I have a few signature recipes. One I would like to share is Special Riivinkropsu. It’s a type of potato casserole. A penpal taught me the traditional Finnish recipe and I made some modifications:
Ingredients to serve 4, recipe within
a heaped tablespoonful of butter (anything else you use to grease cooking containers for oven baking will work, or you can substitute greaseproof paper if you prefer)
2 eggs
250 ml milk (full-fat or semi-skimmed both work, and you can use cream or similar ingredients to replace some of this if you prefer)
30 ml flour
1 teaspoon vegetable salt (60% salt and 40% dried vegetables)
2 large potatoes (preferably main crop rather than early)
1 tablespoons each of parsley, dill and herbes de provence (any mixture of herbs that totals 3 teaspoons is likely to work; tradition calls for parsley but use whatever’s to hand that you like eating)
160-250 grams of frozen vegetables, depending on how generous a portion you want to serve (if you need the vegetables to be hidden, go for the smaller amount and put the vegetables in as a layer instead of stirring them into the potatoes as recommended). These must be in small pieces of about the same size as each other, but can be any vegetable you like. I recommend a mixture of whichever ones you like best. Fresh, dried and/or tinned vegetables may work if you are willing to experiment.
Small amounts of cheese, fish or meat can be added but are not strictly necessary. Potentially a good use for some small bits of leftover that you don’t want to put in a soup.
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Preheat the oven to 175 C/Gas Mark 4.
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Prepare a two-pound/1 kg loaf tin, by lining it with butter or using your preferred substitute.
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Beat the eggs together in a bowl.
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Add the milk.
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Mix the liquids together.
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Add the flour, vegetable salt and herbs.
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Mix the mixture together- you are aiming for a loose batter. If it’s too solid (now or in a later mix), add more milk. If it seems too loose, let it be loose for now.
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Peel the potatoes.
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Cut the skin into small pieces - a vegetable knife is best for this task, despite the temptation of kitchen scissors. If you don’t like potato skin, you can leave it out and skip to step 10.
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Add the sliced potato skin to the mixture.
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Give the mixture another mix, and this time, you can see if you can fold a little air into it. This reduces the likelihood of the batter going hard and overworked, but if you cannot get air into the batter, it’s still OK.
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Grate the remaining potatoes. Or slice into the smallest pieces you safely can.
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Add the potatoes and half of the herbs into the mixture.
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Give the mixture another mix, and this time, you can see if you can fold a little air into it.
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Pour enough mixture into the loaf tin to cover the base.
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Cook this for 5 minutes in the oven. You’re aiming to have a semi-solid base, but not 100% cooked through.
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While waiting for the bottom layer to cook, make a decision. Are you aiming to have hidden vegetables? Or obvious vegetables speckling the whole (my preference)? If you want to hide the vegetables, you’ll need to use layering on them all; if you want to make them obvious, go ahead and mix the vegetables into the batter.
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In any case, check the state of your batter. If it looks like it would hurt if you dropped it on your toe, add milk. If it looks like it would run away at the first opportunity, add flour (if it’s really runny, extra vegetables or even some extra grated potato might help).
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Remove the container.
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Pour a layer of vegetables carefully onto the mixture.
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Pour the mixture on top. If you’re going for layers, you may add the second layer when the first layer is no longer visible - but this may not work for a third layer unless you cook each layer (experimentation definitely needed for a third layer). If you’re wanting obvious vegetables, just put the whole thing on top.
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Smoothen out any lumps on top. If you want this to be a decorative riivinkropsu, this is the point to quickly use your fork to make shapes, little peaks and troughs in the mixture (much like a pie).
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Cook for 50 minutes-1 hour, until the top is golden. This is not an exact science and nothing bad will happen if you open the door early, so best to err on the side of checking early.
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Remove from the oven.
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Put the rest of the herbs on top of the riivinkropsu.
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Serve.
Since you already have lots of vegetables, you might not need a side, but you could serve more vegetables or a very small piece of fish/meat with it. It also works as a hearty side to any dish for which you would normally serve potatoes (in which case, reduce portion size accordingly). This can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days.