Tag: karjalan piirakas

Finnish Comfort Food — Karjalanpiirakka

M's Adventures

Comfort food is, thankfully, different in every place one calls home.

The Finns love their “karjalanpiirakka” or rice pudding filled rye pasties. I think of them as small lifeboats of yum. “Karjala” is a part of Finland and “piirakka” is “pie/pasty/dumpling.” The result is a mild buttery eggy rye taste.

Like all comfort foods, there is a different recipe for every grandma and the preparation and eating rituals lead to stories filled with nostalgia and memory.

If you have a Finn who can share their recipe with you, then go with that. Otherwise, look it up online. If you want to watch a video version of this article, please go to my YouTube channel.

This Finnish dish may not be exciting but I love it. I love the chewy rye, the buttery egg, and the creamy rice pudding. But it also reminds me of my childhood, and nothing is as delicious as food that reminds you of the comfort of a happy place.

The Finnish Holiday Fair

M's Adventures

Every year for the last 40 (at least), the Finnish society here in the DC area, Kipinäkerho, now called Finn Spark, has put on a holiday market. It is always held in Bethesda, Maryland, at a church in the woods (Finland has a lot of woods).

Finnish prune star pastry.

There is food to buy and food to eat there. I went to buy the Karelian pies and cardamom milk bread, pulla, (like challah) and the gingerbread… almost everything was sold out by noon. Those Finns get up early!

Rye flour “dumplings” which are served with egg butter (eggs mashed with butter).
A gingerbread house that sits on a cup or glass.

I also bought rye bread. Finnish rye bread is made from a mother yeast extracted from the air. This is not strong yeast so the bread is mild and flat. And dense. I recall chewing quite hard as a kid to eat this bread. Now as an adult, I love it even more because of the memories it brings me.

Memories are often the thing that makes a food delicious. Nostalgia is a strong ingredient.

Knitwear and Finnish American.
More stuff for sale.

There were also other things for sale, but I was less interested in those. They were giving away free cookbooks so I took one of those. Maybe I will try a recipe. But more likely, I will wait till next year to get more gingerbread. Or I can go into Mikko’s cafe in Dupont.

Traditional woven birch bark shoes.

All five of the Nordic countries have holiday markets in the fall. I will have to catch them all next year.

Stroller parking. Yes, this is a Finnish event.