This summer many of my friends in Sweden bragged about the number of baskets of yellow chanterelles they carried home from the woods. I came home with none. But I smiled along and remembered last year, when I couldn’t carry home all the King Boleteus I stumbled over in the woods. I still have plenty left, dried in big glass jars in my pantry.

But, I got to pick other treasures such as Black Trumpets and Funnel Chanterelles which are both equally delicious.

(read the whole story over at EcoSalon… )

Toast of Trumpets
an appertizer for two

about ½ -1 cup dried Black Trumpets (or Funnel Chanterelles)
*½ cup or more white wine (for example, a dry Riesling)
salt and pepper
about 5-7 sprigs of fresh thyme
butter
one shallot
about ½ cup cream
a small handful of walnuts, toasted and chopped
freshly grated parmesan
sliced baguette, toasted

Soak the dried mushrooms in just enough white wine to cover all the mushrooms for at least 30 minutes until soft. In the meantime, chop the shallot into tiny pieces. Sauté on very low heat with plenty of butter until soft and golden.
Drain the mushrooms and reserve the wine for later. Heat up a dry pan, set the heat to medium and add the mushrooms. If the soaked mushrooms get stuck on the pan, add some of the soaking water, in this case the soaking wine. When the water is gone add a big lump of butter to the pan. Add thyme and sauté the mushrooms until they start to get some color (can be hard to see with black mushrooms). Raise the heat and add the shallots and the rest of the soaking wine. Let simmer and reduce to about half. Add cream and season with salt and pepper. When the cream has thickened divide it equally over the toast. Top with toasted walnuts and freshly grated parmesan. Serve this Trumpet Toast with a simple tomato salad. Enjoy!

If using fresh mushrooms you should skip the soaking part and only add the wine at the end.

* if you are not able to pick Black Trumpets or Funnel Chanterelles yourself, you can find them dried in well-stocked food shops. There are also plenty of online shops that sell them. Other dried mushrooms such as King Bolete work mighty fine as well.

Story and recipe was originally posted at EcoSalon on 26 October 2011.

More mushroom stories on kokblog:
Mushroom Pie (recipe)
Mushrooms (preserves)

My first male guest here on kokblog is Johan Kohnke. Johan is a trained chef and worked for Restaurant Savoy in Malmö for some time. Today Johan has left professional cooking behind him and works with refugees. As Johan still likes to cook he often involves cooking in his job as a way for people from all over the world to get to know each other. Johan and I met years ago through my brother but never really got to know each other until Johan got me some rooks* this summer. The summer had just begun when he showed me his impressive summer project; a 225 square meter vegetable lot.

The Count and the Vegetable Garden
by Johan Kohnke

Divorced, rebooted in life, everything was piss! Desperate! But I found a home through blocket.se (like a Swedish Craigslist), a laborer’s cottage attached to a manor house, a place with history, people and lots of farming. The requirement to move in was that you had to be interested in gardening.

I’m more than interested, my thought was to grow vegetables in the park.
”No, dammit”, my new landlord, the count answered.
The lawn is treated meticulously by the count himself. He cuts the grass several times a week using three different grass-cutters.
“Come here I’ll show you!”
The count thought it was more appropriate – a 100 meter patch behind the pigsty.
”Am I in heaven?” Against the stable wall hung wires that used to hold up blackberries, pears, peaches, that previously were growing along the entire wall. The former gardener used to grow artichokes and had vegetable beds for melons.

I went there with my shovel intending to hand-dig the assigned plot!
“Come with me, there is a plough in the barn! “
In the barn stood a Massey Ferguson 135 with a plough attached.
“But I can’t drive!”
Okay, then I got a short lesson that was faster than you can read this sentence. The soil had been neglected for years, but probably because it was fun to drive a tractor, it took two hours to work the soil!
“Would you like manure?” asked the count.
“Well, damn yes!”
Old pig manure that had been left in the stable and newly “burnt” pig manure was driven out to the plot. Up in the tractor again and now it took just an hour for me to plough down the whole thing. The count looked damn pleased with the earth, when he squeezed a handful of soil in his hand.
“This smells really good, it will be great, here it will grow”. And it has been growing! Before my vacation I almost lost control over the plot, but I didn’t. The reward for all the hard work are my own potatoes, carrots, corn, radishes, dill, onions, spinach, beans and beets in decent quantities. Next year I will double the plot. Then there will be more of everything.

Baked Vegetables
Potatoes are served best cut into quarters, rinsed in a bowl with plenty of water, let it run or change the water a few times so the starch will drain away. Then place the potatoes in a colander to dry. Bake for 30-45 minutes. Peeled carrots and parsnips can be baked in the oven for 20 minutes. Split in half and place on a baking sheet. Dab with olive oil and rosemary before baking.
Splitting a whole garlic in half, brushed with olive oil, is a luxurious treat. Make sure that everyone gets at least half a garlic head each. Beets takes the longest time. According to the rulebook, they should be baked on a bed of salt for almost an hour. It’s tasty!

You can also bake all the vegetables in one go. Trying to cut all the vegetables to the correct size so that they are ready at the same time is almost impossible. But worth a try.
Cut the potatoes into small wedges, slice peeled beets into pennies and halve the parsnips and carrots. Get all the root vegetables mixed together with plenty of olive oil, thyme and rosemary. Bake at 225ºC (440ºF) until the vegetables are baked through and have a great golden brown color (about 30-45 minutes). Fresh summer produce need much less time in the oven than vegetables you buy in the winter. Instead of burnt BBQ-ed meat, when the baking sheet is out of the oven it will be the centerpiece of the table!
Serve with a simple tsatsiki or a ”lazy” mixture of creme fraiche, freshly pressed garlic and salt. Or a piece of plain butter that will melt nicely with the cooked vegetables on the plate.

* The bird rook is an almost forgotten culinary specialty of South Sweden! If cooked together with shallots, celery and wine – it becomes an unforgettable treat.

The other day I made some illustrations for Steen Hanssen‘s article about White Asparagus, or Spargel as you call it in Germany. Steen is a food writer living in Berlin and a weekly contributer for Serious Eats. Like me, he also writes for Honest Cooking, where the current article was published.

Did you know that White Asparagus is dead when the cherries are red or that your pee smells funny after eating them? I always learn something new from Steen’s food stories and best of all they makes me hungry. Steen recommends to eat the asparagus with some cured Schinken, fresh new potatoes and Hollandaise sauce or just plain, simple and buttery!

Read the whole story about Germans culinary spring delicatess here and get hungry like me!

What can be  more foodie underground than making potato pancakes while house squatting in London? The fact is that next door to the Rolling Stones in Chelsea my husband M learned how to make Potato Pancakes. It was during the punk era and M had just been thrown out from home. House squatting was just one way to survive while struggling with his studies at AA.

The recipe is simple: (for two people) Peel two potatoes. Cut them in smaller pieces and mash them in a blender. If the potatoes are to watery you need to squeeze out some of the liquid before adding two small eggs. When the mixture are well blended add some flour and season with salt. Pour about five – six small amounts of batter into a standard frying pan on medium heat. Fry them with some olive oil or butter until they are golden brown, turning once only.

The pancakes can be served with many different things. Back in Chelsea M ate them with just butter and sugar. Today we serve them with a variety of small sides, for example lingonberry jam, freshly grated carrots, sautéed bacon pieces, goat cheese mixed with sour cream and caviar.

Often while I’m cooking I also have a stockpot going. I feed it with bits and pieces of whatever I have at hand. It can be the end of a carrot, a head of a fish or bones from a piece of meat etc. My vegetable stock as described in the diagram, can be made just as shown or together with any kind of meat.  The point is to use the parts of vegetables or meat that you normally don’t eat. However the ingredients must be fresh! With fish I would add some dill stalks and maybe lemon rinds.

I use my stocks to feed risotto, soups, cook beans in or to touch up stews. The use is really endless.

To avoid us going crazy from all the smells in the kitchen while baking duck for Thanksgiving… I made some finger foods for us to nibble on before the bird was ready to serve…

about 12 bite sized pies

for the dough
75 g (2.6 ounces) butter
250 ml (1 cup) flour  regular flour (or whole wheat)
salt
some water

mushroom filling
250 ml (1 cup) of dried porcini mushrooms (or other mushrooms)
one medium sized shallot
butter
thyme
2-3 table spoons medium dry port (or similar)
2 tablespoons sour cream
salt & pepper
parmesan

Mix the dough ingredients together and let rest for a while in the fridge. Grease a mini muffin pan or small cake tin molds with butter. You may prefer to roll the dough out but I take one portion at a time and, with my bare hands, flatten them out to fit the tiny molds. How many you get depends on the size of the molds you’re using (I had some dough left over that can be used for something else). Pre-bake the shells 10-15 min at 200°C (392 F). Let cool.

Soak the dried mushrooms in cold water for about 30 minutes to an hour. The mushrooms should be ready when they’ve softened. Chop the shallot into tiny pieces and sauté in butter at low heat until soft and golden. Put aside for later. Drain the mushrooms and keep the liquid for later use*. Chop the mushrooms in smaller pieces and sauté in a dry pan on medium heat. If they’re too dry in the beginning you may add some of the soaking water. Sprinkle some salt over and when all the water has disappeared its time to start feeding with butter, thyme, the sautéed shallots and later on the port. When the alcohol has dissolved add some spoons of sour cream. The mushroom filling should be a little thick but not too thick. Add some of the soaking liquid to make it slightly thinner. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool.

Fill the pie shells and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle some parmesan on top and bake for another 10 minutes. Let the pies cool a little before popping them out of the mold. I served mine as finger food with bubbly. However, they work perfectly well as a starter with an arugola & walnut salad.

*I use the  remaining liquid for mushroom stews, stocks, noodle soups and whatever I will be cooking in the next few days. This time I used some in the duck stock .

For this tomato sauce you can either use fresh or canned tomatoes. If you use canned tomatoes I recommend that you to buy a good quality brand.  There are so many bad canned tomatoes out there, they should be banned. Here are some of my favorites: Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes, Mutti Cherry Tomatoes and the Swedish brand Willy’s Cherry Tomatoes or their organic whole tomatoes (only sold in Sweden).

This ancho rich tomato sauce is fantastic with pasta, especially with mozzarella and basil. Topped with cilantro it’s perfect for tacos and black beans. I often use either version instead of ketchup for sausages. Its definitely not the same thing but I kind of prefer it.

I can’t say I’m an expert in mushrooms and mushroom-picking but I am pretty good. I started learning as a child by picking together with my father, who could spot ceps (porcinos) while driving the car, and my mother who would also pick berries. Today I pick mostly mushrooms that are quite safe; they are easy to recognize and don’t have many poison look-alikes.

Here are some cooking and preserving tips:

Fresh Mushrooms
Clean the mushrooms with a brush and a knife. (I use runing water only if they are really sandy or dirty). Chop the mushrooms into smaller pieces. In a dry pan place the mushrooms and let them cook in their own liquid on medium heat (only add some water if the mushrooms are too dry). Let the liquid slowly cook into the mushrooms. Only when the mushrooms are dry can you add some butter. Keep feeding the mushrooms with more and more butter and season with salt, thyme and just a touch of pepper (optional).  I like my mushrooms well cooked and  little crispy.

You can stop cooking here and just serve the buttery mushrooms on toast. However this lovely mushroom can easily be used in risotto, as a side for meat or together with pasta (I make a really flavorful version of Carbonara with bacon and mushrooms). Together with cream spiced with, for example, dry sherry, they are lovely in stews, sauces, pies or lasagna etc.

I often use thyme as it really works well with most mushrooms. Its mild and doesn’t overpower the flavor of the mushroom. But there are plenty of other herbs and tasty ingredients that work just as well. For instance, rosemary works great with portabella, fresh fennel is lovely w/ Ceps  and juniper w/ Funnel Chanterelles.

Dried Mushrooms
Mushrooms that are good to dry are, among others, the Boletus family (with my favorites Cep and Bay Bolete), Funnel Chanterelle, black trumpets and morels (another favorite but which I know too little about to pick).

Clean the mushrooms with a brush and a knife. Ceps and most mushrooms can be cut smaller with a knife into 1/4″ pieces. Don’t cut them too small as they shrink a bit when drying. Funnel chantarelles and trumpets you can just tear in half or thirds depending on how big they are.

The best way to dry the goodies are to let them get as much dry air as possible. However if you live small it works to dry them on baking paper and turn them around now and again. Try not to use newspaper as the mushrooms will soak up some of the printing ink.  I use a thin net curtain that I hang as a hammock so air can come from all sides. Its also works well to dry on low heat (max 50°C) in a convection oven.  It takes between 1-5 days to dry depending on which method you use and you will have an insane smell of mushrooms in your home. The mushrooms have to be totally dry before storing. I store dried mushrooms in glass jars placed in a dark cupboard. Some say they have to be in a paper bag but then they need to be stored in a very dry place. The mushrooms can be stored like this for years.

Cooking:  Soak dried mushrooms for at least 30 minutes – one hour until soft. Drain and reserve the mushroom water for later. The water can also be used in stocks and soups. Sauté the soaked mushrooms in a dry pan on medium heat with some of the soaking water. When dry start feeding with butter. Season w/ salt, thyme and just a touch of pepper (optional). They are done when they are tender and have just started to brown.

Frozen Mushrooms
I don’t think that drying Chanterelles is a great method as they lose their aroma and also tend to get a little bitter. The best way to preserve Chanterelles is to freeze them. My mother also freezes mushrooms from the Boletus family which both me and my sister prefer to dry. Other mushrooms that freeze well are the Wood Hedgehog and species of the Russula family (which I rarely pick).

Clean the mushrooms with a brush and a knife and cut them into smaller pieces. Saute in a dry pan in their own liquid until dry. Don’t add any butter as the butter will shorten their sustainability in the freezer. Freeze the mushrooms in small portions. When its time to use them, defrost before cooking and saute in a pan with plenty of butter. Season with salt and thyme.

There are of course other ways to preserve and cook mushrooms but this is how I’m used to do it. Enjoy!

one head of cauliflower
olive oil
fresh basil and oregano
garlic
handful of hazelnuts
salt and pepper
juice from ½ lemon

grated parmesan

Rinse the cauliflower and break up the florets into smaller pieces. Place them steams down in one layer on an oven dish. Chop basil and oregano finely and mix with olive oil, minced garlic and chopped hazelnut. Season with salt, pepper and some lemon juice. Pour mixture over the cauliflower and blend together. Let soak for 15 minutes. Bake in the oven at 400°F (just over 200°C) until al dente. Sprinkle a rich amount of grated parmesan on top. Serve immediately.

Some may think its silly to grow your own sorrel when you have it growing wild just around the corner. Well in Sweden they warn you not to eat the wild sorrel as it contains too much oxalic acid to be healthy. I don’t think that’s a worry when it comes to the milder cultivated sorrel, but I’m not sure.

Anyway this pesto was one of my absolute favorites last summer. For some unknown reason I  forgot to post it until now. However sorrel is in some places in season again so here it is.

about 2 cups (about ½ liter) of young Cultivated Sorrel leaves
2 garlic cloves
a hand full of walnuts
fresh red chili to your own taste (I used about ½” = 1.3 cm)
½ cup (100 ml) grated parmesan
olive oil
a few sprigs of parsley (optional)
season with: salt and pepper

I picked about 2 cups of very young Cultivated Sorrel leaves. Rinse the leaves in cold water and drain while you prepare the other ingredients. Chop the walnuts and the chili a little. Grate the Parmesan roughly.
When the sorrel is dry, run them in the food processor (or use a mortar and pestle). Add chopped garlic and run the machine a bit before adding chili, walnuts,  (parsley) and parmesan. Drizzle some olive oil over. Blend the mixture carefully as it should have a crunchy texture. If necessary add some more olive oil. Season with salt and fresh pepper. Serve the pesto as an appetizer on crackers. I also think the sourness in this pesto works terrificly well with fish.

This pesto is also a great summer present, especially when you have a garden like mine where sorrel or lettuce grows much better than most flowers.