DinnerTime / Reindeer Roast

Hello

First of all, if you are an American or a Brit, please don't read this post any further. I know it will disturb you but I can't help it that us Finns are so barbaric that we eat reindeer. Some people in America and especially in Great Britain think that we are cruel and crazy for doing it (*read a funny article here*). They feel that we are eating poor Rudolph and destroying the magic of Christmas. 

Yeah right! Reindeer just happen to roam around Lapland, so what else are we supposed to do with besides eat them. Reindeer meat is very lean and delicious. 

Anyway, my coworker happened to get some reindeer meat the other day, and that's why I served reindeer roast as our Finnish independence day dinner. I have eaten reindeer many times but I have never cooked it myself before yesterday but it turned out to be really simple. Here's a quick tutorial how to make traditional Finnish reindeer roast.

Finnish Reindeer Roast / Poronkäristys

-500-800g reindeer meat (appx 1,7 lbs)

-1 onion (chopped)

-0,5 liter water (2 cups)

-salt and pepper to taste

Shave thin slices from frozen reindeer meat.

Sautee meat and onions in little batches.

Once all the meat is sauteed, add water, salt and pepper. Let it simmer on low heat for 2-3 hrs. In the mean while prepare lingonberry sauce by boiling lingonberries, some sugar and little water until desired consistency. You can also make the sauce with cranberries. Don't forget to make mashed potatoes too!

After cooking for nearly 3 hrs the meat should look like this. You can only imagine how good this smells!

Reindeer roast, mashed potatoes with lingonberries. Yummy!

For the dessert I baked these delicious&soft gingerbread cookies.

The recipe for these cookies is a secret. My sister only gave it to me after years of me begging for it. So, I can't share it on my blog (*giggle*).

I decorated the cookies with some frosting and sprinkles. They turned out cute!

I also gave some of the cookies to my friends. They all got their first initial on a heart shaped cookie. Everybody loved them!

While cooking and baking I enjoyed a warm glow of pretty candles that I lit up.

There you go, reindeer roast. It wasn't that horrible, was it? I thought it was delicious! Anyway, this weekend I will be busy taking my folks to the new mall in town. We have to get some Christmas shopping done. So, might not have time to blog.

Cheers everyone!