Potato And Rice Pies

Vatruska is a Karelian small pie with potato crust and rice or semolina filling. This was my first attempt to make them, and I think it went well. The recipe is veganized from Pirkko Sallinen-Gimpl’s cook book Karjalainen keittokirja.

Vatruskas

dough:
1 kg floury potatoes
water for boiling
pinch of salt
1 dl soy or oat milk
2 dl wheat flour + more for baking

filling:
3 dl rice
6 dl water
salt
2 tbsp margarine

melted margarine for brushing

Boil the potatoes. Peel and mash them. You can also peel and half them before boiling. Allow to cool a bit and add the rest of the ingredients. You should have a dough that is sticky, but can be handled.

Filling: Bring the water to boil, add salt and cook the rice in it until it has absorbed all the water (15-20 minutes usually). Stir in the margarine.

Pat the dough into about 15 cm circles, use flour generously to avoid sticking. Put some rice on one half of the circle and fold the other half on it. Bake 10-15 minutes in 300 Celsius degrees. Brush with melted margarine and cover with towel until served. They’re best when they’re still warm.

Rutabaga Pie From Karelia

Kukko is a rooster in Finnish, but it’s also a certain type of pie, typical for eastern parts of Finland, Savo and Karelia. The crust is made of rye or combination of rye and wheat, and the dough can be sour or not. Most famous is kalakukko, which is filled with fish. Other common fillings are meat, rutabaga and potatoes, but even rutabaga kukko usually contains meat.

I wanted to try to make vegan rutabaga kukko. I combined four or five recipes I found and made some changes to make it vegan. The result was very good, and I think I’ll make more kukkos with different fillings in future.

Rutabaga Kukko

1 kg rutabaga
about 2 dl water
salt
1 tbsp uncooked rice
margarine

dough:
4 dl rye flour
4 dl wheat flour
1 tsp salt
3 dl water

Peel the rutabagas, cut them in four or six wedges and slice thinly. Put them, water and some salt to a pot and simmer until rutabagas are half done. Drain

Mix the dough ingredients in a bowl. Roll into a circle or oval, edges can be thinner. Sprinkle the rice in the center of the circle/oval, it will absorb all the extra moisture. Put some rutabaga slices on the dough, sprinkle with salt and put few dollops of margarine on top. Continue until you have all the rutabagas on the dough. Put more margarine dollops on top. Fold the edges of the dough on top of the pie. Close tightly, water and gentle rubbing will help.

Bake in 200 Celsius degrees 1-1,5 hours. Brush with mixture of melted margarine and water. Wrap in greaseproof paper and then wrap in a towel. You can then either wrap it in a blanket or put back to oven if it has cooled to 100 or less degrees. Keep wrapped at least couple of hours, but over night is good too. This simmering part is important, it makes the crust softer and enhances the flavours of the filling.

Serve with margarine.

Meatless Meat Pie

Many countries have their own meat pies and so does Finland. Here in Finland you can find two types of meat pies: smaller that are made with yeast dough and they’re deep fried (this type is sold in stores and grill kiosks) and bigger are made with puff pastry and baked in oven (usually home made meat pies are this type). Veganizing a meat pie would be easy with textured soy protein, but I like to use mushrooms instead, I learnt this from my granny. Many years ago I was visiting my grandparents and my granny had made meat pie and similar mushroom pie. I can’t remember if she made it because I was already vegetarian or because mushroom pie tastes good. Anyway, the pie was great and she said that she had used the same recipe for both pies, but used chopped milk-caps instead of ground meat in the mushroom pie.

Meat pies are often made with eggs and/or dairy, so substituting meat with mushrooms doesn’t turn it automatically vegan. But here’s one recipe for vegan “meat pie”, a.k.a. mushroom pie. I usually plan making it beforehand, so I can make mashed potatoes or rice for dinner and use the leftovers to make the pie.

Mushroom pie

Potato Dough:
300 g potatoes (4-5) or leftover mashed potatoes
250 g margarine
6 dl wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder

Or use 1-2 packages store bought puff pastry

Filling:
about 5 dl boiled milk-caps (1-1,2 l fresh)
or whatever mushrooms you have
1,5 dl rice (porridge or risotto rice is better than long rice) or barley
3 dl water
2 tbsp oil
2 onions
2 garlic cloves
salt, white pepper
herbs, for example parsley and chervil
1 dl oat or soy cream

Optional: ketchup, mustard, Chopped pickles (or cucumber relish) and chopped onion for serving.

Make the dough firs. Boil the potatoes and peel them. Mash the potatoes and add about 0,5 dl water to get a smooth paste. If the potatoes are still hot, let them cool a bit. In a bowl rub the margarine, flour and baking powder together with your hands until crumbly. Add mashed potatoes and mix well, don’t knead. Add a little water if you can’t form a nice dough ball. Refrigerate while you make the filling.

Cook the rice. Chop the onion and mince the garlic. Chop the mushrooms. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute onions and garlic until soft. If you use mushrooms that don’t need to be boiled before eating, saute them in the pan with the onions. Add the chopped milk-caps to the pan at the end of the sauteing process. Mix all the filling ingredients together.

Take a piece of parchment paper that is as big as your baking sheet. Divide the dough in two equal sized balls and roll one of them on the parchment paper. Spread the filling on it, but leave about 1,5 cm edges without filling. Roll the other dough ball into same size rectangle and put it on top of the filling. I like to roll it on another piece of parchment paper, because then it’s easier to move it without breaking it. Close the edges with a fork and poke some holes on the pie. Brush the surface with cold water and bake 30-40(?) minutes in 200 Celsius degrees.

P.S. Have you seen the list of all the mofoers? Check here.

Cabbage Quiche

Recently I found out that what I’ve been calling a pie is actually a quiche. In Finnish we have only one word that means both of them and pie was the only English word I knew. If I’d had to define “pie” I would have said it has crust on the bottom and filling on top and occasionally it has crust on top too. But I also found out is that pies don’t necessarily even have crust in the bottom! I’m not sure if I have understood all the names that you English speaking people have for pies and things like that. Like can quiche be sweet? And what’s the difference between flan and quiche?

Then about today’s recipe. It’s been published in this Finnish blog that I’ve been reading for a while. She makes beautiful cakes and other baked goods. Most of the recipes are useless, since she nearly always uses gelatin or meat, but this cabbage quiche recipe was easy to veganize. It was delicious too, I strongly recommend trying it.

Georgian Cabbage Quiche

crust:
100g margarine + little more for greasing the dish
1 dl whole wheat or rye flour
2 dl wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp water

filling:
500g cabbage
1,5 dl water
1 big onion
1 pickled cucumber
2 garlic cloves
0,75 dl tomato purée
2 dl oat cream
2 tbsp apple vinegar
2 tsp marjoram
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder (ours was extra hot and I used less than half tsp)
1 tsp paprika
pinch of black pepper

Start with the filling. Cut the cabbage into strips and put them into a pot with water. Bring to boil and simmer 15 minutes, stir occasionally. Make the crust while your cabbage is simmering. Crumble margarine, both flours and baking powder with your hand in a bowl. Add the water and mix together. Grease a dish and spread the dough in it. Bake 10 minutes in 200 Celsius degrees.

Chop the onion and add it to the pot when cabbage has been simmering 15 minutes. Simmer 5 more minutes. Dice the pickle and mince the garlic cloves. Mix all the filling ingredients in the pot and spread on the prebaked crust. Bake 30-40 minutes more or until it looks like ready to eat.

Gluten free option: Use gluten free flour or this crust recipe. Use soy cream in the filling if your oat cream is not gluten free.

Forest Mushrooms

Me and my sisters were visiting our mum this weekend and on Saturday we all went to forest to pick mushrooms. It hadn’t been raining lately, so many mushrooms were too dry, but we still got a nice loot. We picked a big basket full of mixed mushrooms, mostly gypsy mushrooms, rufous milk-caps and other milk-caps.

The big basket wasn’t big enough. Luckily we had a smaller basket too.

We also found fairly good amount of funnel chanterelles. 8 litres or so.

We were all very hungry when we came back from the forest and we made bean and vegetable curry for lunch. When we had our stomachs full, we started working with the mushrooms. We decided to dehydrate all the funnel chanterelles, salt the milk caps and eat the rest. When we had filled two dehydrators (my mum has one and I had brought mine with me) with mushrooms and cleaned and cut in smaller pieces one third of other mushrooms I went to kitchen to boil the milk-caps and bake us a mushroom pie. Meanwhile my sisters cleaned the rest of the mushrooms. I didn’t measure everything and I don’t know how long I baked the pie, but here’s the recipe anyway. Our pie was made of mixed mushrooms, but you can use only one variety too.



Mushroom Pie

crust:
100g margarine + little more to grease the dish
1 dl graham flour
2 dl wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cold water

filling:
1,5 l musrooms
2 tbsp margarine or oil
1 small/medium onion, chopped
2 dl oat (or soy) cream
pinch of salt and white pepper

Make the crust first. Put the margarine, graham and wheat flour and baking powder into a bowl and crumble with your hand. Add enough water to form a dough, mix well but don’t knead. Grease a pie dish and spread the dough in it. Prebake in 200 Celsius degrees for 10 minutes.

Put the mushrooms into a large pan and heat until the liquid comes out from the mushrooms. You can either discard the liquid or continue heating until it’s evaporated. Add the margarine, let it melt and add the chopped onion. Fry until the onion is soft and translucent. Add oat cram and season with salt and pepper. Spread the filling on the prebaked crust and bake until the surface has nice brown colour (20-30 minutes maybe?). Let cool a little before serving.

The dried funnel chanterelles fitted in 6 glass jars, so each of us got 2 jars. Our mum didn’t get any, because she can’t eat mushrooms. But she did pick some inedible mushrooms for her, because she uses them to dye wool yarn.

Cooking for Allergic People

I was invited to a class mate’s surprice birthday party. It was a potluck party and I promised to bring a savoury dish, but making something that everyone can eat wasn’t so easy. For example gluten, yeast and nuts were forbidden and it had to be something that wasn’t too weird for omnis. Luckily soy was allowed and I started to think of a pie with tofu based filling. I made a practice pie couple of days earlier with tofu, bell pepper, carrot and celery and realiced it was very similar to a cottage cheese pie that I had made quite a few times in my past. The taste of celery was too strong and I substituted it with leek and used more bell pepper in the final product. I guess the omnis liked my pie, since everyone took second or third slice.

Tofu, Leek and Bell Pepper Pie

Crust
125g margarine
1 dl rolled oats*
1 dl soy flour
1,5 dl potato flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp water
margarine for greasing the dish
sesame seeds or gluten free bread crumbs (optional)

Filling
250g tofu
1 tsp dill
1 tsp parsley
2 tsp basil
0,5-1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp apple vinegar
1 garlic clove
1 small red bell pepper
10 cm piece of leek
2 tbsp potato flour
2,5 dl soy milk
2 tbsp oil

Mix the margarine, soy flour, rolled oats, potato flour and baking powder with your hands until it’s crumbly. Add water and mix. Greace a pie dish (25-27 cm diameter) and sprinkle with sesame seeds or bread crumbs if you want to make sure the crust doesn’t stick to the dish. Spread the dough to the dish with your hands and bake in 225 celsius degrees 8-10 minutes.

Meanwhile crumble the tofu to a bowl with your hand. Add herbs, salt, pepper and vinegar and cumble until it’s quite smooth. Cube the bell pepper, chop the leek and mince the garlic and add them and the potato flour to the tofu mixture and mix well. Last stir in soy milk and oil. Spread the filling on the prebaked crust and bake 25-30 minutes more.

*Some coeliacs can eat only “clean” oats that are not processed at the same place as wheat and other grains that include gluten.

Cabbage Deliciousness

Cabbage pie tastes good and it’s super cheap to make. With salad it makes a nice light meal and leftovers are easy lunch next day. If you want to make a pie as big as a baking sheet, double the recipe.

Cabbage Pie

Filling:

1 onion
1 shallot
2 tbsp oil
2l shredded cabbage
1 tbsp molasses or brown sugar
1 tsp marjoram
0,5 tsp thyme
2 tsp parsley
0,5 tsp freshly ground black pepper
0,5-1 tsp salt

Dough:

2,5 dl water
25 g yeast
2 tsp molasses or sugar
pinch of salt
1 dl rye flour
2 dl whole wheat flour
4-5 dl wheat flour
1 tbsp oil

Brushing:

cold water

Start with the filling. Chop the onion and shallot coarsely. Heat the oil in a large pan (wok is good) or pot and sauté the onion and shallot couple of minutes. Add shredded cabbage, cover with lid and simmer until the cabbage is soft. Stir now and then.

While the cabbage is simmering, put the lukewarm water, yeast, molasses and salt into a bowl. Stir until yeast is dissolved. Add rye flour, whole wheat flour and about 3 dl wheat flour. Mix well and start to knead. Add more flour while you knead and in when you’re nearly done, knead the oil in. Cover with tovel and let rise until doubled.

Season the softened cabbage with molasses, herbs, salt and pepper. Punch down the dough and divide in two parts, one should be slightly bigger than the other. Take the bigger piece of dough and roll out about 25 cm x 35 cm rectangle. Spread the cabbage filling on it, but leave a 2-3 cm border of dough on each side. Roll out the smaller piece of douhg to a rectangle that is same size as the filling and cover the pie with it. Turn the edges of bottom dough on the edges and on top of the upper dough. Secure with fork. You may need brush some water between the doughs to make them stick well. Brush the pie with water and make few holes with fork. Bake about half an hour in 200 celsius degrees.

Mushroom Pie Goes Tex-Mex

What to do with tons of mushrooms? When you already have grilled them, made pizza, pasta, salad and are really getting bored of them? Pie, of course, everyone loves pies! They are easy to make, taste good and they are great for lunch next day at work. This time I wanted to something different instead of regular mushroom-onion-cream filling. So I added some heat to it, but not too much, I wanted to be able to taste the mushrooms through the heat. If you prefer hotter pie, use medium or hot salsa and lots of jalapeño. You can also add fresh chili or chili powder to the spice list.

Mushroom pie with heat

Crust:

100 g margarine
2 dl wheat flour
1 dl graham flour
1 tsp baking powder, mixed with flour
2-3 tbsp cold water

Filling:

3 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
0,5 tsp paprika
2 onions, including the green parts
2-3 garlic cloves
3 dl grated zucchini
5 big white mushrooms, sliced, julienned or diced
300 g mild salsa
jalapeño slices

Make the crust first. Mix margarine, flours and baking powder with your hands until it gets crumbly. Add little bit of water to make a dough. Greace a pie dish (diameter about 25cm) and spread the dough to it. Bake 10 minutes in 225 Celsius degrees.

Chop or slice the onions and garlic. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the spices and fry about a minute. Add onions and garlic and mix well. Add grated zucchini and sliced mushrooms. Simmer until the exess moisture is evaporated and add the salsa.

Apply the filling on the pre-baked pie crust. Put some jalapeño slices on top. Bake half an hour. Let the pie cool a bit before eating, the flavour is better when it’s not hot anymore.