Finnish Food: Lihamakaronilaatikko

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm in Finland! 

Since I've been here, I've had the opportunity to talk to several native Finns, including a woman whose amazing cooking skills I witnessed firsthand. 

I asked this woman (We'll call her Mrs. V, since it's illegal in Finland to put people's personal information online without permission, including names) what she would say is the quintessential Finnish food that she would recommend to a foreigner.  Mrs. V said that if you go to a restaurant, the most classic dish is one from Lapland (way northern Finland, up in the Arctic Circle), and it is reindeer meat served with mashed potatoes and lingonberries (I will be trying this asap!).  But for the kinds of foods Finns eat at home, the most classic dish is "a macaroni casserole with meat and egg-milk, baked."

This bit about the macaroni casserole intrigued me, because before I came to Finland I was reading a Finnish children's book called Moominsummer Madness, which is the 4th book in the very popular Moomin series by Tove Jansson (it's also a comic strip).  The series is very uniquely illustrated, and has a beautiful flavor of childhood in a fantastical Finnish forest.  It's also really funny, in a British sort of way, but different, if that makes sense.  It's just a great series, reminiscent of Winnie the Pooh, and I will definitely be reading it to my future kids.

In Moominsummer Madness, the characters' home is flooded.  Instead of despairing, though, the young male character, Moomintroll (who is illustrated to look kind of like a hippo, as are his parents), decides to swim down into the pantry for breakfast ...with his parents' permission, of course. 

"Inside," Jansson describes, "the water was white with milk, with a few specks of loganberry jam thrown in.  A couple loaves of bread passed him slowly, followed by a school of macaroni" (24).
The image of a "school of macaroni," like fish, floating through a flooded pantry, really stuck with me.  It's just a cool image.  But I also wondered why on earth such a quintessentially Finnish book would have macaroni, an Italian noodle, featured in it.

But after talking with Mrs. V, it made sense.  The beef-and-macaroni casserole that she described (called "Lihamakaronilaatikko") is one of the most classic Finnish foods you can eat, something that the majority of native Finns eat at home regularly. 

I decided to try macaroni casserole in Finland at the first opportunity, in the spirit of the Moomin series.  I spotted it quickly during my visit to a local Prisma (which is like a super-duper Walmart -- meaning bigger and better), and bought a package.  It was just as Mrs. V described!  And it was quite good, although a tad bland.  Apparently, though, most Finns eat it with ketchup to spice it up a bit.

I looked at the ingredients carefully (after translating them to English) and then searched for a recipe for you guys.  This recipe below is almost exactly what I ate.  It's a very simple dish, and apparently a huge hit with Finnish kids who aren't big fans of strong flavors.  Try it with your kids!

It looks a little gross, but I promise that it's good!

Lihamakaronilaatikko
Adapted and adjusted to English measurements from Foodprint.eu

2 cups macaroni

6 1/4 cups water 

2 beef bouillon cubes (or equivalent as directed on packaging - about 2 tbsp.)

2/3 lb ground beef 

1 onion

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

parmesan cheese

 

"Egg-milk"                                      

3 eggs

3 cups milk 

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp white pepper 

 

Boil the macaroni in beef broth (water with bouillon cubes) until almost cooked, drain. Chop the onion into fine pieces. Add the ground beef and onion to a saucepan and allow them to brown. Season with salt and pepper. Mix the macaroni and beef together and then pour into a greased oven casserole. Mix together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and pour over the macaroni-beef mixture. Sprinkle top with parmesan cheese and add a few pats of butter on the surface. Cook at 350 F for approximately 1 hour.  Serve with ketchup

 

 Here is a bunch of Moomin paraphernalia I spotted in Prisma.  I was really excited that I knew what it was.  Obviously, that series is quite popular here.

French Flan with Sugared Almonds

Sometimes you just have to feature the classics. Today, that classic is Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, which takes place in semi-rural 19th century France.

Most of the time when I blog about food from a particular book, it means that I like the book. Not in this case. In fact, I quite detest this book.

 

*Gasp!*  A girl with an English degree who hates Madame Bovary?  How could I?

The real question is, how could I not? This story is all about an extremely selfish woman who has a great life and completely ruins it because she is greedy, envious, lustful, immature, and whiny. She is a sad excuse for a woman, and it makes me angry that she has become a pinnacle character in western literature.

Of course, the writing is beautiful, and the characterization is amazing.   But I can’t like a book when I hate the main character.

The thing with Madame Bovary, though, is that the food plays an essential role in the progression (or regression) of the title character. You see, Emma Bovary’s life falls into a negative spiral because she experiences little tastes of luxury, and wants more and more until she is incapable of being happy. Her first taste of luxuriousness was at her wedding, where her family served her and Charles (the groom) a beautiful French feast.
 

Enter French Flan. Gustave Flaubert describes it through Emma and Charles’ eyes, who have never experienced such extravagant food:
 

“Big plates of yellow custard shuddered at the slightest bump of the table; they had the initials of the newlyweds traced on their smooth surfaces in arabesques of sugared almonds” (24-25).
 

Now, flan has a bad rap here in America because of Mexican flan. Mexicans do so many foods right, but flan is not one of them. Yellow Jello? No thanks.

If you don’t know, flan is simply a thick, mostly solid custard, just like Flaubert described. But instead of using gelatin to get that consistency, the French do it the right way – with lots of eggs, and some sort of thickener. I used cornstarch, but the more historically accurate way would have been with flour. I normally would use the more historically accurate method, but I was pressed for time preparing for a sudden and long trip to Finland, and I didn’t do enough research. Sorry! For a more true-to-the-times recipe, click here.

Here is the recipe I used, below. It was thick, rich, and very luxurious.  As a side note, I chose a crustless recipe on purpose.  This is because Flaubert describes that the yellow custard "shuddered" (a.k.a. jiggled).  I didn't see this happening with a crust to hold its shape.  That's the main reason I chose this recipe.

French Flan

View original recipe at Cooking with Corinne

2 cups milk

1/2 cup liquid cream

1/2 cup granulated sugar

5 egg yolks

3 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

In a large saucepan, add first the dry ingredients starting by cornstarch and sugar. Stir to combine. Add the egg yolks and combine until you get a smooth mixture. Add the cream and the milk at the end. 

Place the saucepan on the stove, and bring the mixture to a boil over low heat while stirring constantly. Cook the mixture for about 10 minutes while keeping stirring.

Cover the bottom of a springform pan with parchment paper. Butter and flour the sides.

Pour the mixture in the pan. Reserve at least one hour in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 340°F and bake for 15 minutes.

Leave a room temperature to cold. Unstick the sides with a knife and remove the flan from the spring-form pan. Serve cold.

Before heating

Heated for 10 minutes after boiling.  See how it's thick enough to leave lines in the custard?

Baked

Confessions time: I cheated and used butter + milk instead of cream, since I didn't have any on hand.  I also didn't use a springform pan -- I just used a regular 8" round cake pan.  Even with these cheats, everything turned out fine.

For the sugared almonds tracing the couple's initials, I should have used this recipe, but again, I was in a hurry and only did cursory research.  So here's what I actually did, below.  I also used almond slices instead of whole almonds, which I later crushed to make them easier to work with.

Sugared Almonds

View original recipe here

• 1 cup whole blanched almonds
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Heat almonds, sugar and butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until almonds are toasted and sugar is a golden brown, about 15 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Spread on aluminum foil; sprinkle with salt. Cool and break into clusters.

 

I kind of botched my sugared almonds by letting them cook too long. As soon as they barely start turning brown, get them off the burner! They’ll keep cooking (and quickly) even after you remove it from the heat).

 

When I should have removed it from the heat.  See how it's just barely starting to get brown on some of the sides?

When I actually removed it from the heat.  It got here in about 1 minute.  It cooks fast!

sugared almonds, cooled and crushed

I crushed my almonds with a rolling pin once they were cool and used the crumbs to monogram Charles and Emma Bovary’s initials onto the custard, as described. The sugar will start to dissolve on the damp custard, so you have to be very careful not to mess up. Either that or create a stencil, which is what I should have done.

 

 

I ate the E first, because I dislike Emma so much and think she ruins everything she’s a part of.  But the flan tasted fabulous!

Chocolate Cake

Aaaaaand we’re back!  Julie is home from Denmark and I (Mary) am on summer break, which means we have time to reignite the foodie flame! 

It’s been way too long, but we’re going to come in strong with a bunch of new posts.  I have a bunch of books to read for my MFA program this summer, and that means a bunch of food to cook from them!

I’m going to start out with a classic dessert: Chocolate Cake.  But don’t turn away just yet!  Everyone who tried this recipe told me it was the best chocolate cake they’ve ever had.  It’s moist, but light, and chocolatey, but not cloying. 

I found chocolate cake in a New York Times bestselling Young Adult novel, Divergent, by Veronica Roth.

  

Riding the Hunger Games wave (more like tsunami), Roth's book takes place in a dystopian society with the people segregated by a controlling government.  But this is not a Hunger Games rip off – it’s actually a great book in its own right, and if you aren't a fan of the gore of Hunger Games, this is a good way to get a thrilling YA without so much blood and guts.  The 3rd book in the trilogy, Allegiant, comes out this October, and the Divergent movie comes out in 2014.

16-year-old Tris Prior lives in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the city is divided into 5 factions to prevent government corruption: Abnegation (for the those who believe that selflessness is the solution to corruption), Candor (for those who believe telling the truth would solve everything, Amity (for those who find kindness to be the panacea for the world), Erudite (for those who value learning and knowledge), and Dauntless (for those who value bravery as the fix).

Tris switches from Abnegation, where everyone eats really plain food because eating food that tastes good is considered self-indulgent and therefore non-abnegation, to Dauntless.  At Dauntless headquarters, Tris marvels at all the flavorful food she has never tried before.  The food she repeatedly dwells on is chocolate cake.  This is probably due to her mother’s recommendation, who tells Tris: “‘Have a piece of chocolate cake for me, all right?  The chocolate.  It’s delicious’” (Roth 187)

As I was reading the book, I was wondering what chocolate cake might taste like to someone who has never had it before.  I decided to make it to help me ponder over it. Because, you know, chocolate helps you ponder.

Confession: I normally make chocolate cake from a box.  Gasp!  I know, scandalous.  But it’s the only thing I bake from a box – I’m a total food snob** about everything else.  And lately I’ve been cooking a lot of made-from-scratch cakes, so I am going to be kicking that boxed cake mix habit to the curb.  This was a decision I made after eating this 100% homemade chocolate cake.

Chocolate Cake

Recipe from RealSimple.com

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into pieces, plus more for the pans

2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Heat oven to 350º F. Butter two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each with a round of parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter and 1 cup water and bring to a boil (the butter will melt). Add to the flour mixture and, using an electric mixer, mix until combined. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the sour cream and vanilla.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Transfer one of the cakes to a platter and spread with ¾ cup of the frosting. Top with the remaining cake and spread with the remaining frosting.

Flour/cocoa mixture.  You could sift it, but I didn't and it was lump-free.

boiling water and butter

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

1 1/2 pounds (24 ounces) semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks), at room temperature

Melt the chocolate in a medium bowl set over (but not in) a saucepan of simmering water, stirring often, until melted. Let cool to room temperature (do not let it solidify).  [Note: I just heated the chocolate chips in a glass bowl for 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each heating, until they were melted.  Whenever I do the double boiler method explained above, I end up getting a tiny splash of water in the chocolate to seize and become useless.  It's infuriating!  The microwave is foolproof for me]

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy. With the mixer running, slowly add the chocolate and beat until combined and smooth

Chocolate almost completely melted, before letting it cool and adding it to the butter

There you have it!  It was so completely delicious.  I will be making chocolate cake using this recipe from now on.  I love how simple yet delicious it is!

**Side note: While some people may think it’s bad to be a food snob, they never complain when I make stuff from scratch with real ingredients.  Basically, being a food snob is a good thing.  And because I’m a food snob, you should know that when I say a recipe is good, it’s truly good.