| 1 | Make the dough: melt the butter and add milk. |
| 2 | Heat the mixture to 100 °F. |
| 3 | Crumble the yeast into a bowl. |
| 4 | Add the butter-and-milk mixture and whip it until the yeast as dissolved. |
| 5 | Add sugar, salt and flour and stir until it becomes a dough. |
| 6 | Cover the bowl and let rise in a warm place for about 40 minutes. |
| 7 | While the dough rises, chop the onion into very small pieces and put in a large frying pan. |
| 8 | Add the ground meat immediately and saute for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. |
| 9 | Add the cooked rice and saute this mixture another 5 minutes. |
| 10 | Add the cream, season to taste with salt and pepper, and turn off the heat. |
| 11 | Let the frying pan stand on the stove, covered, until the dough is ready. |
| 12 | Preheat the oven to 450 °F. |
| 13 | Roll out the dough so it fits in a 12x16 inch baking dish. |
| 14 | Put the dough into the dish so that the dough covers the whole dish (this is the most difficult part; don"t be discouraged if you have to roll out the dough again). |
| 15 | Add the filling on top of the dough. |
| 16 | Whip the egg and spread it over the filling. |
| 17 | Bake it on the bottom rack in the oven for about 20 minutes. |
| 18 | When the pie has cooled off a bit; cut it into pieces that are about 1 ?inches by 6 inches (the traditional size of lihapiirakka in finland). |
| 19 | Serve. |
| 20 | Notes: * finnish meat pie -- this is an excellent-tasting stomach filler. |
| 21 | My dear mother gave me this recipe when i moved away from home. |
| 22 | She probably thought that it would give me that feeling of home. |
| 23 | It does. |
| 24 | I have tried it on my friends and it is always a hit. |
| 25 | My mother is from finland. |
| 26 | Yield: serves 4-* while eating lihapiirakka, you can try the hard work of pronouncing its name. |
| 27 | Liha means meat and piirakka is just piirakka. |
| 28 | The filling can of course be varied. |
| 29 | Other traditional finnish fillings for other piirakkas are blueberries (with some potato flour on top) and cottage cheese. |
| 30 | : difficulty: moderate. |
| 31 | : time: 30 minutes preparation, 30 minutes cooking and cooling. |
| 32 | : precision: measure the crust ingredients carefully. |
| 33 | : krister valtonen : dept. |
| 34 | Of cs, university of linkoping, sweden. |
| 35 | : seismo,mcvax!enea!liuida!obelix!valtonen : |
