Chanterelle and harlequin squash spelt risotto

Here comes another harlequin squash recipe of mine. I coupled it with another seasonal treat, chanterelles, and made a spelt risotto with them. I'm not fortunate enough to get fresh chanterelles at the moment, but definitely do use them instead of dried ones, if you can get some. Otherwise this is quite a basic risotto recipe, rice of course substituted by my favourite, pearled spelt.

These are the things you'll need and the instructions to make it are below.

½ harlequin squash (or a whole small one)

25 g dried chanterelles (or other wild mushrooms, for example porcini would be fine)

1 large shallot

2 garlic cloves

1 l vegetable stock

1 tsp chanterelle fond

1 tbsp olive oil

25 g butter

1 dl dry white wine

1 cup pearled spelt

Fresh savory to taste

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

30 g mature cheddar

Cut the harlequin squash into cubes and remove the seeds.

Soak the chanterelles in water for about 10 minutes. After that, drain them well.

Chop the shallot and garlic finely.

Heat the vegetable stock.

Heat olive oil in a large pan and cook the shallots and garlic until soft. Then also add the harlequin squash cubes and chanterelles to the pan. Cook for a further couple of minutes.

Add the butter to the pan and then the pearled spelt. Cook again for a couple of minutes and make the white wine addition. Let the wine mostly evaporate, and then also add a few ladles of the warm vegetable stock.

If you can get chanterelle fond somewhere, add it to the pan. Alternatively you can also use the soaking water of the mushroom for some extra mushroom taste.

Let the risotto simmer under the lid and keep stirring it and making vegetable stock additions before the pan dries out.

Cook until the spelt is soft, or I prefer al dente, and season with savory, salt and pepper. Season to taste, and add even more wine, if you think it's needed.

Mix in the cheese before serving. I also made some cheddar crisps as decorations on the top.

Enjoy warm! The taste usually gets better when heated up the next day, but I'm rarely patient enough to leave any.

Your VegHog

Stuffed yellow courgette with chanterelles

I have once again found such beautiful ingredients here in Finland, so I had to start cooking. This dish really contains the taste of the season. I stuffed a yellow courgette with a chanterelle, new onion and pearled spelt mix, and I think that everyone quite liked it. Here are the instructions.

Ingredients for the stuffed courgette:

1 large yellow courgette

100 g chanterelles

1 new onion of the season

1 dl pearled spelt

150 g grated emmental

1 vegetable stock cube

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Method

Cook the pearled spelt in water with an added vegetable stock cube until tender. This takes about 15 minutes.

Chop the onion finely and cook it in vegetable oil until soft.

Cut the courgette in half lengthwise and carve two hollow boats from it, save the pulp from the inside. Then quickly cook the halves in a pan in little vegetable oil so that they get a bit warmed on each side.

Add the courgette pulp into the onion pan, and then also add the finely chopped chanterelles. Cook the mix for a few minutes and then add the cooked spelt (where any excess water has been removed from) and half of the grated emmental into the pan. Season with ground black pepper. I didn't add any extra salt as the stock cube already made the spelt quite salty and the cheese adds a certain saltiness as well.

Fill the courgette boats with the spelt and chanterelle mix and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on the top.

Bake them in the oven at 200C for about 20 minutes until the crust is crisp and the courgettes have cooked, but still have a certain bite to them.

You can serve some sauteed chanterelles on the side like I did. Just cook them in butter with chopped onion for a few minutes and maybe add some salt and pepper.

I also served pettuleipä with this dish (wartime bread, where part of the flour has been replaced by ground tree bark) that I bought at the 18th century market in Isokyrö. It was plenty chewy, but actually tasted a little of pine.

So, that's the dish, I hope you enjoyed this post! See you soon!

Your VegHog

 

Mushroom and pearled spelt stew

I have heavily fallen for the taste and texture of pearled spelt, and this time I made a very mushroomy and herby stew out of it. No need to beat around the bush, let's get cooking!

Ingredients

15g dried chanterelles

5g dried porcini

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

200g small button mushrooms

1tbsp olive oil

1 cup pearled spelt

100ml dry white wine

500ml vegetable stock

1tsp salt

½tsp black pepper

Rosemary

Thyme

Sage

Method

Soak the dried mushrooms for about 15 minutes, drain them and save the soaking water for later.

Chop the shallots and garlic finely. Wash the button mushrooms, they don't need any chopping as they already are small.

Cook the shallots and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add the soaked mushrooms and the button mushrooms and cook for a couple of minutes more. Then also add the pearled spelt and after a moment stirring, pour in the wine. Let the wine evaporate a little and then add the vegetable stock and the mushroom soaking water and let it all simmer under lid until the spelt is cooked.

Season with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and sage to taste and it's done. I served the stew with my chanterelle focaccia. 

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Chanterelle focaccia

Focaccia is a fine style of bread, quick to make and only your imagination limits what to top it with. I made a chanterelle mushroom variation, which is slightly different to the typical ones, but it worked very well. I had to use dried chanterelles, but do use fresh ones whenever you can get any, as they are much better. Their distinctive flavour is present in the dried mushrooms, but it's just not the same.

10g dried chanterelles

500ml wheat flour

1tbsp dry yeast

200ml water

1tsp sugar

1tsp salt

2tbsp olive oil

20g grated emmental

Rosemary

Thyme

Sea salt

Mix the flour and yeast, then add the lukewarm water, sugar, salt and olive oil. Knead the dough and let it rise for about 30 minutes under a tea towel.

Soak the mushrooms for about 10 minutes, drain and cook briefly in a pan until the excess liquid has evaporated.

Hand-stretch the dough on a baking tin lined with baking parchment.

Sprinkle the grated cheese, rosemary, thyme, sea salt and chanterelles on the top.

Bake at 220C for about 20 minutes.

Serve with a salad, soup or stew, or just on its own.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Creamy chanterelle sauce

I figured that some sort of gravy or sauce is definitely needed to accompany a Christmas meal, and I really prefer a creamy chanterelle sauce for this purpose (chanterelles are also known as golden chanterelles or girolles). This recipe is for a very basic, yet tasty sauce made of my favourite mushrooms. I was even lucky enough to find some fresh chanterelles in an English food market in December, so it's looking promising. Of course you can also use frozen or dried chanterelles, if you won't be able to get any fresh ones.

Ingredients

200g fresh chanterelles

2 shallots

10g butter

250ml oat cream

1tsp salt

½tsp ground black pepper

Method

Clean the chanterelles up and chop them into smaller pieces if they are very large.

Heat the butter in a pan and add the shallots. Sweat them at moderate heat for a few minutes.

Then also add the chanterelles and sauté them in the butter for a couple of minutes.

Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper and add the oat cream.

Simmer the sauce for a few minutes so that the cream gets infused with the fine and mild peppery chanterelle taste. Don't simmer it too long as the mushrooms can easily become chewy.

I served this sauce with mashed potatoes, and in my eyes that really is a winning combination. You can serve it with whatever other lovely veggie delights you have at your Christmas table.

Your VegHog

Chanterelle risotto

Chanterelles are in season and they are in fact my favourite mushrooms. Therefore I made this tasty risotto and I can only recommend it. It's also already September and I like autumn food (soups, squashes, mushrooms...), so in the near future I will be sharing some delicious autumnal recipes with you. 

Ingredients

2 cups arborio rice

1l fresh chanterelles

1 small red pepper

1 onion

1 cloveless garlic (This was a novelty for me but I detected it in a Finnish supermarket and found it to be brilliant, you could also use 2 regular garlic cloves instead)

1l vegetable stock

1dl dry Riesling (Riesling is one of my favourite white wines and it's so nice with chanterelles)

Grated emmental cheese (Red-label emmental is great for this dish, it has matured for about 6 months and is strong and aromatic)

50g butter

Vegetable oil

Fresh parsley

Black pepper

Nettle salt (Himalayan pink crystal salt with dried nettles)

Method

Clean the chanterelles up. Lightly sauté them in butter for only about 3 minutes and set them to side. They will be added to the risotto later.

Chop the onion, garlic and pepper and fry them in vegetable oil for about 5 minutes. Add some butter and the rice. Make a white wine addition once the rice is translucent. Let the wine evaporate and make a vegetable stock addition. Now let it all simmer until the rice is cooked al dente. Stir the risotto often and add more vegetable stock when the previous addition has evaporated. Add about 1dl of grated emmental.

Towards the end add the chanterelles to the pan and season with parsley, pepper and salt. Add more butter or cheese if needed. Let it simmer for a few minutes more and then serve with some nice fresh summer salad and a glass of Riesling.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Creamy chanterelle orzo pasta

Chanterelles are probably my favourite mushrooms. They are so cute and tasty and also very special as I only rarely eat them.

Ingredients:

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

1 cup of dried chanterelles

100ml cream

Orzo pasta

Thyme

Salt

Pepper

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Olive oil

Simple steps:

Soak the chanterelles in water for 15 minutes. Chop the onion and garlic and grate the veggie pasta cheese. Heat olive oil in a pan and fry the onions, garlic and chanterelles. Add the cream after a while and let it soak in the lovely flavours and stir occasionally while simmering at moderate heat.

Season with thyme, salt and pepper. Add some vegetarian pasta cheese into the sauce and save a few cheese shavings for the presentation.

Boil the pasta and when it's al dente mix it with the sauce and your dish is ready to be served.

Your VegHog