CeliacChicks

FINLAND: Land Of Gluten-Free Paradise IV

CHAPTER FOUR

My touristy dog sled ride where my eyelashes froze it was so cold!

My friend Kirsi has two outstanding gluten-free recipes she made for me.
A chinese friend living in Finland showed Kirsi how to prepare these.

CHINESE BEEF & POTATOES
Put some canola oil in a frying pan, enough to totally coat the pan and then some.
Add about two TBSP of sugar to the oil and heat it up really hot so that
the sugar becomes all brown.
Lower heat to about medium and add beef chunks or strips and potato slices.
When they are brown add about a TBSP of water -this will help it simmer
Add some GF soy sauce, garlic, salt and some pepper, and maybe some ginger and let it simmer until potatoes and meat are fully cooked.
Serve with cucumber sticks. They really compliment this dish.

Chinese Beef & Potatoes

CHINESE CHICKEN
Mix chicken chunks with one TBSP canola oil, several cloves of chopped garlic, about a TBSP of ginger powder and marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Add enough canola oil to a frying pan to coat it and then some.
Add about one TBSP of sugar and heat until brown.
Add the chicken and when the chicken is almost cooked add sliced mushrooms
Top off with a bit of GF soy sauce to taste if you'd like. I think it tastes quite good without soy sauce since I can't even eat the GF, since it contains corn alcohol.
Serve with rice.
Eat and enjoy!

Chinese Chicken

Of course, a visit to Finland wouldn't be complete without a sauna experience. Above I'm cooling off outside the traditional smoke sauna. Yes, that is a hole cut out of the iced-over lake behind the sauna. I lost my socks in there! You can't believe the feeling when you return to the warm sauna!

This ends the cyber tour of Finland. I hope you enjoyed your vicarious cyber vacation to GF Paradise! :)

Here are a few more photos from my trip.
TALLIN, ESTONIA

Our friends in Tallinn had hot GF minestrone soup waiting for us...along with some lovely dried fish! Of course...dried fish is at least GF...let's just say it was more tasty than I thought it would be.

Here is a link to some photos of Tallinn I found on the web that look similar to my trip photos.

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

Our hostess made some homemade borscht for us. Here are some good looking borscht recipes I found...the few that include flour I would just leave it out. It isn't necessary. Also, for the creamy borscht recipes just substitute the sour cream with soy milk if you are dairy-free.

I fell in love with russian cabbage rolls! They are readily available anywhere it seems and they are super cheap too. MMMMM

My friend, Maina, sent me the Finnish recipe for Kaalilaatikko cabbage casserole since I told her how much I loved the Russian cabbage rolls. It's basically the lazy version of cabbage rolls but with the Finnish sweet twist. (they are all sugar addicts!)

2lbs. ground beef (organic is always nice)
A good size cabbage.
Chop the cabbage in let's say half and then inch slivers,they can be long
but not too wide
Make two cups of rice (I used brown but the original recipe calls for white)
In the meantime fry your meat (don't overcook) and season with salt to taste,black pepper and lots marjoram (*don't omit marjoram-key ingredient)
Cook the cabbage slivers until soft
Then you just layer the cabbage, rice and the
beef into a pyrex, (deeper the better) and between each layer pour
(generously) maple syrup! Don't be scared...it really does taste good all together. I was a little timid but it is good. Bake at 350 for maybe 45 min. Yummy! And gets better when it ages...a day or so.

Kaalilaatikko cabbage casserole

I also fell in love with Buckwheat cereal. You could get it an almost any cafe in St. Petersburg. Served hot with milk and sugar. I brought this box of buckwheat home with me...of course this little "cow" has soy milk in it! I shared some with Kim... and she wasn't crazy about it... so to each her own.

FINLAND: Land Of Gluten Free Paradise

CHAPTER TWO

Another bakery, Kahvila-Konditoria Aurinko: this woman's daughter and husband both have celiac disease. The good looking rolls in chapter one
with the carelian pie are from this bakery.

I wanted to show you how cute this place was...neither
of us were up to being in the photo!

Ahhh...respite from the blizzard! This is what I look like
after having snow pelt me in the face for hours. Oh well,
I have the joy of the berry tart to savor!

Parliament building where few tourists get to see inside but our friends work there! It's like the Finnish equivalent to the United States Congress.

Enjoying some Glogi at Kappeli...sort of reminded me of Tavern On The Green with all of the glass. Glogi is a traditional Scandinavian drink served around the holiday season. It is a variation of berry juice, spices and either wine, brandy or cognac. It's one of those recipes where everyone seems to add their own twist to it. Soooo...it's celiac friendly if made with one of the liquors that are from fruit, not grain, like those previously mentioned. Perfect for warming up in cold weather!

I brought a box of Glogi mix home with me and recently shared it
with friends. It was a huge hit! I'll have to make more! Here's a
Glogi recipe if you'd like to try some. (This guy sounds like a Glogi expert!)

Ravintola Pizzeria Dennis
Amazing GF pizza!! Funny thing was while eating there we just happened to catch a TV show that had interviewed us (well Kirsi, since she speaks Finnish) the day before!

Eagerly awaiting our GF pizza!

Outside view of the pizza joint.

One more little GF story...on one occasion while traveling by bus we had a pit stop at a roadside gas station cafe. Kirsi asked in Finnish about gluten-free foods and I ordered a greek salad. They are SO conscientious about gf needs the girl at the register ended up handing me a roll that was warm and claimed it was gluten-free! Isn't that swell?! It was just so amazingly cool. OH ... and it tasted good too! I slipped and fell on the ice just outside of our bus but I held on desperately to my warm roll!