Recipes for different Karelian pasties
Created | Updated Dec 2, 2002
These pasties (also known as pirogues) come from the province of Karelia, which is now divided in half by the Finnish-Russian border. The Karelian evacuees took their recipes with them and now these pasties are eaten all over Finland. They are very traditional food, and these recipes are only one version of making them.
Karelian Rice Pasty
This is the most common version of different Karelian pasties
Filling
This should me made in beforehand, since it takes a while until it has cooled down. On the other hand, if your local store sells ready-made, unsweetened rice porridge (or boiled pudding, as some would call it), you can use that and save couple of hours
Ingredients
- 2 dl water
- 1.5 dl rice, suitable for porridge
- 5 dl milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
Bring the water to a boil, pour in the rice and stir. Cook until the water has been absorbed by the rice. Add milk and keep stirring until it boils. Lower the heat and let the porridge simmer (remember to stir occasionally, so you don't burn the milk) until the rice is done. This should take about 45 minutes. The porridge should be quite thick. Mix in the salt and let the porridge cool down.
Crust
Ingredients
- 2 dl cold water
- 1.5 teaspoon salt
- 3.5 dl rye flour
- 1.5 dl plain flour
Mix all the ingredients. For best results, don't use any machines; the dough is done when it no longer sticks to your hands (you may need do adjust the amount of plain flour).
Divide the dough in about 15 parts, roll them in small buns and flatten them a bit. Cover with plastic so they won't dry up.
Making the pasties
Preheat the oven to 300°C
For the final touch, take
- 1 dl milk
- 50 g butter
Use a rolling pin and roll the buns into thin, round plates, 15-17 cm in diameter. Place two tablespoons of rice porridge on the plate.
Turn the edges over the porridge and "wrinkle" them with your fingers.
Bake the pirogues on a cookie sheet (you may want to use non-stick paper on the sheet) for 15-20 minutes. The porridge is supposed to get a bit color, but don't let the crust burn.
While baking, boil the milk and butter together and as soon as the pirogues are out of the oven brush them, BOTH SIDES, with the milk/butter-mix. Stack the pirogues and let them cool down under a non-stick paper and a kitchen-towel.
Share and enjoy!
Mix some butter with one or two hard-boiled, chopped eggs, and serve it to the re-heated Karelian pirogues.
Potato pasty
Replace porridge with mashed potatoes.
Lingonberry Pasty or Rönttönen
For lingon pasty you can use the same crust as for rice pasties, just change the filling to following
Lingonberry filling
- 300 g boiled potatoes
- 3/4 dl rye flour
- 1 dl mashed lingonberries
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- Hint of salt
Mash the potatoes and mix everything together.
Leave the mixture in warm place for 2-3 hours to let it sweeten.
Make pasties just like you would do with rice filling.
Blueberry pasties or Mustikkakukko
Once again use the same crust as for rice pasties.
Blueberry filling
- 5 dl Blueberries
- c. 1/2 dl Wheat flour
- sugar according to your own taste
Mash the blueberries and add flour to absorb the excess fluid.
Make pasties and enjoy. Warm blueberry pasty isn't too bad with vanilla ice-cream.
