Cuisine

Hidden European Foods: Lapland

If it looks like a Viking episode or like a Christmas movie, don’t worry, it is, but definitely not only! Welcome to Lapland and to Finnish cuisine!

Lapland’s cuisine can be considered a mix between the haute cuisine and the traditional one with the contemporary continental style cooking. Fish like salmon and herring and meat, above all beef, pork or reindeer, play definitely a prominent role in some regions. Is it common to smoke almost every type of fish (above all herrings among the Swedish-speaking population). Mushrooms and fresh vegetables are also typical.

The dishes of the Finnish cuisine are usually served with a rye, barley and oats-based bakery products and berries like cloudberries, lingonberries or the suea buckthorn. Also, buttermilk is very common. The Karelian pasty (karjalanpiirakka) is one of the most traditional Finnish dishes and it is made from a thin rye crust with a filling of rice and butter (usually mixed with boiled egg) is spread over. Pies prepared with wild bilberries are typical Finnish desserts; for Easter, it is traditional to make the mämmi, a dessert made of rye flour, malted rye, salt and bitter orange zest.

Today we will go north, north and still north…until the magic Lapland!

It can sound creepy for someone at the beginning, but a very traditional Lappish dish is reindeer in stews or smoked, tartare, roasted with potatoes.

Another famous dish is the local salmon and it can also be found as kalakukko, a fish pâté en croûte and herrings. All the types of fish are usually served with rye bread. Before the main dish, appetizers are usually made by sienisalaatti (a mushroom salad), marinated herring and salted raw salmon. Then you have a wide choice between a bilberry cake or mousse or a prune mousse or the typical cinnamon rice pudding (riisipuuro).

In many desserts is it possible to find also the herb angelica, typical of Lapland and used as a flavour also for ice cream. The local Salmiakki Koskenkorva, a drink made with vodka, syrup and liquorice extract will complete your meal!

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