This is a bonus recipe, and it's also from my childhood like the others. My mother used to call this 'a big meatball' and at the time it sounded funny, something a child loves. I've made this dish with many variations, with different stuffings or wrapped in bacon, but this one is the basic meatloaf recipe without any specialties.

(Stuffed with mushrooms, spinach and blue cheese)

 

Meatloaf

Ingredients:

400g ground beef

1 onion

(butter)

1dl sour cream

1/2 dl breadcrumbs

1 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp curry

1/2 tsp allspice

1 egg

 

How to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 225C.

2. Mix the sour cream with the breadcrumbs in a bowl and let the crumbs swell for 10 minutes.

3. Chop the onion (you can sweat them with butter in a frying pan, but it's not necessary - if you do that, put the paprika and the curry on the pan also to open up the flavors).

4. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and mix well.

5. Taste. If you don't want to taste the raw paste, you can take a little bit of it and fry it on a pan. Season after tasting if necessary.

6. Form a log-shaped meatloaf into a buttered baking dish. (Here is the time to fill it with any kind of stuffing, if you want to. You can try for example boiled eggs / mushrooms and onions / tomatoes and basil with blue cheese, etc.).

7. Cook in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes.

8. Let the meatloaf rest for 10 minutes.

 

Serve with mashed potatoes, warm vegetables and fresh green salad.

 

(Meatloaf stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes, picled cucumbers and blue cheese)

 

This is my favourite one of these. Even though I never make it, it's nice to have it sometimes for dessert - it brings me so many memories. For an interesting oddity, the Finnish pancake is, to my knowledge, the only pancake in the world which is not circular but a square.

 

Finnish pancake

Ingredients:

2 eggs

8 dl milk

1 tsp baking powder

4 dl wheat flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

50g butter (melted)

 

How to do:

1. Preheat oven to 200-225C.

2. Whisk the eggs with the milk in a large bowl.

3. Combine the dry ingredients (baking powder, flour, sugar, salt) in another large bowl.

4. Whisk the egg-milk into the dry mixture.

5. Add the melted (not too hot) butter.

6. Pour the dough into a baking tray, which you have covered with greaseproof paper.

7. Bake the pancake in the bottom of the oven for 30-35 minutes, but keep an eye on it - you don't want it to burn!

8. Let it cool down for a few minutes and then cut it in large pieces.

The pancake should be about 1cm thick and soft in the middle.

This is traditionally served with whipped cream and strawberry jam.

You can also serve it with ice cream, honey, vanilla sauce, maple syrup, berries, etc. (just use your imagination - Yummy!).

This one is also from my childhood - not something I'd do nowadays for a dinner, although it's a nice memory. As a child it was one of my favourites, but now it has come down quite a bit. This is still the most popular food in Finland, according to children at least.

 

Macaroni casserole with ground beef

Ingredients:

400g macaroni

400g ground beef

1-2 onions

1-2 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp curry

1 tsp black (or white) pepper

3 eggs

7 dl milk

butter

 

How to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C.

2. Cook the macaroni for 7-8 minutes (until al dente) in salted water, drain.

3. Chop the onions.

4. Fry the ground beef with the onions, season with curry, paprika, salt and black pepper.

5. Transfer the macaroni and ground beef into a buttered baking dish and mix carefully.

6. Mix the eggs with milk in a bowl, season with salt, then pour over the mixed macaroni and ground beef.

7. Bake uncovered in the oven at 175C for 1,5h. (After 1 hour you can lower the heat to 150C.)

8. Let the casserole stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with ketchup and salad.

 

This is my first recipe and also my very first blog text in English. So let's begin.

I'm an adult student in Turku Vocational Institute, on the Hotel, Restaurant, and Catering Services, Cook's study programme, and I'm going to be a professional in the kitchen some day, or at least I hope so...

Now we have to write three recipes in English as an exercise, and they should be written as blog texts - that's why I'm writing them here. The biggest problem is choosing the recipes. There's so many options and I'm that kind of a person who can't decide anything, so I looked back to my childhood and chose a few of my favorites of that time.

 

HASH - PYTTIPANNU

Every now and then we had some leftovers from boiled potatoes and then my mother made this dish. Simple and tasty - even though it's not so healthy. Classic Finnish dish.

Ingredients:

boiled potatoes

onions

sausage, ham or any kind of meat

salt and pepper

butter

egg (one for each)

How to do:

1. Peel and chop the onions, peel and cube the potatoes and sausage/ham.

2. Heat the frying pan over medium-high heat, add butter and fry the potatoes, onions and sausage/ham.

3. When the colour is nice and brown, taste and season with salt and pepper and pour to a warm plate.

4. Put more heat to the pan and fry the egg quickly only from one side, season and slide the egg onto the hash.

Serve with ketchup and pickled cucumber.