Old Pemi recipes

Bring to the boil equal parts milk and water. In a cup, dissolve 2 tablespoons of flour in water and pour it into the boiling milk, then leave on the heat for 10 minutes. Take off the heat and add sour milk until slightly tart. The sour milk can be replaced with cow’s cheese added by the spoonful, as small dumplings. Served with potatoes boiled in their skins.

Make a stiff dough from one egg and flour, with salt to taste. Grate it on the fine grater and boil it in equal parts milk and water. Add salt or sugar to taste.

Boil finely chopped sour cabbage; once it comes to the boil, pour off the first water. Boil again with fresh water and add smoked ribs. When the meat is soft, grate 2 raw potatoes on the fine grater, mix with 1–1½ tablespoons of flour and add to the cabbage instead of a roux. Sauté a little onion, add paprika and pour it over the cabbage when serving. Served with potato dumplings.

Peeled, cut potatoes are boiled in salted water; after they soften and the water is drained, they are mashed into a purée with an egg and milk. Once well mixed, small dumplings are shaped from the purée, rolled in breadcrumbs and baked.

From an ordinary potato dough, roll cylinders the thickness of a thumb and cut pieces 2–3 cm long (like a cork). Arrange in a tray and bake until golden. Beat 2–3 eggs with milk and pour over the plugs, then bake again until the egg sets. Served with sour milk.

Peel the swedes and grate them on the apple grater. Braise with a little onion. Add a raw bone or pork over the grated swede and braise together until the meat softens. Dust with flour as for a ciușpais, season with a little ground pepper to taste and leave on the heat for about 10 minutes. Sour cream may be added to the finished dish when served.

Boil a hen or a larger jointed chicken in salted water with peppercorns, bay leaves, parsley root and leaf and 2–3 potatoes. When the meat softens, make a roux with oil, onion and flour, thin it with a little water and pour over the boiled meat; for taste add a little vinegar and sour cream. If the ciulama is too thin, add a little flour mixed with milk. Served with potato dumplings.

Prepare a potato dough as for plum dumplings. Roll a thick cylinder about the size of a beer bottle, cut into slices and roll them out to the size of a small coffee saucer, thin enough. Fill with minced pork cracklings mixed with a little salt, roll up, arrange in a tray and bake. Served with sour milk.

Boil the sour cabbage, drain and sauté with onion and a little pepper. From a potato dough make small sticks, boil them separately, squeeze and place over the sautéed cabbage. Mix and serve as such.

Mince the mushrooms and braise in oil with 2 finely chopped onions. Add diced bell pepper, pepper, salt, 2 eggs and a little milk, and continue braising slowly until done. Served hot.

Boil potatoes in their skins, peel and grate on the apple grater. Rub with a little flour, add salt and bake. Once golden, sprinkle with oil or melted lard and leave a little longer in the oven. Served with sour milk.

Peel the potatoes and boil in salted water. When almost done, sprinkle flour over them and keep on the heat until the added flour is well cooked. Drain off the excess water and mash well. Take a spoonful at a time and place it piece by piece in a well-greased tray, then bake; or fry the dumplings in hot oil. Once golden on both sides, remove and serve with sour milk or sauerkraut.

From a mixture of flour, 1 egg, water and salt, prepare a slightly thicker batter, as for pancakes. Take a suitable ladleful and pour into a pan with hot oil, forming small flatcakes left to brown nicely.

In 1½ litres of boiling water add peeled, diced potatoes and salt, and boil until soft. Mash in the pot, add 2–3 eggs and flour so the mixture has the consistency of polenta. Take a spoonful, place in hot oil, flatten slightly and fry until golden.

VariantGrate raw potatoes on the small grater, place in a noodle strainer to drain, add flour and salt. Shape little cakes from the mixture and fry in hot oil. Either way, the cakes are served with sour milk, green salad or stewed fruit.

Prepare a dough rubbed with lard or margarine, 1 egg, salt, sugar and milk. Roll out two sheets, place grated apples between them and bake. The same dough can be rolled into a single sheet, the grated apples placed on it, then rolled up, set in a tray and baked.

For one litre of blueberry liqueur use ¼ litre of blueberries, topped with 3–4 tablespoons of sugar, the whole left in the sun until the sugar dissolves. To the resulting macerate add 100 g refined alcohol, 100 g rum, 100 g cognac and a sachet of vanilla sugar. Boil a whole lemon in water with sugar; with the resulting syrup fill the 1-litre bottle to ¾, topping up the rest with alcohol.