I ate Rudolph! You know, the red nose reindeer. Extremely delicious :o)
Noooo, of course it was not Rudolph, it was his cousin...
Sautéed reindeer, or poronkäristys as we Finns call it, is quite easy to make. What requires most work is peeling the potatoes for the
mashed potato. And what makes it even more difficult, is that the potatoes used for it are small and curvy
almond potatos from Lapland, puikulaperuna.
Peeling 2 kilos of them is the hardest part, but you are allowed to do it while you are consuming the beer listed in the recipe...
I prepared to feed 4-6 people with 1kg of reindeer and 2 kilos of puikulaperuna for the mashed potato. Also 2 cans of dark beer is needed for the reindeer plus 3 beers per hour for the cook.
...this is something I failed to do as I started the cooking before noon, wanting to keep my mind and body clear for babysitting.
Actually she is not a baby as she is a BIG girl, way over 1 year old and in less than 2 months she will again meet the Santa Claus,
Joulupukki. The real one from Korvatunturi at Lappland - not any commercial nonsense story from North Pole...
Back to the reindeer - here are few tips for cooking you might value;
- When making the mashed potato, save some of the boiling water to moist it. It holds quite a lot of the taste. Be brave with the butter & salt, and don't forget to add some sugar. If you wanna go wild, try adding some goat cheese and honey.
- For reindeer, don't save with the quality of the meat! Again, be brave with salt & pepper. And please, no lager beer or other watery one, use good dark beer!
- Use juniper berries, katajamarja. At least in Finland you can get them in any market at least by Santa Maria spice company. From the Santa Maria -link you have access also for other Finnish specialties at www.suomikauppa.fi...
Bon appétit - Hyvää ruokahalua!