I did post my favorite Christmas recipes last Christmas Eve, but I figured many were busy on that day… that I’d post them again part of my Scandinavian Holiday Special. My favorites are rosolli and lanttulaatikko, beet salad and rutabaga souffle/casserole. ROSOLLI – BEETROOT SALAD

2 cans of beets
2 carrots
2 potatoes
1 onion
1 apple
1 whole pickle
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch white pepper

DRESSING
half pint heavy cream
1 teaspoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons beet juice
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch salt
1 pinch white pepper


Boil carrots and the potatoes (with peels on to get better flavor). Let them cool down. Peel and chop the carrots and the potatoes to small. The smaller you chop the ingredients the better this salad will be. Chop beets, onion, apple and pickle. Mix everything well, add salt and pepper to taste. Put the salad to fridge and let it sit at least an hour before serving. This salad gets better over night.

I took the above picture right after I had made the salad, but the color will get deeper red after you’ve let the salad sit for a while.

The dressing: whip the cream and then add other ingredients, make this right before serving.

Rutabagas

LANTTULAATIKKO – RUTABAGA CASSEROLE

2 large rutabagas
2 tsp salt
2/3 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
half pint of heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons of molasses / corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon ginger or cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 stick butter
1 small onion
1/2 teaspoon white pepper


There are several variations of rutabaga casserole, and if not done well, it can be very bitter. My tricks – cook for long time, and add corn syrup and cream. The original Finnish recipe calls for molasses, but the American type molasses is more bitter than the Finnish molasses, so I use dark corn syrup or even better the brown sugar corn syrup.

Peel the rutabagas, chop in fairly large cubes. Boil in water (add some salt) for almost an hour until they are super soft. Pour the water out but save about 3/4 cup of it and smash the rutabagas and add the water in the mashed rutabagas. In a separate bowl mix egg, breadcrumbs, cream, syrup and spices and let them sit for about 15-30 minutes. Chop the onion to very small and then saute it in plenty of butter to make it nice and golden. Then mix well the mashed rutabagas, cream/breadcrumb mix and the sauteed onions. Place in greased casserole dish, the deeper the better. Make spoon marks on the top of the dish and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. You can bake it in 400F in less than an hour, but to get better flavor, I recommend baking in 325-350F for about 2-3 hours.

Scandinavian Christmas, Skimbaco Holiday Gift Guide 2009