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.

Rice Porridge

Porridge making couldn’t be easier. Just mix everything and keep in the oven until it’s ready to eat. Porridge that is made in the oven is different from the one that is cooked on the stove, but I wouldn’t say either of them is better than the other. Rice porridge can be served with berry soup, but I prefer mine with sugar and cinnamon.

Baked Porridge

margarine
1 l soy milk
2 dl porridge rice or broken barley
0,5 tsp salt

Grease an oven proof dish with margarine. Mix milk, rice and salt in the dish and bake in 175 Celsius degrees for 1,5 hours.

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.

Wednesday Night Paella

I have never been to Spain or eaten real Spanish paella, so I have no idea how authentic this is. Anyway, tonight I made paella based on this recipe and what we happened to have at home. I used mixture of porridge rice (about 1 dl) and risotto rice (about 2,5 dl) because that’s what we had in our pantry, but I’m sure any other rice will be just as good. Pinch of saffron would have been nice too, and maybe orange or lemon cubes/wedges. Don’t stir your paella too well, or you won’t get a nice crust in the bottom of the pan. However, if your worried about burning your paella and don’t mind about lack of crust, you can stir as much as you feel like.

Vegan Paella

1 large onion
4 tbsp oil
3,5 dl (risotto) rice
1,3 l water
mushroom or vegetable bouillon cube
3 tbsp tomato puré
1 tsp each: dried basil, oregano and chervil
0,5 tsp lovage
2 garlic cloves
florets of 1 broccoli
3 celery stalks
handful of dried porcini or other mushrooms
4-5 dl frozen peas
salt and pepper

Chop the onion. Heat the oil in a large pan and sauté the onion for few minutes. Add tomato puré and rice and mix well. Add water, crumbled bouillon cube, herbs and sliced garlic cloves. Simmer about 15 minutes, don’t stir. Meanwhile break the broccoli into small florets, chop the celery stalks and soak the mushrooms in hot water. Add them to the pan, stir a little, but try not to stir from the bottom. Simmer 30 minutes. Add peas, salt and pepper and stir, but not from the bottom of the pan. Heat thoroughly and serve with or without olives.

Deep Frying

Who doesn’t love greasy, crispy and unhealthy food? Like these rice balls.

The same batters can be used for deep frying other things too, like cauliflower florets (boil 3-4 minutes before deep frying) or onion rings. The recipe makes huge pile of rice balls, so make only one batter if you’re only making some deep fried vegetables for a side dish.

In the picture the rice balls are served with stir fried vegetables and soy curls and coconut milk, but tofu is great too.

Deep Fried Rice Balls

Rice balls:
7 dl water
salt
4 dl porridge rice

Flour mixture:
wheat flour
salt
white pepper

Basic batter:
1,25 dl wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt and white pepper
1 tsp turmeric
0,5 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
2 dl sparkling mineral water

Curry flavoured batter:
1,25 dl wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2,5 tsp vindaloo curry powder
2 dl sparkling mineral water

Cook the rice first. Bring the water to boil, add salt and rice. Simmer 20 minutes on low heat. Let cool until you can easily handle it. Form balls with wet hands, about 3 cm diameter is good.

Heat the oil in a pot and make the batters meanwhile. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add mineral water and whisk together.

Put about 1 dl wheat flour into a soup bowl and season with salt and pepper. Coat the rice balls with flour mix and then coat them with batter. Deep fry the balls in batches, about 5 balls at time is good, but that depends on size of your pot and balls. Put the balls into hot oil and fry several minutes, stir few times during the frying so the balls will fry on each side. When the balls are golden brown, remove them from the oil with slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel.

Kappa Maki And Other Sushi

Today I made my first sushi. I had eaten sushi once in my omnivorous times, and it had fish in it. Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner’s Contemporary and Traditional Japanese Cooking: Simple, Delicious and Vegan had good sushi rice instructions, which I used. The book said it the amount of rice serves 6-12 people, and I thought half of it would be a dinner for two + some leftovers for lunch next day. I was wrong, we had so much sushi that it looked like we were having a Japan themed party. I guess we’re eating sushi the rest of the week.

Making the sushi was easier than I thought and it was fun. I made kappa maki (cucumber maki) and other maki rolls. I don’t know if the other rolls have Japanese names or do they eat that kind of combinations in Japan, but they were good. I served them with wasabi and Kikkoman shoyu.Leftt: avocado and toasted sesame seed maki. Middle: wasabi, toasted sesame seed and bell pepper maki. Right: avocado, cucumber and toasted sesame seed maki.

Left: wasabi, cucumber and bell pepper maki. Right: carrot (cooked with little bit of water, soy sauce and mirin) and toasted sesame seed maki.

Left: avocado, cucumber and bell pepper maki. Right: kappa maki.

Sushi Rice

1l rice
1l water
1 dl sugar
2 dl sushi vinegar
1 tbsp mirin
1,5 tbsp sea salt

10 nori sheets

Put the rice to a large pot. Fill the pot with cold water, stir with your hands and pour off the water. Repeat until the water is fairly clear. Pour 1l water to the pot and soak the rice at least 30 minutes. Put the lid on (don’t remove it while cooking) and turn the heat to high. When water starts to boil, turn the heat to medium and cook 5 minutes. Turn the heat low and cook 5-10 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the rice sit 5-10 minutes.

Combine sugar, vinegar, mirin and salt in a pot, bring to boil and let cool. Stir the rice with a big spoon or spatula and add some vinegar at the same time. If the rice stops absorbing the liquid, don’t add more. Choose the fillings you want to use and prepare them: cut all the vegetables to thin sticks, deseed the cucumber, toast the sesame seeds etc.

Finally, make the maki rolls. I followed Isa and Terry’s instructions.