Sunday 18 September, 2005

Marjapuuroa

Finnish Cranberry WhipAt the moment in my cooking game we're consentrating on Asian and Scandinavian foods - while I've been cooking curries and that sort of stuff there has been one Finnish food I've been planning for about a week now. That is the cranberry whip (vatkattu marjapuuro) - normally in Finland that would be done using lingonberries, but in here cranberries will do.

The main problem has not been finding the berries, but mannaryyni - first of all I had to find out what it is in English, as I have to say I didn't even have an idea what manna really is. You know, it's one of those things you've seen as a kid come out of the packet and you never thought what it really was.

Turns out manna is actually like a coarsly ground flour, usually wheat, and is called farina, or cream of wheat in English, or sometimes semolina for the coarser grain. I don't know what I was expecting, but wheat seems a bit boring, I was almost thinking it would be something more unusual... Anyway, we looked for farina from Safeway on couple of occasions, before giving up, and today I was determined to find some so we headed to Capers. Capers has a very large selection of different flours so I was sure I'd find either farina or semolina there - and after some searching I hit the jackpot.

So project Marjapuuro was succesfully brought to completion today. I was surprised how similar taste cranberries gave compared to the real thing - the taste really takes me back to my childhood when I used to love this stuff. I had it with some vanilla flavoured soy milk (I keep going back and forth with soy - sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it) and it was absolutely lovely.

Posted by kolibri at 18 September 21:15, 2005
Comments
# 1 - Outi (on September 19, 2005 02:07 AM):

The colour is strange, though? I mean, the result does look delicious but it's very intense red compared to the real thing :)


# 2 - turisti (on September 19, 2005 02:18 AM):

Actually, back home (Kuopio my Granny used to make vispipuuro (as it is called in Savo) using either lingonberries or cranberries, depending on the availability of the berries.


# 3 - yoe (on September 19, 2005 05:07 AM):

Hey! I've had the same project (whipping up some vispipuuro) here for some time as well, and this information might just help me out with the problem of the flour... Thanks:)


# 4 - Emokolibri (on September 19, 2005 07:18 AM):

If you whip it long enough, the colour gets lighter pink, and the texture smooth and foamy. My mum said that it is best if you whip it keeping the bowl in snow. I used start whipping when it was warm, continueing in a cold water basin.


# 5 - kolibri [TypeKey Profile Page] (on September 19, 2005 07:21 AM):

I did whip it, but maybe 5 minutes was not enough? It changed colour slightly and I didn't see any more change coming so I let it be - I should probably been more patient.


# 6 - Outi (on September 20, 2005 01:17 AM):

Hey, it doesn't matter one bit as long as the taste is good :D


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