Fish and traditional Finnish food

Today I was supposed to go with my sister and her husband to check the fishing net, but it had been snowing heavily and was still snowing in the morning. I decided not to go and the amount of snow would have been too much for Piitu anyway.

The hole had to be opened first



Here is the catch, three whitefish and one perch.



The satisfied fisherman. As you can see the weather is very blurry. It was about noon and the time when the sun was up.



Later I went to my sister's house to bake. Hannu had already earlier baked two rye breads. Rye is the favourite ingredient in Finnish bread and these are traditional Savonian sourdough breads. The mother dough is originally from the same bread Hannu's mother did for many, many years.



Before baking I got a piece of Kalakukko, also a traditional Savonian food, fish in a rye cover. Delicious!



We baked Karelian pies. My grandmother was from Karelia and I remember numerous times she made them when I was a child. These are a bit different, Savonia and Karelia have their own habits. Nowadays these pies are eaten everywhere in Finland; probably because the Karelians were evacuated from the regions Russia invaded and they were spread all over Finland. My grandparents came to Finland Proper where Turku is also located.

Hannu has made the dough earlier and Tuula the rice porridge which is now cold. Here Hannu is dividing the dough in suitable pieces. The rolling pin is on the background. It is different from the ones we use otherwise. Hannu has made this himself.



The dough is rolled thin as a paper and the rice porridge is spread on it.



The cover is "wrinkled"



Here they are before putting them in the oven.



Here they are after some time in a very hot oven.



And here is the first one I ate. The yellow stuff on the pie is eggbutter (hard boiled eggs in butter or margarine)



Now I have fish in my refrigerator waiting for me to fry them on the pan and some pies to go with them. Delicious!