Karjalanpaisti, Finnish meat stew - I made a few weeks ago, when the weather was still cool. It was elected as the national dish a few years ago by the readers of a local newspaper in Finland, according to Wikipedia. The dish is easy to prepare, a mix of meat, usually beef, lamb and pork and cook for 4 hours in an oven according to my recipe (from the book Fire and Ice), or 8 hours according the other recipes. I used only beef and pork some bone in and some boneless part for long cooking. Chopped them in 2 inch cubes, seasoned with salt. Without browning, I placed the first layer of meat in the cast iron pot, topped with onions, carrots, allspice, peppercorns, juniper berries, repeated the layers until all the ingredients have been used. Tucked in the bay leaves and poured water over. Covered the casserole and cooked for 20 minutes at 440ºF, lower to 275ºF for 4 hours or until the meat was tender. Served with pickles and mashed potatoes.
We’ve eaten it just after cooking and found the meat a bit bland. Reheated the next day, we found it much better after the night rest.
