The Favorite Meal #6: Kiija Manty Miller

Last week, I did a favorite meal for the lovely Ms. Kiija Manty Miller. I was so excited when she agreed to do one with me as she was only in town with her husband Brent for a week and had much else to do!

Kiija (pronounced K-aye-ya) and I go way back. We first met in girl scouts when we were about nine; we quit at the same time because of our mutual disgust over the knee-sock tassels and lack of exciting merit badges! She was my first partner-in-crime in the kitchen as well. We were always finding new things to bake and making up new recipes together. This Favorite meal was also a chance for me to know my best friend a little better. I honestly didn’t know whom she’d pick and it was neat to be a part of this with her.

The Favorite Questions
1. Think of a person whom you’d love to have a meal with. 2. Answer these:
who-they are
Edward Jacob Manty, my paternal grandfather
why-they have been chosen
I never had a chance to meet him and I think I’d like a glimpse of what that would’ve been like
what-they have done
struggled through the rigors of rough mining life in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, raising a family including my dad and his sister. Was a miner, a house-builder and mover, among other things. Managed some college education in Milwaukee when his children were young, suffered Tuberculosis and spent a good part of my dad’s formative years in a sanitarium interacting with his family though a thick pane of glass while my dad and grandma did their best with the family business. Eventually settled his family in a ’safe’ ‘new’ rancher complete with nuclear bomb shelter in the basement. Died following his fifth heart attack.
how-they have touched your life
though I never met him, he is my grandfather, the love of my grandmother’s life, and the man who shaped my father and my father, me.
3. Think about the flavors that come to mind when thinking of this person, whether you know for sure they “like” them or not is unimportant, go with your gut here and make a list.
pasties (stew-filled pocket pies- miner food), trenary toast or korpu (a rock-hard UP version of cinnamon toast), meatloaf, egg-cleared coffee (kahvi), homemade raspberry jam and cardamom bread. Root vegetables. No (visible) onions – I remember my grandmother telling me how she always had to bash onions to smithereens and hide them in food to get my grandfather to eat any.

4. What meal would be most appropriate? Breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, snacks, cocktails, midnight snack, whenever!
lunch or afternoon snack

5. What place do you think of or associate this person with? Is it a room? another city? a climate? where?
Cold winter, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, warm hearth, steaming food, family warmth

6. What smells come to mind when thinking of this person and are they associated with anything tactile? (ex: a grandmothers perfume and her favorite scarf… a newborn’s scent and it’s baby blanket…)
coffee, the outdoors, a photo of him helping a very young version of my dad navigate a tricycle.

7. Find one piece of memorabilia that you have of this person, anything that you use as a visual for remembering (ex: a book, a photo, a sweater, a trinket, a necklace, a newspaper article, a movie, a poster, a cd, a toy, a letter ….. )
My folks have a photo.

(The little boy is Dale, Kiija’s dad, and the man above is her Grandfather. So cute! Kiija is third generation Finnish, her grandparents above were first generation, steeped in Finnish culture, language, and tradition by their parents who were from Finland.)

About mid way through the meal as Kiija was telling us the stories that she knows about her grandfather, she decided to call her father, Dale. She was explaining to Brent and I that in Finnish culture emotions and talk of the past are not done very often. They tend to be a bit more stoic of a people who wear their feelings very much so on the inside. When she got Dale on speakerphone, he told us a few stories about his dad. In one story, Dale was about 7 years old and was accused of doing something that he did not do (the actual thing was not remembered but something along the lines of taking one of her dolls). When Dale denied it, because he did not do it, his father reprimanded him hard and sent him to his room. That night, Dale’s father, Kiija’s Grandfather, came into his room to say goodnight and apologized. This was huge and memorable for Dale as his father, a stoic Finnish man, did not often confront feelings. He also told us about fishing with his father which gave them time to spend together one on one. Grandpa Manty had Tuberculoses for many yeas while Dale was still young, making these memories of fishing and doing things together especially poignant and special. Thank you Dale for sharing these stories with your daughter and us!

The Favorite meals are always a challenge for me in the way that I find myself pushed within my culinary boundaries about what I like to eat and don’t eat. One of the best things about doing these meals is that it doesn’t matter what I like or not; it is truly about the other person and their favorite which ultimately allows me to expand my own ideas around food and experience someone else’s. In this particular Favorite meal, the Pasties were a traditional minors food that were eaten in the mines in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I don’t eat very much beef for a lot of reasons, but the main reason is that I have a hard time touching raw meat. However, the recipe for these pasties called for 2 pounds ground beef and some root vegetables, all to be mixed together with your hands. Lesson learned: touching raw meat will not kill me (not that I literally thought it would, but you know how those mental humps can seem so huge!).

Whenever I finish a Favorite meal, I am always amazed at the continuum of connections made between people as a result of having the experience. It always starts out with the Favorite and my participant. However the bonds, understandings, and connections tend to have a ripple effect that I can’t quite anticipate what will happen exactley and am fascinated as they unfold while in the midst of it. Not only did this Favorite turn out to be for Kiija, but it was also shared with her husband Brent and I, her parents who were on speakerphone, the memory of her Grandmother Auni, and respectively, you. It was a chance for me the designer to see these connections in action and unfold through the experience and for Kiija to learn more about her paternal grandfather. As always, I am grateful to have been a part of these experiences. I always come away knowing not only a little more about the people I do them for, but a little more about myself as well.

Pasty Recipe (recipe from the U.P!)

2 lbs ground beef (uncooked)
3-4 good size potatoes
½ large onion
4-5 celery stalks
½ rutabaga (optional, but I suggest at least trying it.)
½ turnip (optional)
12-15 baby carrots
Salt and pepper to taste

Makes 8-10 pasties
Chop potatoes into small squares. About the size of a French fry, cubed. Chop rutabaga, carrots, and turnip into smaller squares. Chop onion into small pieces. Combine everything in a large mixing bowl. (By hand is easiest.)

Roll out pie crust to approx. 9” diameter circles, one for each pasty. (I used my own pie crust recipe here.) Store-bought pie crust works fine too, and is much easier. My mom’s pie crust is the best I’ve had, but I don’t make it anymore, since a major ingredient is lard. And I’ve found the name-brand refrigerated pie crusts from the grocery store are a good substitute. For each crust, put in about 1 cup of the mixture of veggies and ground beef, onto one half of the crust. As you scoop it into a cup, it’s easy to see that you get a good variety of all ingredients. Fold over the crust. Pinch together the edges. Place small slits in the top of the crust.

Bake at 375 for one hour.

Nisu (traditional Finnish cardamom bread)
Makes 2 loaves

1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups milk – scalded and then cooled to lukewarm
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled to lukewarm.
2 packages dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees Farenheit)
1 tsp crushed cardamom seed
Approx. 6 cups flour – enough to make dough firm.

Measure out 1/4 cup of warm water — try using an instant read thermometer to ensure that it is between 110 and 115 degrees Farenheit. Sprinkle the yeast in the water and stir gently to mix. Wait a few minutes to confirm that the yeast has been activated.

Beat the eggs, sugar and salt together using an electric mixer. Mix the scalded milk and melted butter together. Then add the milk/butter mixture to the egg/sugar/salt mixture and blend together with the mixer. Next add the yeast, cardamom seeds, and flour.

Add the flour gradually — I add the flour two cups at a time and mix them in, before adding more. You can mix the flour into the bread dough using an electric mixer. I prefer mixing the flour in by hand, with a mixing spoon. It’s a matter of personal preference — I feel like I have a better sense of the dough’s texture when I mix the flour in using a spoon.

You want the dough to barely stick to the fingers — this may require more than six cups of flour. Add the flour gradually until you get this consistency. Knead the dough on a floured board until the dough comes off your hand. Note that if you mix the flour into the dough with an electric mixer, you do not need to knead the dough.

Place the dough into a bowl, cover with a tea towel, and then put it in the slightly warmed oven to rise. The dough should rise until it is double in size. This will take around two hours.

After the dough has risen for the first time, turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead. Next, divide the dough into six equally sized pieces and pull them into long strips (around 15 to 16 inches in length). Using three strips, braid the dough into a loaf. Repeat braiding to create a second loaf.

Place the loaves on cookie sheets. Note that insulated cookie sheets will prevent the bottoms of the loaves from burning, when they are baked. Alternatively, I stack two cookie sheets with small sides, thus creating a sort of improvised insulated pan. Cover with a tea towel and return to the slightly warmed oven to rise again — to double in size. This will take an hour or two.

After the second rise, remove the breads from the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown. Then brush with a mixture of cold, brewed coffee and sugar, and sprinkle the tops with sugar.

Kahvi- Finnish egg-cleared coffee

The national drink of Finland is coffee and it is enjoyed all day, every day. Their secret for great coffee is to never, never boil it! It should be brought to the boiling point and then taken off the heat.

8 cups cold water
1 egg well washed
16 teaspoons slightly rounded coffee
+1 teaspoon for the pot!

Bring the cold water to a boil in a coffeepot or saucepan. Meanwhile, in small bowl, crush the egg (shell and all) into the dry coffee grounds and mix thoroughly. When the water has come to a rolling boil, add egg-coffee mixture and stir quickly. Let it come to the boiling point, and remove from the heat. Repeat this twice more. Then cover and let stand about 5 minutes so the grounds can settle. Makes 8 cups.