Get a Taste of the Finnish Life

Check out these native recipes from Finland.

ByABC News via logo
March 13, 2009, 10:57 AM

March 13, 2009— -- You don't have to cross the seas to get a taste of Finland. Check out some of these traditional Finnish recipes, which Diane Sawyer tried on her BIG trip to Lapland.

Glow-fried Arctic char served with sour cream, trout roe, chives and dill. Grilled rye bread.

Ingredients

1 fillet of Arctic char

8.5 fluid ounces whipped sour cream

1 ounce chopped red onions

1 ounce trout roe

chopped dill and chives chives

salt and pepper and chopped fresh thyme

Dircetions:
Nail the fish into a wooden plank using wooden nails skin side down.

Place the fish near the fire, at a distance where the heat would not burn your hand. Keep cooking the fish nice and slowly and turn the plank every now and then.

Make the sauce by whipping the sour cream. Then add the roe, onion and herbs. Mix well and season with salt and pepper.

Grilled roast of reindeer served with morel mushroom sauce and winter root vegetables wrapped into a paper

Ingredients

Roast of reindeer

1.7 ounces diced onion

3.5 ounces chopped morel musrooms

8.5 fluid ounces double cream

knob of butter to fry

salt and pepper

Dircetions:
Season the roast with salt and pepper and grill by the fire about 2 hours.

Try to not put the roast too close to the fire to avoid too much heat. If you have a thermometer, the roast is ready when it reaches a temperature of 56 C. Let the meat rest inside the tin foil about ½ hour before carving it.

Make the sauce by frying the onions and mushrooms in butter and then add the cream. Reduce the sauce a little and season with salt and pepper.

Take some old newspaper and cut the pages in half and make them wet by be dipping theminto water. You now need some silicon paper to start making little nests forthe root vegetables (swede, potato, parsnip an celeriac will do).

Lay 4 sheets of wet newspaper on a table and put a sheet of silicon paper on the top. Then put the vegetables in the middle and season with salt, pepper, dark syrup and fresh thyme.

Add a knob of butter on the top and make little bags using a piece of leek to tie the bags. Lay them into the fire and keep an eye on them so they don't set fire.

Lappish cheese served with double cream, cloudberry berry jam and cloudberries

Ingredients

4 pieces Lappish cheese

3.4 fluid ounces whipping cream

1 tablespoon of cloudberry jam

fresh cloudberries to serve

Dircetions:
Heat the cream in a frying pan then add the cheese and jam.

Let them cook a bit (cheese will get very soft if you over cook it) so that the cream and jam will make a nice reduced sauce. Serve the cheese and sauce with some fresh cloudberries.