When I make rice, I want Karjalan Piirakka

If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for  . . . 

Yesterday I was making rice for lunch and it made me think of making rice porridge 

which made me think of Karjalan Piirakka. 

Then, I remembered my Mother recently talking about how she'd always wanted to try Karjalan Piirakka made with barley porridge filling, but she had never made it, which made me want to try it. 

For the Barley Filling, just follow the instructions on the package, but then add about 5-6 cups of milk to cook with it as well to make it porridge like you do for the rice porridge.

I attempted this with whole barley grain and it was a miserable failure.  I  guess that's why there is such a product as "Quick Barley" because I  cooked the other all day and it still wasn't ready and when it was I never could get it like a porridge.  

Here you see the different looks on this cookie sheet full with some barley ones and some rice ones.  You can see the flecks in the barley and they are darker, especially in the picture above.

I read an old Finnish cookbook that even adds carrot in with the rice.  Yummy.  Sounds like Porkkana Laatikko to me. 

And of course you can use  mashed potatoes for the filling.  This is what they used during the war when neither rice nor barley was easily available.

Now my Mother suggests trying rutabaga filling.  I found this recipe blog, mainly Estonian  (cousins to the Finns), but a few Finnish recipes and one is for Karelian pasties. Check her out.  She confirms many fillings may be used!