First, little bit of the history of this fine cuisine:
This goes way back to the time when I was doing my national army service in Kajaani Brigade, Kainuu Artillery Regiment, in the eastern part of Finland, near Russian boarder. It was created more out of a need than anything else. We had to spend long times in the forest training. I was, and still am but now in reserves, a Medical Sergeant so our task was to make sure everyone was healthy and in good strength to fight against the Yellow Enemy. It was sometimes really hard. We’d have long periods when you wouldn’t get your supplies replenished or wouldn’t get the regular food deliveries. And no, you couldn’t call Pizza Hut, it wasn’t allowed.
As a solution to our problem, we came up with what we started calling ‘Ragoût de poulet finlandais d’artillerie‘. The name is in French so that the Yellow Enemy wont be able to know what it is if they capture our radio communications. The Yellow Enemy doesn’t understand French.
Basic idea of this cuisine was that it would be very easy to make, wouldn’t matter if you leave it cooking for hours, and the raw materials are ‘durable’, easy to store and last long if not used. Bonus is that the stew itself lasts very long after cooking even if not kept in a refrigerator, a luxury you almost never saw in the forrest. Now, if you’re a quick thinker and know some basic French, you must be thinking something like this: ‘Wait wait wait, chicken doesn’t last a day if not kept in the fridge!’ And you’re absolutely right! It doesn’t. But we never used chicken in it. We just had chicken in it’s name because it would make it easier to pretend it had chicken in it. It’s very important for the troop morale.
Now that you know some history behind this splendid dish, here’s how you make it.
Ingredients:
1 swede
1 onion
3 carrots
3 parsnip
salt and pepper
any available herbs (really, it doesn’t make a difference what you put in)
water
Instructions:
1. Chop everything into small slices or cubes.
2. Put everything into a sauce pan or ‘pakki‘
3. Cover ingredients with water. Obviously, more water you put in more people you can feed with it. We once fed half a battery with a single swede and two carrots(!).
4. Let it slowly simmer under a lid for 1 1/2 – 5h.
That simple. If you want to be adventurious, you can pop a whole roasted chicken on top, since we now have the luxury of refrigerators. Let me know in the comments if you made it and how it made you feel. I’m just waiting mine to be ready and it smells really nice. Like I’d be back in the forest.
enjoy,
kristian
Hi,
I’ve just read the recipe of your special Finish forest soup. I am not sure, if I’d like to cook this soup, but it was very amusing to read. As I read your story through, I remembered my special soup recipe. I was 9 when I cooked this soup for my mum and I was soooo impressed with myself. My mum called it The Faberge Egg soup. The one and only!!! This soup is so simple that your recipe sounds like is from the Jamie Oliver’s cook book. Hehe.
Here we go.
The ingredients:
1.boiling water
2.salt and pepper
3.little bit of olive oil
4.onion
5.THE EGG!!!
Cut the onion and fry until golden (use olive oil). Pour boiling water in the saucepan where the onion was fried. Use spices like salt and pepper+your imagination. Cook the onion for 5 min. When you are ready, chuck the egg in the soup (now, I would advice you not to chuck whole egg with the shell). Cook for further 5 min. Serve with bread.
Now, as you can see I used olive oil that the soup was more mediterranean style. Like I said at 9, I was impressed with myself.
Hope, you like my recipe. Tell me what you think.
Bon Appetit.