doubled. Punch down and form a loaf with your hands. Put in a loaf pan and let rise 15-30 minutes more. Bake about 35 minutes in 200 Celsius degrees.

Barletto

I’m not sure if barletto is a real word, but I use it for a dish that is like risotto, but made of barley instead of rice. I try to avoid cooking with rice for environmental reasons, and barley is usually a great alternative. Sometimes it’s even better. Today I made some barletto with Jerusalem artichokes and served it with soy cutlets and grated carrots.

Jerusalem Artichoke Barletto

1 tbsp margarine
1 tbsp oil
2-3 shallots
1 garlic clove
3 dl broken barley
1 dl dry white wine
about 12 dl vegetable broth (or water)
2-3 dl Jerusalem artichoke cubes
1 tsp basil*
2 tsp parsley*
(freshly ground) black pepper
salt if needed

Chop the shallots and mince garlic. Heat the oil and margarine in a pot. When the margarine is melted, add shallots and fry for a minute or two. Then add the garlic and fry one more minute. Next put the barley to the pot and fry few minutes, constantly stirring. Add the wine and cook on low or medium heat, stirring often, until the wine’s been absorbed. Add 1 dl broth and again cook, stirring often, until it’s been absorbed. Keep adding 1-2 dl broth, stirring often and adding more when the previous broth’s been mostly absorbed. When you’ve added about half of the broth, add the Jerusalem artichoke cubes, basil and parsley. Continue adding the broth until the barley and Jerusalem artichokes are soft. Barletto should be moist, but not wet. Add more broth if it looks dry and cook a little longer if it looks wet. Season with freshly ground pepper and taste. Add salt if needed.

*Fresh herbs are always better than the dry ones, so if you have fresh basil and parsley, use 1 tbsp basil and 2 tbsp parsley and add them to barletto at the same time with the salt and pepper.