Porcini spelt risotto

I just love this mushroom season that's still very much going on over here. We are getting the most beautiful local fresh porcini mushrooms from our vegetable market. They are only quite pricey at the moment, so I have to plan the dishes carefully. But of course it's totally worth it. Porcini mushrooms are called Karl Johan svampe here and are quite popular in cooking. Last weekend we were served a lovely dish cooked with them when we went out.

As I bought a small batch of these lovely mushrooms, I decided to make this well-liked classic in our household, spelt risotto, with them. Most of the time I add dried porcini mushrooms to my risottos, but the fresh ones were so good. I also love their quirky looks with long stems and different shapes, and they tasted absolutely gorgeous. The dish turned out really great and I'll have to make this again while the mushrooms are still available. Have a look at my recipe below.

Porcini spelt risotto

Ingredients

150 g fresh porcini

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

2 tbsp olive oil for frying

1 tbsp butter

2 cups pearled spelt

1/2 cup dry white wine

500 ml vegetable stock

Generous amount of fresh parsley

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Method

Clean the mushrooms first. Don't wash them, just brush any dirt off with a moist cloth or a brush. Then slice them.

Also chop the onion and garlic finely and start cooking them in oil. Once they are translucent, add the sliced mushrooms and fry them a little.

The add the butter, followed by the pearled spelt. Pour the white wine in the pan and let it absorb. Finally start making warm vegetable stock additions and let the spelt risotto simmer.

Cook until the pearled spelt is soft and season to taste with the fresh parsley, salt and pepper.

Enjoy as a warming and cosy autumn dish!

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

Pearl barley and porcini Schnitzel

Guess what? It's veggie burger time, and that always means good times for me! Today's burger Schnitzel is a mushroomy one paired with healthy and earthy pearl barley.

Ingredients

15g dried porcini mushrooms

150g pearl barley

1tbsp vegetable stock powder

2 garlic cloves

1 onion

4tbsp barley flour

1 egg

Ground black pepper

Nettle salt

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Soak the pearl barley overnight in water. On the next day boil the pearl barley in water with added vegetable stock powder for about one hour until tender. Drain the pearl barley and remove all excess fluid.

Chop the garlic and onion and crush the dried porcini. Soak the porcini for about 30 minutes. Mix all these ingredients with the pearl barley.

Add the flour, egg and seasoning to the bowl and mix carefully. The mixture should reach a fairly firm texture so that the Schnitzel hold well together. Shape Schnitzel of the mixture.

Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the Schnitzel on both sides until they are golden brown.

Serving suggestion

Serve the Schnitzel with smoked pepper hummus, potato flatbreads and sweet potato oven chips on the side.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Homemade hedgehog shaped ravioli with mushroom filling, parsley and lemon butter and steamed asparagus

It's the Hedgehog Awareness Week 2013 (5.-11. May) so just to spread the word I came up with this idea to make whimsical hedgehog shaped ravioli. Asparagus is ideal on the side as it's now in season and the mushroom filling is in my opinion also very suitable to the hog theme.

All you need is a hedgehog cookie cutter, mine is from Ikea's current range and a pasta machine that makes your life a whole lot easier. You could theoretically cut every hedgehog individually with a knife or pastry cutter but that really is a massive task.

Parsley and lemon butter:

100g butter

½ lemon

A few leaves of fresh parsley

This is a fresh and quick herb butter to make and goes well with many vegetables. I find it especially tasty with asparagus.

Make this butter first with just a few easy steps. Take soft butter and squeeze the juice of half a lemon to it. Then chop parsley leaves and mix all these ingredients together. Roll to a small rod in cling film and let set in the fridge.

Ravioli filling:

A handful of porcini mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic

1tsp vegetable stock powder

A few leaves of fresh parsley

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Roasted pine nuts

Bread crumbs

Olive oil

This is a very savoury and strong mushroomy filling, therefore it doesn't need a strong sauce to go with it.

Rehydrate the dried porcini mushrooms in a small amount of water containing a teaspoon of vegetable stock powder. When the mushrooms are soft heat a little oil in a pan and lightly fry the mushrooms there so that they can lose the excess fluid. Add the finely chopped garlic and fry a moment longer.

Grate the cheese, chop the parsley leaves and grind the pine nuts. Add some bread crumbs to remove any excess fluid. Then mix the mushrooms with those ingredients and let the mix set in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Pasta:

400g grade 00 pasta flour

4 eggs

Salt

My pasta dough recipe is for a large dough, which makes about 25 raviolis and they can even be slightly thicker. Please read my more thorough ravioli making tips here. Make only half of the dough if you don't have several hungry eaters.

Knead the ingredients to a firm and even dough and then let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes wrapped in cling film. Once the dough has rested long enough start either rolling out sheets of it with a rolling pin, which requires a lot of strength, or work it through a pasta machine to produce thin sheets. I personally don't find super thin pasta so good for ravioli as thicker ones hold better together and are more filling.

When the pasta sheets are rolled out start cutting the hedgehog shapes out, fill them with the mushroom mix, brush the sides with water and press two hog pieces firmly together. Repeat several times and cook the ravioli in boiling salt water for about 10-12 minutes. The ravioli are done when they float on the surface.

Steamed asparagus:

Asparagus is finally in season and you should be able to obtain lovely local produce. At the same time as boiling the pasta steam them to keep the flavour strong, glaze with the parsley and lemon butter and serve as a side dish.

Finally make a masterpiece on the plate with hedgehogs snuffling in the undergrowth. Let parsley and lemon butter melt also on the ravioli, add some fresh pea shoots to the presentation and enjoy.

Some just can't get enough of hibernation...

Happy Hedgehog Awareness Week!

Your VegHog

Char-grilled butternut squash and pepper risotto

I'm char-grilling again as I'm still excited about my newish griddle pan. I char-grilled the veg beforehand for my risotto and the result was rather spectacular if I may say so myself. There is a nice grilling flavour going through the dish that gives a twist to a normal vegetarian risotto. Making risotto from scratch isn't as complicated as people might think, you only need some patience and stirring strength.

Ingredients

1 Pepper

½ Butternut squash

A few dried porcini mushrooms

1 Cup arborio rice

1 Onion

2 Cloves of garlic

White wine

Vegetable stock

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Olive oil

Groundnut oil

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Parsley

Method

Wash and slice the pepper and butternut squash. The bits for the char-grilling should be much larger than those you put into the risotto. Heat the griddle pan, add groundnut oil and mark these vegetables so that they get grilling stripes on both sides. When the veg bits are grilled, chop them into smaller pieces and set to side.

In the meanwhile prepare the vegetable stock and soak the dried porcini mushrooms. Warm the vegetable stock up in a pan and add parsley into it. Chop the onion and garlic and grate the pasta cheese.

Heat olive oil in a pan and fry onions and garlic there for a while. Add the porcini and fry them for a while. Then add the butter and rice and fry until the rice is translucent. Then make a white wine addition. Let the wine evaporate almost entirely and put the grilled vegetables to the pan and stir through. Make a vegetable stock addition and let simmer under the lid.

Stir often and add more vegetable stock whenever needed. Let simmer at moderate heat until the rice is al dente. Season with grated pasta cheese, parsley salt and pepper and you're ready to serve!

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Porcini mushroom soup

Mushroom, mushroom! Ahh, what could ever taste better? The VegHog is a total mushroom fan and today it's making a porcini musroom soup for you. A soup is such a great warming and filling winter meal and a firm VegHog favourite.

Porcini  are lovely mushrooms for soups, risotto etc. The VegHog is slightly biased and claims that the Finnish porcini are the tastiest as the origin is really important. I happened to have a bag of dried Finnish porcini here, so that's what this soup is made of. I appreciate that you probably won't be able to get the Finnish ones but do not worry, your soup will be tasty nevertheless. It's quite handy to have a selection of dried mushrooms in your cupboard.

This is how it's made: Dried porcini are perfectly good for this soup, so put them into water to soak for about 30 minutes. In this case I used a bag of 25g. Chop onions, garlic and potatoes. Prepare a vegetable stock. You can make your own, use dried powder to mix or buy a ready fluid stock. I'm normally too lazy to make my own but in case you make a larger batch, you can even freeze chunks of it which should come in handy. Here is a vegetable stock recipe for you.

Heat oil in a pan, add onions and garlic first and fry them a bit. Then add porcini and potatoes. Fry until potatoes get slightly brown colour and then add a little bit vegetable stock to the hot pan. Let boil and stir occasionally, also add salt, pepper and parsley. Later add the rest of your stock and cook under the lid until potatoes are tender.

Once everything is cooked, puree the soup with a hand mixer and serve hot garnished with parsley. It can be so easy to make a tasty soup.

As you noticed this meal was once again vegan but if you want to add some extra flavour, you can use butter for the frying or add cream to the soup at a later stage.

These notebooks by The Gift Republic make good recipe books. Please note that not all mushrooms depicted are edible! It's best to stick to mushrooms from the shops anyway if you aren't an expert.