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ecipe<br />
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Glögi<br />
There are very few things more Christmassy than a glass of hot mulled wine,<br />
or for Northern Lights’ Finnish co-owner, Pauliina Talvensaari,<br />
a glass of Glögi… best enjoyed with some homemade gingerbread.<br />
Christmas Eve is the main event in Finland; you all<br />
sit down to a big meal and the kids know that once<br />
dinner is finished, that’s when Santa Claus is coming.<br />
Except he’s not called Santa Claus, he’s called<br />
Joulupukki, which translates as ‘Yule Goat’. He<br />
looks the same as Santa Claus here nowadays, but<br />
traditionally he used to be an old man with these<br />
big horns coming out of his head. He was a bit<br />
nastier then – not like the man in the Coca Cola<br />
advert. So the kids will all be eating their dinner as<br />
fast as they can, while the adults are relaxing and<br />
enjoying the food and the atmosphere. Then there<br />
is a loud knock at the door. The children are so<br />
excited and a little bit scared. Santa comes in with<br />
this great big sack full of presents. Usually he asks<br />
the kids to sing to him first, and then he asks each<br />
of them, ‘have you been good or bad?’<br />
The traditional Christmas dinner would be a big<br />
ham – a Christmas ham. Then we have root vegetable<br />
casseroles, like carrot casserole, potato casserole,<br />
swede casserole. Then there’s gravlax. The<br />
pudding we would have is a sort of rice pudding,<br />
and into the pot you put one almond. Whoever<br />
gets the almond will have good luck for the next<br />
year. It all sounds a bit strange and pagan, but even<br />
the adults will be eating the porridge like crazy<br />
trying to find the almond. I’ve never seen people<br />
eating so much porridge!<br />
One bit I forgot to mention is that it’s traditional<br />
before the dinner to go to the sauna. I think the<br />
idea is to be relaxed and refreshed, and clean and<br />
ready to enjoy your meal. Nearly everybody has<br />
their own sauna. It sounds a bit unusual but, it’s<br />
Finland. It’s got probably more saunas than houses.<br />
The thing I like most about Christmas is having all<br />
of the children round, even though my kids aren’t<br />
really children anymore, they’re both grown up –<br />
but they’re always children for their mum. After<br />
the excitement of Santa is over and the children<br />
chill out, you don’t have to rush anywhere, you can<br />
enjoy spending time with your family and friends.<br />
After all of the food, we drink the Glögi. People<br />
enjoy it all around Norway and Sweden and Finland.<br />
Traditionally it’s a Christmas drink, but at the<br />
Northern Lights we serve it all winter – it’s really<br />
popular when it starts to get a little bit colder. It’s<br />
different to mulled wine; it’s more berry-based, we<br />
don’t use any citrus ingredients.<br />
You need a good quality blackcurrant cordial, and<br />
you add cinnamon sticks, cloves – you can add<br />
ginger if you like, or cardamom – stick it all in a<br />
pan and boil it for at least half an hour to give the<br />
flavours of the spices time to soak into the cordial.<br />
Then sieve the spices out.<br />
You need about one fifth of the cordial to four<br />
fifths of red wine, because the blackcurrant has<br />
boiled down and reduced, so the flavour is quite<br />
intense. Depending on the wine you use, you<br />
might want to add sugar – I use a little bit of soft<br />
dark brown sugar – but you just have to taste it and<br />
see. Then the drink is ready. We serve it Nordicstyle,<br />
with flaked almonds and raisins sprinkled in<br />
just before drinking. As told to Rebecca Cunningham<br />
northernlightsbrighton.co.uk<br />
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