Finnish Christmas casseroles vol.1: Carrot Casserole. Oh my, this dish is so delicious! Carrot Casserole (Porkkanalaatikko) is a staple at the Finnish Christmas table alongside swede, potato, and sometimes liver, casseroles. However, when it comes to most people’s favourite Christmas casserole, carrot one is usually the winner. It is sweet and creamy, comfort food at its best! Carrot Casserole is traditionally served as a side dish to baked ham and/or fish, but it is actually very filling and foody as it has some rice in it as well. Just to warn you, you will be going back for seconds…
Carrot Casserole
🍴 Servings: 8
🕒 Hands-on: ~ 25 minutes
🎛 Cooking time: ~ 1.5 hours (hob + oven)
INGREDIENTS
- 1kg carrots
- 500ml water
- 1 tsp salt
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ - 150ml (120g) pudding rice
- 200ml cream (double)
- 100ml milk (full-fat)
- 1 egg
- 50ml golden syrup
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp white pepper
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
Plus
- 15 – 25g butter
- 2 tbsp (15g) fine breadcrumbs
STEPS
1 Peel and roughly chop the carrots. Put them into a saucepan with the salt and add enough water to just about cover the carrots. Cook until soft, for about 20-25 minutes.
2 Drain the carrots reserving the cooking water. Put the cooking water into a smaller saucepan and set the carrots aside. You can leave them in the same pan you cooked them in.
3 Next, put the pudding rice in the reserved water and cook uncovered on a low heat until all water is absorbed, for about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.
4 Meanwhile, purée the carrots using a hand blender. Once puréed, stir in all remaining ingredients (cream, milk, egg, syrup and seasoning). Add the rice once it is cooked.
Turn the oven on now, preheat it to 170℃. Also grease the oven dish!
5 Transfer the carrot mixture into the buttered dish and smoothen the surface. Make some holes on top using a back of a spoon and add a few (I mean several 😉) knobs of butter. Finish with a light coating of breadcrumbs. Cook in 170℃ (fan) for about 1 hour until the top starts darkening.
Notes:
- Water — You’ll need about ½ litre of water to cook the pudding rice so can always measure it after cooking the carrots to make sure you have enough (you may need to add a tiny bit more). The reason why I prefer using the cooking water is that it has more flavour since the carrots are already cooked in it. But no worries in case you forget to reserve the water, you can use fresh water too. In that case also add about ½ tsp salt
- Rice — You need to use pudding rice when making this casserole, do not try to make it with other type of rice as the texture won’t be right. Also, don’t worry if the rice is not fully cooked in 15 minutes, it will keep cooking in the oven
- Blender — Stick blender is very convenient for puréeing as you can keep the carrots in the same pan you cooked them in. But you can of course use a food processor too to blitz the carrots. Even a potato masher will do the job as they don’t need to be silky smooth
- Syrup — You can substitute golden syrup for dark one or use a mixture of both. Just note that dark syrup has a bit stronger flavour and it also makes the casserole darker
- Oven temperature — You’ll also get great results cooking the carrot casserole in 200℃ (fan) for 45 minutes
- Freezing — If you want to make this casserole ahead, it’s suitable for freezing. You have two options:
1) Freeze the casserole before cooking. Defrost frozen casserole overnight in the fridge and cook in the oven as usual. If you are using this method, you can freeze the casserole without the butter and breadcrumbs and only add them right before cooking it
2) Cook the casserole as usual and freeze after it’s cooled. Defrost frozen casserole overnight in the fridge and simply reheat in the oven for 15-20 minutes
I think uncooked casserole freezes slightly better but both methods work really well 🙂 Tip: Lidded tin foil pans are perfect for freezing, small 400ml ones in particular as they don’t take up much space in the freezer and you can then also cook the casserole(s) in these. For this recipe you’ll need three 400ml containers
ALLERGEN & DIET INFO:
(GF) To make this dish gluten-free, simply leave the breadcrumbs out!
Main equipment:
Saucepan (3L)
Small saucepan
Peeler
Chopping board + knife
Colander (optional)
Hand blender or potato masher
Measuring cup
Oven dish (1.5)
How about also making Swede Casserole while you are at it? The cooking process is almost identical 🙂 ⤵︎
