HANXIAO

上周去芬兰北边Ruka看红叶，周三的一大早去拜访一驯鹿农场。临走时顺带买了些驯鹿肉馅。

突然特别想吃饺子，由于没有亚洲超市，只好买了面粉和擀面杖亲自来擀面皮。说来这还是第一次在芬兰亲手擀饺子皮。故乡的菜市场轻易就能买到新鲜的饺子皮、馄饨皮和碱水面，家里得擀面杖是长期不用的。亲手擀面皮好像也是在周末心血来潮地家庭活动。赫尔辛基到底是有亚洲超市，如果不想去Hakaniemi的亚洲超市买冰冻的比较大张的“东北饺子皮”，也能在市中心Kamppi附近的一家日本杂货店Tokyokan买到较小张的日本煎饺皮（gyoza）；虽然都是速冻的，微波炉解冻之后也还不至于太粘手或者太干，能凑合着用。于是，长期没有练习擀面，手生，没能用最妥帖的“切下或者揪下剂子、逐一擀饺子皮”的方法，只好用杯子口将饺子皮扣出来。虽然非常业余，好处是平整且大小均一。

新鲜的驯鹿肉非常精瘦，也非常膻。下了姜蒜，和好了大葱段，才压下了那膻味。

I visited Ruka last week, a town in the north Finland, for the “Ruska” (red and golden colors in the autumn forest). We visited a reindeer farm, Kujalan Porotila, on Wednesday morning, and bought some minced reindeer meat.

The idea to have dumplings for dinner suddenly hit me. I had to buy flour and a rolling pin to make the dough, since there was no Asian markets to get the ready-made dumpling skins. Honestly, it was the first time in Finland I made the dumpling skins by myself. It is always easy to get the freshly made dumpling skins at any open markets in my hometown, as well as wonton skins (the square one) and alkaline noodles. Therefore, even when I was living with my family, we hardly used the rolling pin to make the dough, unless my parents wanted to host a “family event” for fun. There are a couple of Asian markets at Hakaniemi in Helsinki, where I can get the frozen “Dong Bei dumplings skins” (Dong Bei: refers to the northeast China, where dumplins are with the best quality), which is thicker and bigger, compared to the Japanese gyoza skins. If I’m too busy to go to Hakaniemi, I usually go for a Japanese grocery store at city center, Tokyokan, to buy the frozen gyoza skins.

I haven’t touched the rolling pin for ages, and naturally could not master the best / traditional way to made the dumpling skins, that “cut or pinch the dough evenly into small pieces, and roll out the piece into a round surface”. Hence, I had to frame the skins on a spread surface with the open side of a glass. Although the method was fairly amatuer, it at least made the skins evenly round.

The fresh reindeer meat was surprisingly lean and smelly. To make the stuff properly, I had to mix it with an egg, finely cut ginger, garlic and the white part of a leek.

蘸水的话，取了大葱剩下的葱绿和两枚辣椒，细切；热油，等油温到达“扔下一小片葱段就会扑腾开”的时候，把滚烫的油倒入装好了葱片和辣椒的碗里。待冷却，加盐、酱油和醋。这算是简陋版本的自治辣椒油和饺子蘸水的方法了。

由于没有蒸笼，只能做水饺了。煮饺子倒是非常方便，饺子浮上水面了便是熟了可以装盘了。虽然是手工擀的面皮，竟然质量相当好，煮饺子一个都没有破。想起我妈妈做水饺的时候总是会故意捅破一两个饺子，如此一来，煮饺子的水也油光潋滟，成了肉汤；往往饺子还没有吃完，汤就被喝了个大半。

I used the simplest way to make the chili oil for the dumpling dip：dice two red peppers and the tender green part from the rest of the leek, and place it in a bowl. Heat a half cup of oil (preferably rapeseed oil) until it can immediately boil a small piece of leek, then pour the hot oil into the bowl. Since the oil bears such a high temperature, the pepper and leek will be cooked and softened the same time you pour the oil, and immediately you can smell the freshness and spiciness. When it cools down, add salt, soy sauce and vinegar.

We had the boiled dumpling, as we didn’t have a steamer at the cottage. Dumplings are done when it is floating, and that’s why I am always fond of the boiled dumplings. It is so easy to measure the cooking time. Although the skins were homemade, none of the dumpling was broken in the boiling water, that was a fortunate surprise to me. It reminded me of the way how my mother usually cooked the boiled dumplings: she always poked a couple of dumplings on purpose, so that the water was turned into a meat soup with oil shining on the surface. We all loved such a simple meat soup and sometimes the soup was consumed half far before we finished the dumplings.

驯鹿肉饺子味道还真不错，全吃完了。

剩下的一点面团用来做了手擀面，第二日中午做了番茄鸡蛋汤面，一点也没有浪费。

The reindeer meat stuffed dumplings were actually tasty. We had all of them:)

The rest of the dough was made into noodles. I cooked noodle soup with egg and tomato the next noon. None of the ingredients were wasted.