Chanterelle pasta + Fruit park

Chanterelles are my absolute favourite mushrooms, and luckily this year the season still continues and there are good ones in the market. I made just a basic pasta with pan-fried chanterelles, onion, garlic and grated cheese. I used carrot tagliatelle in this dish to make it even more orange and yellow. This is the true colour of this season's food.

I also wanted to share some photos from this delightful little park, or actually a childrens' playground that we stumbled upon last weekend. It's not very far from my home, but I have never seen it before. Aren't those wooden fruits just so cute! This is what Copenhagen is all about, surprising semi-hidden places all over the city for the locals to enjoy and for the visitors to admire. I would like to take some dishes to be photographed here, for example on that cut apple, but maybe that goes too far.

This Saturday morning started cloudy and a bit drizzly. I'm going out soon anyway for a little walk and visit to the vegetable market. Later we will probably also go to a local beer release party and a street food market. But otherwise I think I'll prefer pottering around at home today. It's so cosy to stay indoors and light a couple of candles.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Chanterelle and kale tart

I wanted to share this chanterelle and kale tart with you that I made for our Finnish Your Dinner event last week. It was a very simple recipe, but so tasty with the fresh seasonal chanterelles. I haven't made many tarts this summer, which is a shame, but I think that they would be great in the autumn too.

This weekend has been very relaxing, as we didn't have any particular plans. I think we'll go for a walk in the park now and maybe have a light lunch or snack out. How has your Sunday been so far?

Chanterelle and kale tart

Ingredients

100 g chanterelles

25 g butter

2 cups shredded kale

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Few sprigs of fresh thyme

100 g cheese

200 g pastry

Method

Chop the chanterelles coarsely. Smaller mushrooms can be left as a whole. Also chop the onion and garlic finely.

Sautée all these ingredients in a pan for a few minutes so that the excess liquid from the mushrooms evaporates.

Season the mix with salt, ground black pepper and a little bit of fresh thyme.

Roll out the pastry and place it in a tart tin. Blind bake it in the oven for a few minutes.

Then put the shredded kale and mushroom mix onto the pastry, followed by the cheese and bake at 200 C for about 20 minutes or until done.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Rye bread with buttered chanterelles

The fresh chanterelles from Sweden have arrived in our vegetable markets, and I couldn't be more delighted about it. Even our tiny local supermarket has some! Chanterelles are my favourite mushrooms and I like using them whenever I can get hold of them. They are the true gold of the north and this is my favourite kind of comfort food.

This time I made a Nordic chanterelle classic, buttered chanterelles with onion on toasted rye bread. I also added some garlic, salt, ground black pepper and fresh thyme. I quickly fried the mushrooms in butter, but had to be careful not to fry them too long, as they can easily get soggy, and they only need a very brief frying. I rarely use real butter these days, but for some dishes it's definitely worth it.

The seedy rye bread was also from a local bakery that make such tasty breads and pastries. I have actually found my sweet tooth a little bit here again due to the pastries and lovely ice-cream available.

This was a wonderful Sunday brunch for us, which we will be enjoying more often in this fresh wild mushroom season. I'm even planning to freeze some, now that I'm at the source.

Your VegHog

Wild mushroom and crown prince squash spelt risotto

Hello everyone! It's a beautiful sunny Saturday and I'm soon heading to the countryside for a walk. I haven't been very active outdoors lately, so this will do me some good. Before I go I want to share a recipe from this week, a wild mushroom and crown prince squash spelt risotto.

The beauty of this spelt risotto is that you can have most of the ingredients ready to go in your dry cupboard. You can use whatever nutty squash you have and various dried wild mushrooms. The kalettes are also optional, although it's nice to have something green here. 

Wild mushroom and crown prince squash spelt risotto

Ingredients

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

1 small crown prince squash or other nutty squash

1 tbsp vegetable oil

15 g dried chanterelles or other wild mushrooms

500 ml vegetable stock

1 cup pearled spelt

15 g butter

Fresh parsley to taste

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

100 g kalettes

70 g grated Havarti cheese

Method

Chop the onion and garlic finely. Peel and cut the squash into squares. In the meanwhile heat up the vegetable stock. Crumble the dried mushrooms into the stock and keep it warm.

Start cooking the onion first in a pan in vegetable oil. Fry until soft and browned. Then add the squash pieces. Fry them also for a few minutes and then add the garlic.

After a while add the butter and let it melt. Mix in the pearled spelt. Add a few ladles of the vegetable stock and simmer the risotto under the lid. Keep adding stock and stirring regularly so that the pan doesn’t dry up.

Season the risotto and add the kalettes and cheese a few minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!

Your VegHog

Spelt and forest mushroom nut roast

I have just decorated the Christmas tree and will now start heating the traditional Christmas Eve daytime sauna. But first I wanted to share my spelt and forest mushroom nut roast recipe with you. This dish is going to feature at our family dinner tonight.

Ingredients

3 parsnips
3 carrots
2 onions
1 cloveless garlic
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
10 g dried chanterelles (or other forest mushrooms)
1 dl pearled spelt
4-5 dl vegetable stock
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
400 g peeled and cooked chestnuts 
1/2 dl breadcrumbs

Method

Boil the peeled parsnips and carrots in water until soft and mash them.

Soak the dried chanterelles in water for about ten minutes.

Chop the onions and garlic finely and cook soft in the rapeseed oil.

Add the chanterelles and the spelt with the vegetable stock to the pan and let simmer until all excess water has been absorbed by the spelt and they are cooked. Season with black pepper.

Combine the spelt and root vegetable mixes and lightly crush the chestnuts among the mix. Then stir it into an even batter. Add some breadcrumbs if needed.

Spread the mix into an oven dish and bake at 180C for about 45 minutes.

Enjoy with your Christmas dinner.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Your VegHog