Poronkäristys

Ingredients

• Reindeer meat — frozen, shaved700 g
• Butter80 g
• Dark beer250 ml
• Water200 ml
• Onion1
• Potatoes1 kg
• Milk200 ml
• Lingonberries — crushed with sugar200 g
• Pickled cucumbers — to serve150 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Take the reindeer from the freezer and shave it into thin curls with a sharp knife.

   15 min

2. 2

   Melt the butter in a cast-iron pan and heat it until it just smokes.

   5 min

3. 3

   Add the frozen shavings and fry them hard until all the water has gone.

   12 min

4. 4

   Add the chopped onion and fry five minutes more, to a good colour.

   7 min

5. 5

   Add the beer and water, season, and stew covered for half an hour.

   32 min

6. 6

   Boil the potatoes and mash them with hot milk to a smooth purée.

   30 min

7. 7

   Serve the meat on the mash with a spoon of lingonberry and pickled cucumbers.

   6 min

About the dish

The reindeer is shaved frozen, into thin curls. Thawed meat cannot be shaved, and cubed meat gives a different texture entirely — a stew rather than a käristys.

The shavings go straight from the freezer into hot butter. They melt and begin frying at once, and the whole point is in that transition.

The lingonberry is a condiment rather than a side. Its acidity is needed against fatty meat, and in Lapland käristys is never served without it.

Worth knowing

• — Reindeer is sold already shaved and frozen in blocks. In Finland that is how it is bought, and shaving it yourself is rarely necessary.
• — The water has to evaporate before the meat starts stewing. Otherwise it boils and turns grey and tough.
• — Beef or elk work on the same principle, but their fat content differs and more butter will be needed.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

46 g

Fat

28 g

Carbs

42 g

More from Finland

• Lohikeitto — Finnish salmon soup with potato and cream, a heap of dill and a knob of butter in the bowl.
• Karelian pies — A rye shell filled with rice porridge, brushed with butter out of the oven and served with egg butter.
• Ruisleipä — A dense sourdough rye bread, sour and with almost no wheat flour in it.