Mitä me juomme jouluaattona?

While I was getting my head kicked in at the Christmas blitz tournament of Fitschel's club, he suggested that I could also write some posts in Finnish (yet also give the translations, of course). This was most likely a reaction to my explanation that I'm writing in English here because I want to improve my writing skills.

His idea has some merit but I don't think I would be able to write in Finnish without causing native Finnish speakers' eyeballs to fall out. I surely could write correctly in an orthographic sense but I don't think that I have got enough experience with the Finnish colloquialisms to make reading worthwhile.

What I'm going to do instead is presenting a recipe for Glögi, i.e. the Finnish version of the infamous Glühwein that is keeping the lot of us alive while we are wandering across our favourite Christmas Market.

I got hold of this recipe 5 years ago when my Finnish teacher asked me to prepare Glögi for the Christmas dinner of our Finnish class at university. Since then I made a pot of Glögi for my family's Christmas dinner every year. So here we go:

Ainekset (1 1/2 litraa)
Ingredients (1 1/2 litres)

• 1 pullo punaviiniä
  (1 bottle of red wine)
• 2 dl kirkasta viinaa
  (2 dl of clear schnapps, i.e. Korn)
• 1 kanelitanko
  (1 cinnamon stick)
• 4 kokonaista neilikkaa
  (4 whole cloves)
• 1 inkiväärinpala
  (1 piece of ginger)
• 1 dl rusinoita
  (1 dl of raisins)
• 1 dl kaltattuja manteleita
  (1 dl of roasted almonds)
• sokeria
  (sugar)
• suikaloitua appelsiininkuorta
  (orange zest, i.e. grated orange paring)

Valmistus
Preparation

Kaada viini ja viina kattilaan. Lisää kanelitanko, neilikat ja inkivääri. Kuumenna juoma varovasti kiehuvaksi (älä päästä kiehahtamaan). Lisää kattilaan rusinat ja mantelit ja makeuta glögi tarvittaessa sokerilla. Koristele glögi suikaloidulla appelsiininkuorella.

Put the wine and schnapps into a pot. Add the cinnamon stick, cloves and ginger. Bring the beverage to the boil carefully (don't keep on boiling). Add the raisins and almonds and sweeten the Glögi as you please. Decorate the Glögi with orange zest.

Cheers and Merry Christmas to all of you!

PS: I think I wanted to say "Kippis ja hyvää joulua kaikille!" (-: