Berlin / Munich
No wonder: Those who have such long and dark winter months celebrate the longest day of the year really big. And always on Saturday between the 20th and 26th of June. “After Christmas, it’s the most important and, above all, the happiest festival of the year,” says Michaela Fuchs, who runs a blog about Nordic cuisine. His name is Mahatava. This is Finnish and means something like “big, great, sensational”.
The blogger knows the Scandinavian midsummer parties. She drives between Munich and her little red wooden house over the Arctic Circle. “It always starts on Friday. From 12 pm every town is deserted.”
In the country
People are then pulled out into the country, preferably into their own holiday home. Or to someone who has one. From the observation of Michaela Fuchs, Finns and Swedes have a similar holiday principle: “on Fridays we celebrate and on Saturdays we celebrate with the family.” Then new potatoes and all sorts of fish would be in high season, especially pickled herring and grilled. salmon and much Aquavit, the famous Scandinavian coal brandy. One of Fuchs ’favorite herring recipes is Skärgårdssill, an archipelago herring stew:“ The recipe with roe deer is easy and can be kept in the fridge for a week ”. For 4 to 6 servings, mix 150ml sour cream with 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 4 tablespoons of roe deer and 2 tablespoons of chopped onion in a bowl. The bite-sized pieces of 400 g herring fillets end in it and put in the fridge for a good three hours.
Cook in the sauna
While the Swedes prefer to celebrate midsummer right on the beach with a wreath of meadow flowers in their hair, the Finns take it to extremes with their sauna cult. In the sauna there is cooking at the summer solstice. Katariina Vuori from Oulu in northern Finland has even written an entire cookbook about it (“The Sauna Cookbook – From Aufguss to Joy”). To prove how easy it is, she swung the wooden spoon into the sauna of the Finnish Embassy in Berlin for midsummer recipes. In the package: salmon fillet, reindeer loin and new potatoes.
“The salmon fillets are meant for wrapping,” says Vuori. To do this, the fish first lands on wooden brocades as stripes in the shape of an accordion. The approximately 20 broths are then placed in a saucepan with 1/2 liter of white wine, 1/2 liter of water, half a cup each of soy sauce and honey, as well as a bunch of dill, the juice of half a lemon. and fresh blessed (about 8 cm) .cook 10 to 20 minutes. While strips of carrots roast in a pan next to the pot on the sauna stove, the cook cooks sour cream with dill. “The skewers, the sour cream, the vegetables and boiled small potatoes are arranged with tortillas as on a buffet and then all are stuffed and wrapped in their packages,” explains the sauna chef.
The reindeer loins are suitable for wooden saunas, land in salt and can be replaced with beef or any kind of fish. To do this, cut about 400 g of meat or fish into about 2 cm cubes. “Each cube comes in a salt dough ball,” says Vuori and mixes 400 g of flour, 400 g of salt, 200 ml of water into a dough and presses each piece of meat into a 1 cm thick dough wrapper. The balls land on a piece of cardboard large enough to pass through the oven. “The cardboard burns in the oven, but it gives the balls a firm base,” Vuori explains. Bake the balls for 20/25 minutes. Even the crust is hard as a rock, ”says Vuori. The salt layer is cut off. Only the meat is eaten, soaked in a sweet crab sauce.
The strawberry cake should not be missing on any midsummer table. “Everyone has their own family recipe,” says Tanja Huutonen. The Embassy Counselor of the Finns in Berlin first beats 5 eggs with sugar for her “Mansikkakakku” – as much of it as is appropriate in a large glass of water.
Then the same amount (a full glass of water) of sifted flour (mixed wheat and potato flour) and 1 teaspoon of baking powder is carefully raised under the mixture of egg sugar and placed in a greased spring-shaped pan sprinkled with a piece of bread. Then bake the dough at 175 degrees. When cold, cut into three layers. “The bottom layer is a mixture of water, sugar and jam, and the middle layer is strawberry jam, fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Then cover with the third layer. ” Finally she covers the whole cake with whipped cream and garnishes it with beautiful fresh strawberries.
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