Food brewery Detective and Gourmet Outi Pakkanen reveals the recipe for his second most popular Christmas food – the most popular instruction is a big secret

You’re coming but up the stairs until you see Santa, guided by the roaring sound of the door buzzer. And true: a man with a long gray beard and a red cry is waiting at the door. She is Timo Pakkanen, Perhaps the most famous Santa Claus in Finland. (More on him in a few pages in this magazine.)

Today, however, the buck is not the protagonist of the day. Its role is played by its little sister, the author Outi Pakkanen. He borrows his big brother’s kitchen to renovate his home. There is still talk of Christmas, especially Christmas food.

75-year-old Outi Pakkanen is a Finnish detective literature la grande Dame, who is currently writing his thirtieth novel. Food has long played an important role in them, and no wonder: the author himself is a well-known gourmet. And now he has promised to reveal the most popular food instruction on his Christmas table.

Or well, at least the second most popular.

“The recipes are meant to be circulated, but one instruction is secret. It’s my Christmas mustard, ”says Pakkanen.

That mustard is famous in his circle of acquaintances. When Pakkanen worked as the editor-in-chief of a book club, he used to make mustard not only for his relatives but also for his colleagues and publisher.

“I made 76 jars in one year,” Pakkanen says. At the same time, he starts unloading groceries from Kassi. It’s time to focus on herring.

Frost spends Christmas alternately in her own and her brother’s home. He always makes all the food. For the past ten years, Russian herring paste has been on the Christmas table.

Its instruction comes from his school-age friend Marjukalta, who in turn received it from his mother, who received it from his friend. The paste is not only delicious but also easy to prepare. This is exactly the kind of instruction needed at Christmas, when the kitchen easily runs out of time, space and the patience of a cook.

In its simplicity, the instructions are also perfectly in line with Pakkanen’s food philosophy.

“Cooking is not an art, it has to be fun above all else. I don’t like any peppery in my life at all. ”

Outi Pakkanen mother, children’s author Kaija Pakkanen didn’t really care about cooking. Meals were largely provided by domestic helpers.

“Cooking gradually came into my life from about the age of 20 onwards. All but one of the men in my life have been good cooks, ”says the author.

An important inspiration was also the best friend of youth. The girls set up a party on Dagmarinkatu. The apartment was quickly named Dagudisco in a circle of acquaintances because wild parties were held there. In between, however, Pakkanen’s friend also had time to work in the kitchen.

“I was a little jealous when he put on such good food. At some point, I felt like it couldn’t be that hard. ”

The first food Pakkanen prepared was a salmon box. That’s what his roommate had been doing. Frost wanted to beat his friend off the board and added double amounts of cheese and cream to the food. There was no going back: food became one of the centers of life.

In the literature, food descriptions have many functions. Gastronomy, in particular, plays a key role in detective novels – gloomy crime scenes as a counterweight to descriptions of sensual delicacies. Long lunches and delicious dinners rhythm that way Georges Simenonin than Rex Stoutin too books. In Finland, so-called gastrodeckers have written, among other things Heikki Valkama and Vera Vala.

Food came into Outi Pakkanen’s books a bit by accident, with the character Anna Laine. An example of this was Pakkanen’s former coworker, who ate all the time, or if he didn’t eat, talked about food. Initially, Anna Laine was supposed to appear in only one book, but readers fell in love with the resourceful graphic designer. And as Laine became familiar to readers, the landline began to ring more and more often. Fans wanted to know how Anna Laine made her familiar food from the pages of the works.

Pakkanen began listing recipes at the end of his book. Not to have to repeat them separately on the phone. Since then, Anna Laine’s instructions have also been compiled into a cookbook.

Yes, the veteran detective realizes that this half of the books is important to his readers.

“I personally like the description of food, for example Donna Leonin on the rolls of. It doesn’t even hurt, even though their plot is exactly the same every time. ”

He thinks for a moment and laughs.

“Maybe that’s what’s in my books, too.”