Körpäkkä

This should be no big surprise to anyone who's talked five minutes with me but I'm a rather careless person when it comes to smaller-than-life scale things. When camping for example, I grap along a bit of this and that and only figure out what I'm able to cook out of them when I'm at it.

Körpäkkä is a perfect dish for meals like that as the very idea is making use of things available, usually the remains of the previous meal (much like in pyttipannu). The name just couldn't sound any more traditional but actually it's only about twenty years old, invented by Jaakko Juvonen for his pike dish. Since then it has started to live a life of its own. Sometimes I've seen it explained as something to combine both pork and fish but then again there are quite many versions without either one. This time I wanted to cook something out of golden chanterelles since the forests of Eura were all yellow of them (false chantarelles actually, but I can't really see or taste the difference). Too bad they loose their colour on the pan! I forgot to bring oil or spices so I used the marinade I had made for my seitan cutlets instead.

Maybe it's the outdoors but the sweet combination of chanterelles and turnip spiced up with lemon pepper turned out the most delicious thing I have come up with for a while. My friends noticed it as well and kept stealing yummies right under my nose!

- 5 dl golden chanterelles
- 1 turnip
- 1 onion
- 2 dl soy strips (TSP)
- 100 g Brussels sprout
- 1 dl oat cream
- 1 tablespoon spruce syrup
- 0.5 dl oily seitan marinade (consisting of rape oil, lime juice, ketchup, peanut butter, salt and lemon pepper)

Chop the onion and the turnip and sauté in the marinade. Add the soy strips (no need to moisture beforehand) and the sprouts (halved if they seem large). Let them cook while you was the mushrooms. Add them on the pan as well. When things have aquired some colour, complement with cream and syrup.

For perfection, use large cabbage leaves as plates, enjoy together with unleavened pea bread and finish off with unfiltered coffee.

Nutritional values / 770 g:
energy 609 kcal
fat 31 g
protein 31 g
carbohydrates 50 g
fiber 21 g

Bilberry Möllö ‒ Mustikkamöllö

There's something extremely Finnish about these simple berry desserts. You can tell your kids to go picking berries and when they came back with a full bucket, reward them with a sweet "recovery snack" made out of the berries. The smashing part which these always involve is especially fun. Naturally, the preferred recipes used to differ quite a lot amongst different Finnish peoples but nowadays with the integrated culture we get to enjoy them all. This one is decisively Karelian. Modern versions often use rye bread pieces and cream but somehow, those seem to miss the whole point.

- 2 dl bilberries
- 0.75 dl rye flour
- 1 tablespoon (preferably dark) sugar

Grab a spoon. Mash it all together. Make it disappear.

Nutritional values / 188 g:
energy 260 kcal
fat 2 g
protein 6 g
carbohydrates 55 g
fiber 12 g

Wood Hedgehog Steaks ‒ Kääpäpihvit

Happy Equinox! The time of death is obliviously amongst us. Nights are getting so dark that all my dinner photos look awful plus I've been having a rather dizzying flu for the past few days. No, I'm not exactly an autumn person. Autumns might be nice in their own right but they suffer from the same problem as Sundays which might be idle and comfy if they weren't followed by Mondays. Oh well, a cup of hot chocolate, candles, some classical Russian music and a good book might do the trick.

Albatrellus ovinus (lampaankääpä) and wood hedgehog (rusko-orakas) grow large and fleshy sporocarps perfect for simple mushrooms steaks. You could just put them on the pan with some oil, but I also battered them to keep their inside soft and juicy.

- 4 well-sized mushrooms (about 400 g)
- 1 dl bread crumbs
- 1 dl soy yogurt
- dragon wort
- garlic powder
- white pepper
- salt
- 1 tablespoon rape oil

Wash the mushrooms and remove the bad parts. Trim them so that you end up with flat pieces. Mix the spices with the bread crumbs. Moisture the mushrooms with the soy yogurt and then roll in the bread crumbs. Fry on a medium-temperature pan with the oil until they look golden.

Nutritional values / 579 g:
energy 668 kcal
fat 20 g
protein 22 g
carbohydrates 62 g
fiber 11 g

Pumpkin Soup ‒ Kurpitsakeitto

Couple of weeks ago I accidentally got a huge, home-grown pumpkin. Some of it I stuck into a rye lasagna, some of it I used as an extra spice in my signature tar turnips but most of it was still left. People often make a soup out of it so I decided to try one as well. Now pumpkin is an odd vegetable to me and its taste seems rather faint so I spiced it with exotic spices which I rarely use otherwise, in the same manner as I've previously done to a carrot soup.

- 1 kg pumpkin (or carrots)
- 1 leek
- 1 l water
- 1 tablespoon rape oil
- 2 dl coconut milk (or oat cream)
- 200 g red lentils (or horse beans)
- 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon dark syrup
- 1 dose of stock
- 1 chili
- ginger
- salt

Peel and chop the pumpkin. Don't remove the seeds. Cut the leek into circles. Soften the veggies on a frying pan with the oil. Put them into a pot with the water, the lime and the spices. Cook for about ten minutes. Blend smooth. Add the lentils. The soup is ready when the lentils are done.

Nutritional values / l:
energy 1429 kcal
fat 54 g
protein 67 g
carbohydrates 173 g
fiber 48 g

Creamy Chanterelle Soup ‒ Kermainen vahverokeitto

I've posted a mushroom soup before but this version is from the more classic edge. A chanterelle soup like this is a very common starter, especially this time of the year when the season is on. I used both funnel chanterelles and golden chanterelles but the period when it's possible to find both of them is very short.

- 1 l fresh chanterelles (or 2-3 dl dried ones)
- 8 dl water
- 2 dl oat cream (or soy)
- 1 onion (or half a leek)
- 3 tablespoons wheat flour
- 1 tablespoon rape oil
- 1 dose of stock
- 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons dark syrup (or tar syrup)
- rosemary
- white pepper
- salt

Clean the chanterelles and remove the bad parts. If they're really big you can also cut them into smaller pieces. Chop the onion. Sauté the chantarelles and the onion with the oil in your soup pot.

Sprinkle the flour on the mushrooms and stir. Add the water and other ingredients. Cook until the soup thickens. Garnish with herbs or dried slices of smoked tofu. Serve with rye bread.

Nutritional values / 1 l:
energy 625 kcal
fat 34 g
protein 17 g
carbohydrates 59 g
fiber 10 g

Bolete Pasta ‒ Tattipasta

Looks like this is going to be a terrific mushroom year so I'll be probably posting a lot of mushroom recipes. Boletes (tatit in Finnish) are among my favourites: easy to identify and always tasty. They're pretty safe even for a beginner like me since there's only one common bolete you shouldn't pick (Tylopilus felleus) and even that one isn't poisonous, just bad tasting. The only problem is all kinds of maggots love them too. You have to pick them very young if wanting to keep the meal vegan. I had to throw away my first catch since I picked individuals too big and didn't remove all holey parts on the spot. The next day they were all swarming. This time I was wiser.

A creamy pasta dish is definitely something that makes justice to their delicate taste. I used punikkitatti (Leccinum) and kangastatti (Suillus variegatus) the flesh of which turns strikingly blue in contact with air.

- 2 dl fresh boletes or 1 dl dried ones (clean and sliced)
- 250 g dark pasta
- 1 onion
- 1 apple
- 2 dl soy yogurt
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (I use a market brand, X-tra)
- 1 tablespoon margarine (I use Keiju 70%)
- 1 small bunch of parsley
- 2 cloves of garlic
- black pepper
- salt

Cook the pasta in salty water. Mince the onion and fry it in margarine. When the edges start to acquire colour, add the mushrooms and the apple, also chopped. Sauté them lightly. When the apple starts to be mushy, combine with the pasta. Add everything else and stir couple of times.

Enjoy with white wine.

Nutritional values / 982 g:
energy 1701 kcal
fat 31 g
protein 59 g
carbohydrates 192 g
fiber 24 g