Porkkanalaatikko | Finnish Carrot Casserole

Porkkanalaatikko – try repeating it five times in a loop. Quite a tongue twister right?! I have been trying to memorize this name ever since I prepared this at home and I have never got it right so far. But don’t you worry. This name might sound difficult, but the recipe is too simple. Google translate helped me understand this name better. Porkkanalaatikko literally means Carrot Box in Finnish. Porkkana – Carrot and Laatikko – Box.

Prepared as a part of feast for Christmas, this recipe mainly contains carrots and rice. Along with milk, cream, and eggs whisked into the mixture, spices like salt, pepper and nutmeg are added too. Spread with bread crumbs on top, this casserole is baked in the oven until the top and the bottom are crispy. With the sweetness from carrots and the richness from milk combined with the flavor of nutmeg, this dish is quite unique. I had no clue how this recipe would turn out to be, as it was my very first hearing this. We don’t eat or cook meat at home and given this dish is specifically served alongside ham or steak in the traditional setup, I did not even know how to eat this *for the first time* 😀 But guess what, while I had my doubts adding egg to the mixture of carrots and rice, it was not bad at all. I don’t like the smell of eggs, especially whisked into something hot but this turned out to be okay. I already made a few changes to the base recipe I looked upon the internet and may be next time, I will skip the eggs and make a veggie version of this.

Yet again, I thank Lina from Lin’s recipes for bringing this April Challenge, for I would have never tried this dish at home otherwise. Lina is great with monthly challenges and for this month, we were supposed to pick a random number to choose our surprise recipe. Porkkanalatiko it was for me! A big shout out to Jhuls, who is judging this challenge 🙂

Note –

• The carrots can be cooked in water until well cooked and pureed before rice is added. As I grated them fine, I left them as it is for the texture.
• I used normal short grain rice, cooked until mushy in pressure cooker.
• Additional to the milk, cream can be used/replaced for a creamier version of this.
• As carrots are already sweet, I skipped adding sugar.
• If bread crumbs are not available, powdered crackers can be used.
• I made a pattern using a spoon after spreading the bread crumbs.
• It is best served hot as eggs are used in the making and the dish can turn cakey/soggy on cooling down.

If you wish to get regular updates on my recipes, do follow me on Facebook @ Cooking From My Heart. You can also reach to me at cookingfrommyheart@gmail.com for any suggestions or queries 🙂