Recipe Porkkanalaatikko - Finnish Carrot Casserole

[cupcakechef]

Porkkanalaatiko

You could say this is the Finnish equivalent of an American Sweet Potato Casserole that a lot of us have around Thanksgiving!

• 2 Cups Rice
• 2 Cups Milk (or cream)
• 1kg Medium Carrots, shredded
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Tablespoon dark brown sugar (you can use honey or molasses instead if you prefer)
• 2 Eggs
• 3 Tablespoons Butter
• 1/3 Cup of fine Bread or Cracker crumbs
• 1 Teaspoon Nutmeg

Porkkanalaatiko – the Instructions

1. Cook the Rice
2. Shred the Carrots
3. Beat the eggs
4. Mix the Rice, shredded Carrots, Eggs, Milk (to taste), Salt, Sugar and nutmeg in a greased Casserole dish
5. Dot the surface with dabs of butter and sprinkle crumbs over
6. If you’re feeling artistic, pattern the surface with a spoon or fork
7. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 40-45 minutes. It should be golden brown on top by the time it’s cooked. Depending on your oven, you may need to adjust the time a bit.

It's pretty popular in Finland around Christmas - so it could be a good one to try with your festive meals!

 

[L_B]

This actually sounds and looks really good. I would definitely give it a try. It would be a nice side dish with your Christmas dinner.

 

[winterybella]

Well what do we have here? This is competition ready and hopefully by the time it's entered I'd be able to pronounce the word. I am just here to say it sounds like it is a great dish.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

That actually looks really good... another for the list for next week... shame we are away for most of the week.

 

[Morning Glory]

The recipe is from http://www.alternativefinland.com/porkkanalaatiko-finnish-rice-carrot-casserole/. I think it is originally from Beatrice Ojakanga' Finnish Cookbook.
Its good to have some Finnish recipes - we don't see them much on here.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

we don't see them much on here

Please feel free to post some more. I personally, have not heard of the site, but then there are so many sites out there that it is hard to know even a few of them!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We tried this before Christmas but we were both disappointed with it. There doesn't seem to be anywhere near enough egg in it to hold it together and it ended up being rice and carrots mixed together really. Plus our grater only has very coarse or very fine and my husband who made it went for the very coarse option and didn't adjust the cooking time to accommodate this so the carrots were underdone, but that is not a recipe fault.

It reminded up both of the rosemary courgette rice cake we make which also contains nutmeg but that dish uses 6 eggs to hold a similar quantity of courgettes together, but the rice is precooked in that dish (iirc that is).

If we were to make it again we would change a couple of things.
Firstly we would add more binding agent whether that be a aquafaba or additional eggs I don't know, but other recipes for this dish include 3 eggs for less carrots, so I would increase the eggs and decrease the carrots. I would also grate the carrots on the finer option on our hand grater (one good reason for using less carrots) and probably keep the same cooking time.

I also think a nice variation, though not authentic, would be to add some paprika (1tbsp) and a touch of cayenne pepper (to taste).