Finland - home cooking

I thought I'd nailed it. After some time trawling the internet in search of a Finnish restaurant, and not just a pan-Scandinavian restaurant (which were usually mainly Swedish) or cafe (where the only Finnish thing on the menu was a pasty), I thought I cracked it.

The Finnish Church, in Rotherhithe! There was a cafe next door. One which boasted "home cooking" at weekends. This was perfect. To be absolutely sure, I emailed the cafe at the start of the week, hoping to visit that following weekend. But I received no response. The following week we decided we'd just go for it anyway. But before our visit, a response finally came. The cafe was open and they were serving home cooked food that weekend.

So early on Sunday we decided to trek from south west London to Rotherhithe, ready to have lunch at the church. It was a short walk from Canada Water tube station, and in a fairly quiet residential street. The church is actually based in a fairly nondescript, modern building, with the entrance tucked away at the side. The door was locked. But the lady inside at reception saw us standing there looking puzzled, and buzzed us in. After explaining we were here for lunch, and being met with slight bemusement for clearly not being Finnish, we walked though to the cafe.

The cafe was actually at the back of the main church hall, separated by large wooden doors. The service had clearly only recently ended. To the side was a small, self-service counter with a few small containers of hot food. Before I saw what it was, my eyes were drawn to a blackboard with the name of the meal, and the price - £7.50. Bingo! Time for a Finnish meal...

Or not. It became quite clear that the word on the blackboard was Finnish for "lasagne". The dishes on offer were lasagne, and vegan lasagne. Lunch was going to be as Finnish as The Proclaimers. This was a failed mission.

We still dished it out and had lunch there. But I had already started planning what I was going to cook...

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So to the kitchen! I wanted to avoid a fish dish. I definitely wanted something meaty and hearty. I found exactly that in lihapyöryköitä - Finnish meatballs. For many, our introduction to Scandinavian meatballs came from IKEA. What made these Finnish meatballs and not Swedish I didn't know. And to be perfectly honest, I didn't really care by this point - I just wanted to eat something described as Finnish!

I later came to discover that Finnish meatballs are lighter and less dense than their Swedish counterparts, and served in a creamy sauce rather than a brown, meaty gravy.

So, the first stage was to make the meatballs. I mixed 500g lean minced beef, 120g plain breadcrumbs, 1 finely chopped onion, 1 beaten egg, 120ml double cream, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of allspice together very thoroughly until evenly mixed. Then came the laborious task of moulding this mix into golf ball-sized meatballs. I managed to get 22 meatballs out of this mix.

To brown the meatballs I melted 50g butter in a large frying pan, then browned 11 of the meatballs all over, set these aside and browned the remaining 11 meatballs. When done, I added 2 tablespoons of flour to the butter and juices in the pan and cooked this for a minute or two, before slowly pouring 450ml of milk into the pan, whisking all around while I did this.

After adding another 120ml of double cream to the pan and mixing thoroughly, I then added all of the meatballs into the sauce, brought this to simmer, and let the meatballs cook for around 20 minutes, turning the meatballs every five minutes.

While these cooked, I also peeled, chopped, and boiled two large potatoes to serve with the meatballs.

When all was ready, I served six meatballs per plate, topped with the creamy sauce, with the potatoes on the side, along with a heaped teaspoon of mixed berry preserve. The suggestion was for lingonberry jam, which I couldn't find. Cranberry sauce the next alternative, but I felt this would be a little too sweet. So I went for the slight sweetly-sourness of the preserve.

The verdict? Elle said it first - this was the best home cooked meal I've made in this project so far. And I have to wholeheartedly agree. This meal was exceptionally good. Beyond anything I've done so far. The meatballs were absolutely gorgeous - fell apart quite easily, when required. Light but sumptuous. Full of flavour. The sauce was luxuriously rich, and surprisingly tasty for the lack of ingredients. The consistency of the sauce was perfect, smooth and thick, and worked so well with the meatballs. And the berry preserve just topped it all off perfectly - added a beautiful sweetness and tartness to the meatballs and, especially, the creamy sauce.

There was so much to love about this meal. I wanted meaty and hearty, and this was those things and so much more. The only downside? The obscene calorie count. But let's not dwell on that.

The remaining meatballs and sauce became lunch the following afternoon, and they were just as good then.

The church visit may have failed to tick the right boxes, but I'll preach about this particular meal for years.