Stuffed Parasol Mushrooms ‒ Täytetyt ukonsienet

I've noticed that when seeing a new mushroom, if I instantly recognize what it is, I'm usually right. If I need to ponder, it's better to leave it in the forest. My first two parasol mushrooms clearly fell into the first category.

I haven't been that excited for a while. Parasol mushrooms look majestic. Their Finnish name ukonsieni, Ukko's mushroom, places them in the direct protection of the Finnish thunder god himself. They're huge in size, and the biggest ones can have a cap up to 30 cm in diameter. Their patterns are among the most beautiful ones with a weirdly snake-like features.

I rushed to sit by them. With trembling hands I dug my mushroom guide from my bag to check they match the description before proceeding to actually pick them. At home I drew some spontaneous awes when showing the twins off. And my spouse double checked I'm not mistaking them for royal fly agarics (ruskokärpässieni).

Parasols are thought as one of the finest tasting mushrooms there are. They have this nutty, slightly sweet aroma that often gets to be described as resembling almond. Many people use the caps as steaks in the same way as with sheep polypore. I copied my favourite mushroom recipe writer, Kirsti Eskelinen in her book Sienestäjän suosikit (Gummerus 2012) by turning the caps into cups. The stuffing here is my own adaptation though, so don't blame her in case something goes wrong. Either way, the woodier stalks go well in a soup base or can be dried, ground and used as a spice.

- 2 parasol mushroom caps (or other large enough mushroom caps)
- 2 slices of a big zucchini (or 2 big beet leaves)
- 1 small turnip
- 1 small onion
- 1 dl oat cream
- 2 tbsp rape oil
- 2 tbsp bread crumbs
- lemon pepper
- salt

Mince the onion. Peel and chop the turnip. Sauté both on a pan. Spice with lemon pepper and salt.

Roll the zucchini slices or beat leaves around the mushroom caps so they'll form a bowl. If you have trouble keeping them together, secure with a toothpick.

Scoop the onion and turnip inside the caps. Pour cream on them generously. Stick with a spoon a little to make sure the cream is evenly distributed. Finnish with breadcrumbs.

Set in a 200°C oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve as an appetizer or evening snack.

Nutritional values / mushroom / 320 g :
energy 277 kcal
fat 20 g
protein 5 g
carbohydrates 19 g
fiber 5 g

Gold Panner's Pots ‒ Kullanhuuhtojan ruukut

Things are really starting to look like autumn already, or at least like the harvest season. I accidentally emptied the market square in our neighbourhood. Only after that did I actually start to wonder what I could cook from all my beautifully golden turnips and stuff. The idea for this dish came from a bit different recipe, but I kept the name since the idea is still to feature golden-coloured ingredients. The place of gold panning in Finland is in the most northern part of the country, so they have a certain Lapland-theme. If you're serving a dessert, something with cloudberries would fit perfectly.

- 1 l golden chanterelles
- 2 turnips
- 300 g firm smoked tofu
- 4 shallots
- 2 dl oat cream
- 0.5 dl tar liqueur
- 0.5 dl rowan berries (sea buckthorn works as well)
- oil for frying
- pink peppercorn
- fresh chervil (or other mild herb)
- salt

Rye crust:
- 2 dl rye flour
- 1 dl water
- 1 dl wheat flour
- 1 tbsp oil
- 0.5 tsp salt

Start with the crust. Just mix the ingredients together with your hand. Move the chunk into the fridge for a while.

Plane thin slices out of the tofu. Fry on a pan with just a hint of oil until they've dried up a bit and perhaps curved from the edges. Peel the turnips, then chop them along with the onions and the mushrooms. Show them the pan as well, this time with a bit of more oil.

Mince the chervil and crush most of the rowan berries. Combine everything in a bowl. Divide evenly between oven-proof coffee mugs or other such serving-size pots (I got four of them). Add water to fill them up with liquid. Take the crust out of the fridge and divide into as many pieces as you have pots. Roll them into circles wide enough to cover the whole pot.

Move the pots into oven. As a precaution not to break the dishes, don't turn on the oven before this, so they'll get to warm up slowly along with the oven. Turn it to 200°C and leave them there for about half an hour or until the crusts look done.

Nutritional values /  1903 g:
energy 1917 kcal
fat 80 g
protein 89 g
carbohydrates 178 g
fiber 48 g

Turnip Porridge ‒ Naurispuuro

I know I just posted a dish combining turnip and barley but they happen to work so well together. Besides, I had to use the rest of the turnips somewhere so one of the numerous Finnish root vegetable porridges felt appropriate. This very same breakfast meal is just as often done with potato but you might also want to try carrot or rutabaga. The relation between turnip and barley varies quite a lot in different recipes; I prefer mine with more turnip and less flour.

- 700 g turnips
- 2 dl barley flour
- 7 dl water
- salt

Peel and chop the turnips. Cook them until soft. Puré with the water. Add more water if the result looks too thick (sometimes beer is used but in that case you should be very careful). Sift in the flour and the salt. Simmer for another 20 minutes. Eat while still hot!

Nutritional values / 1530 g:
energy 575 kcal
fat 5 g
protein 18 g
carbohydrates 113 g
fiber 23 g

Tarry Barlotto ‒ Tervainen ohratto

One-pot meals are quick to prepare which is just perfect this time of the year when you just want to get all the possible extra minutes to take a walk outside. I'm not always so certain whether they really require a recipe but at least different recipes are good for sharing combination ideas. This is a colourful, savoury dish that features some of my favourite ingredients.

- 4 dl whole barley grains
- 150 g tempeh (or smoked tofu)
- 2 turnips
- 1 carrot
- half a leek
- 5 dl water
- 1 dl oat cream
- 0.5 dl tar liqueur
- 1 tablespoon rape oil (I prefer cold pressed type)
- 1 dose of stock
- rosemary
- curry
- salt

Sauté the barley. In the meanwhile, peel and chop the veggies. Cut the tempeh as well. Move the barley aside for a moment and do the same for the turnips, the carrot and if you wish, the tempeh. When they're starting to look tasty, throw in the rest. Let the barlotto simmer until most of the liquid has vaporized (about half an hour).

Nutritional values / 1300 g (not counting the liqueur):
energy 1726 kcal
fat 48 g
protein 72 g
carbohydrates 256 g
fiber 52 g

Turnip Discs ‒ Nauriskiekot

Every now and then I manage to find real swidden turnips (kaskinauris, the earliest turnip variety cultivated by Finno-Ugric peoples). Since it's a rare pleasure I want to savor them on their own, cooked in a simple and humble way.

- 500 g turnips
- about 0.5 dl spruce syrup (plus some water if it looks too thick)
- 2 dl bread crumbs (preferably rye)
- 0.5 dl nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons mustard powder
- herb salt
- powdered orange zest or ginger
- rape oil for frying (about 2 tablespoons)

Wash the turnips carefully and remove the bad parts. Cut thick slices out of them with a good knife. Mix the bread crumbs, the nutritional yeast and the spices. Pat the discs with spruce syrup (I find this easiest to do with fingers). Dip the discs in the bread crumb mixture and throw on a hot and oiled frying pan. Turn them over a few times to get them evenly cooked. The discs are ready to eat as soon as they've acquired that beautiful golden colour.

Nutritional values / 702 g:
energy 981 kcal
fat 39 g
protein 27 g
carbohydrates 129 g
fiber 14 g

Karelian Pasties ‒ Karjalanpiirakat

Yesterday was Finland's Independence Day. In most countries, that's a lively carnival. In Finland it has evolved into a more dignified, even pious day, largely consisting of remembering World War II and honouring the veterans who ‒ as the only nation ‒ managed to fight back against Stalin's invasion. For my generation which doesn't even remember there ever existed a place called Soviet Union it's more about gathering together some friends, burning candles, eating well, talking about new laws that threaten our freedom of speech or right to privacy and of course, laughing at the dresses of the president's ball that YLE broadcasts every year.

While others played a game where you get a point every time you know a name of a ball guest and another one from knowing the reason they're invited I pinched up some Karelian pasties. From numerous hand-size Karelian pie types these are the ones that have an almost iconic status so I thought they'd make an appropriate snack for Independence Day. They have a thin rye crust and just about anything as a filling. Nowadays rice porridge is the filling number one and potato second but barley, talkkuna, buckwheat, carrot or rutabaga would make them a bit more "authentic" (what a terrible word). They can even have a sweet berry porridge inside. This time I used a simple turnip filling and a crust recipe straight from a flour bag.

The crust:
- 5.5 dl sifted rye flour (if you can only find normal kind you should replace some of it with wheat flour)
- 2 dl water
- 2 teaspoons salt

The rest:
- 1 kg turnip
- white pepper
- 100 g margarine
- 1 dl oat milk

Cook the turnips. Peel and mash them together with the pepper and half the margarine. While the filling cools down, mix the crust ingredients together with your hands. Roll the paste into a thin layer (use extra flour generously so it won't stick). Take circular pieces from the layer with the help of a floured water glass.

Now roll each circle into an oval. Lay a spoonful of turnip mash on it and fold the edges with your index finger and thumb, from both sides simultaneously, pinching "wrinkles" on the filling as you go along. Bake about fifteen minutes in a 275ºC oven.

Melt the rest of the margarine and add the milk into it. Butter the oven-fresh pastries from both sides and lay them into a bowl over each other. Cover with a towel and let them soften up for about an hour.

Serve hot or cold, perhaps together with tar syrup.

Nutritional values / 1785 g:
energy 2084 kcal
fat 82 g
protein 48 g
carbohydrates 284 g
fiber 78 g

Roasted Pumpkin Salad ‒ Paahdettu kurpitsasalaatti

Many younger Finns celebrate Halloween as the carnivalistic feast of the dead in the end of the harvest season. I'm personally not quite sure whether it's a wonderful continuum for the traditional Kekri or an awful supernational thing with only a commercial value. In any case, the best thing about it is that it's easy to acquire cheap pumpkins right in the beginning of December.

This is something I first thought I'd try with turnip but my, either I was hungry as an Ethiopian during a Red Cross strike or this worked just perfectly with pumpkin. Guess I have to check out the turnip version as well.

- 300 g pumpkin
- 200 g smoked tofu (A home imitation of this is easy to make by marinating normal extra firm tofu in tar liqueur or smoked beer.)
- 1 dl smoked almonds or nuts
- 0.5 l sorrel (I used bloody sorrel or viinisuolaheinä)
- 1 large red onion
- 2 tablespoons lingonberry juice
- 1 teaspoon apple wine vinegar
- oil
- salt
- black pepper

Peel the pumpkin and cut it in cubes. Oil a casserole and put the cubes in it. Pour some more oil on the cubes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast them in a 200°C oven until they turn soft and their edges start to turn golden (about 45 minutes). Remember to turn them around every once in a while.

In the meanwhile, chop the onion and sauté half of it. Cut the tofu in cubes as well. Mix all the ingredients. Sprinkle with vinegar-juice mixture. Serve while the pumpkin cubes are still warm.

Nutritional values / 960 g:
energy 1086 kcal
fat 85 g
protein 56 g
carbohydrates 26 g
fiber 19 g

Spruce Syrup ‒ Kuusenkerkkäsiirappi

Somehow I managed to miss the time when birches grew buds. I may have to wait another year to make bud spirits but at least I was right on time collecting those gorgeous light green spring growths (kerkkä) of spruces for syrup. I'm planning to make a second round when they grow red flowers and present yet another flavour, perhaps this time for spruce beer or cough-mixture. Just remember that gathering a tree's annual growth means the tree won't grow its branches that year so you'll need a permission from the land owner.

- 1.5 l spruce shoots
- 2 l water
- 1 kg sugar
(- 1 vanilla pod)

Soak the growths overnight. Cook them in the soaking water for 2 hours under a lid. Filter. Add the sugar to the liquid (plus the vanilla if you want) and cook until the syrup has turned brown and sticky. That should take at least another 2 hours. If the sugar starts to form bubbles that look like pearls you're in the risk of getting a caramel paste (that will soon dry hard and solid). Put the syrup in an airtight glass jar or bottle.

If the syrup should harden in the bottle warm the whole bottle in hot water and add a dollop of water to prevent it from doing the same trick again.

This is unbelievably delicious for example on ice cream or pancakes. Many people like to make drinks out of it. Also try using it in a marinade for turnips or seitan pieces.

(The nutritional values I usually count come pretty much from sugar only.)

Stuffed Turnips ‒ Täytetyt nauriit

Another nice thing to stuff and cook in the grill is turnips. Anything you normally use as a stuffing for baked potato works terrificly with these sweeties as well, only they have more taste of their own. This time I decided to use smoked tofu and tar liquer which both taste like they were designed especially for turnips.

- 1 kg turnips (about 7)
- 270 g smoked tofu
- 1 onion
- 2 dl tar liqueur (or beer and 1 tablespoon dark syrup)
- 50 g soy cheese (or margarine)
- breadcrumbs
- salt
- black pepper
- oil for frying
(fava beans, barley grains, mushrooms...)

Cook the turnips about ten minutes in salty water. Hollow them carefully with a sharp knife and set the scooped out pieces aside. (Some people use them in the stuffing. I find the idea of stuffing turnips with turnips a little dull so I just foil them into the next meal I cook.) Chop the onion and the tofu and sauté them. Add some black pepper and stuck them in the turnips. Pour the liqueur on them. Put a piece of the cheese on each turnip and perfect by sprinkling some breadcrumbs on top. Grill until golden brown.

Nutritional values / 1 turnip (without the liqueur):
energy 154 kcal
fat 8 g
protein 10 g
carbohydrates 11 g
fiber 4 g

Tar Turnips ‒ Tervanauriit

Tar turnips implement pretty much all the ideals of Finnish cuisine. They're extremely simple and transforming, their main tastes are their main ingerients which happen to present Finnishness to an almost iconic level and they're best enjoyed by the campfire with good company.

This is probably the best tasting dish I've ever come up with. I recall I saw the name on some otherwies boring recipe book when leafing through them in a book store. Besides that I could honestly call it my own but then again, it's not that hard to figure out. Here's what you need:

- 1 kg turnips
- 2 dl tar liqueur

If you wish:
- black pepper
- 50 g margarine
- 0.5 dl syrup (Don't use if the liqueur is already sweet. Unless you want a dessert.)
- 50 g blue-style soy cheese

Peel and chop the turnips to sizeable cubes that fit nicely into your mouth. Throw the cubes into a casserole or portion them out into folio pieces. Add the tar liqueur and possible other condiments. Mix up a bit. If you use a casserole cover it with a folio piece and put it into a 200°C oven for at least an hour. Remember to stir from time to time. If you use folio pieces close them well and arrange next to embers (not into a fire). Check occasionally to see when they're done.

Like most root vegetable based dishes, this just keeps getting better and better when you rewarm it. Or you can eat it cold too.

Nutritional values / 1170 g (Again, not counting the tar liqueur since in Finland the label doesn't need to tell anything besides the alcohol percent.)
energy 906 kcal
fat 48 g
protein 17 g
carbohydrates 99 g
fiber 20 g

Rutabaga Kukko ‒ Lanttukukko

Kukkos are a Savoyard and Karelian speciality available with any imaginable filling. The most famous ones I believe are kalakukko (filled with fish), lanttukukko (rutabaga) and mustikkakukko or rättänä (bilberries). If you look the dictionary, you'll find that kukko means cock in the official language. This however isn't official language. The name of the dish refers most likely to kukkaro (wallet), cause the rye cover hides (kätkeä) something.

For my very first lanttukukko I looked help mostly from a kalakukko recipe and another lanttukukko recipe that has a lot of helpful photos about the different stages.

The cover:
- 5 dl water
- 1/2 tbsp salt
- 100 g margarine
- 9 dl rye flour
- 3 dl white flour, for example wheat or spelt

The filling:
- 1 kg rutabaga (actually I used turnip which I find tastier)
- salt
- sugar
- tar liqueur (I'm quite certain beer would work as well)
- margarine
- barley grains (about 2 dl)

Peel and slice the rutabagas. Put the slices into a pot and shake with sugar and salt so the slices start to “sweat”. Mix the cover ingredients and spread it on the table to a circle so that it's diameter is about one metre. The edges should be about one centimetre thick, the centre may be thicker. Spread a thin layer of barley grains in the centre and on it a layer of rutabaga. Also sprinkle salt, tar liqueur, barley grains and margarine on them. Then add the next rutabaga layer and keep going until you've finished all your slices. Top with salt, tar liqueur and margarine. Now you can seal the kukko. Even the cover with wet hands so there are no holes or lumps.

Put it in the 250°C oven for half an hour so the cover hardens up and gets some colour. Lower the heat to 125°C. Wrap the kukko in moist parchment paper and after that into folio. Cook four hours more. When you take the kukko out cover it with towels so the cover won't get hard.

There are different schools in how to eat this thing. Some say you should cut the top open and start eating from the insides. I like to slice it like bread. Either way you'll notice it's a very versatile dish.

Nutritional values / 2700 g
energy 3076 kcal
fat 98 g
protein 116 g
carbohydrates 669 g
fiber 141 g