This is the recipe I’ve been waiting all year to share with you – waiting for there to be fresh wild mushrooms – popping out of the ground everywhere so that you’d be picking them and wondering how to use them up.

This is the mushroom pie to beat all mushroom pies.  I had it first at our friends’ house in Karja, Finland – simultaneous with an introduction to my now-favorite fall mushroom:  the Yellow Foot Chanterelle, known in Finland as the Suppilovahvero.

This mushroom pie is so easy to make – but looks glorious sitting all crispy, brown and handsome in the pie pan, served up by itself or with a side salad for dinner.  I’ve baked it again and again at home for a simple winter evening meal for J & I and to serve to friends to supplement lively conversation and table side story telling.  I imagine you can use most any forest mushroom – I have made it, in addition to the original Yellow Foot Chanterelle version, with a mixture of Black Trumpet (Mustatorvisieni), Yellow Foots and Porcini (Herkkutatti), and not been disappointed either.  I’ve supplemented the mushrooms with both steamed nettles (nokkonen) and shredded steamed cabbage (kaali) – both fabulous additions.  I tend to use a mild cheese:  Edam, Emmental, Mozzarella – so as not to detract from the flavors of the mushrooms, though once with straight Black Trumpets I added soft goat cheese with great success.

Play around – that’s part of the joy of cooking.  But before you get too creative with your experiments, though, I encourage you to try this basic & fantastic version first.  I’ve made a few tweaks to the original filling recipe though not to the crust, which I love for it’s crunchy oats and the genius of the shredded carrot.  I tend to make my pies in a deep American-style pie dish, so my filling yields a greater volume than Ilpo’s original.  If you want slightly less volume, eliminate one egg and 1/2 cup (1 dl) milk from the filling recipe.

Ilpo’s Mushroom Pie

Preheat oven to 225°C / 440°F

Crust:
Combine in a medium-sized bowl:
2 medium-sized carrots, grated
1/2 cup / 1dl flour
1/2 cup / 1 dl oatmeal flakes (kaurahiuteleitä)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Add:
1/2 cup / 100 g butter, melted

Stir to form a thick, sticky dough.  Press the dough onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9″/24cm deep-dish pie pan (you can use a larger, flat tart pan as well).  Bake the crust in the oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove the crust from the oven and reduce the oven heat to 200°C / 400°F

Filling:
Heat in a frying pan:
2 tablespoons olive oil. 

Add and cook until tender, about 5 minutes:
1 cup / 2 dl fresh wild mushrooms (if dry, soak in hot water for 5 minutes and measure 3/4 cup / 1.5 dl)
1/4 cup / 1/2 finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh parsley

Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium size bowl combine:
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups / 4 dl milk
1 cup / 2 dl shredded mild cheese (Emmental, Edam or Mozzarella)
3/4 – 1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Mushroom pie with nettles

Spoon the mushroom mixture onto the crust and spread it out evenly.  Pour the wet mixture over the mushrooms, filling it to the rim.  Don’t worry if the wet mixture spills over the crust – often the crust shrinks when baking, but this isn’t an issue.

Place the pie into the oven and bake for 30 – 35 minutes until the pie is puffed up in the middle and golden brown.  Remove from oven and allow the pie to rest for 10 minutes.  Serve with a side salad.

Serves 4-6, depending on your appetites.

Do you ever get a craving for hot chocolate?  I know I do – and it starts as soon as the weather starts to cool down, the days get shorter and the rains begin to fall incessantly – beating heavily against my windows as they are now, slapping and dripping against what is left of the leaves on the trees and reminding me that we are approaching the seasonal change from Autumn into Winter.

I love chocolate – dark chocolate – so the drinkable version is really something to smile about.  Of course you can buy a can of powdered hot chocolate mix from your favorite store, add water or milk, heat, stir, and be perched on your sofa with a steaming mug of hot chocolate in just a few minutes.  It might even make you fairly happy.

But not as happy as this chocolate decadence – and you probably already have all of the ingredients you need in order to make it in your house.  I’ll post a recipe for Homemade Marshmallows later, but for now, get yourself started with this.

Serves two, or just you all by yourself with a good book and one big steaming cup filled to the brim.  Who could blame you?  You may just owe it to yourself…

Simply Perfect Hot Chocolate

2 cups / 4 dl of milk (I use 2% / kevytmaito)

2 heaping tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 oz / 25g dark chocolate, grated or chopped very fine (I use a Microplane)
1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar / farina sokeri
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (if you are using vanilla sugar, start with one teaspoon and taste, adding more if needed)
1 pinch of sea salt (use your fingers to pinch the right amount)

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan.  Heat over medium heat, stirring briskly with a wire whisk, until the chocolate is well incorporated and the mixture begins to steam.  Taste.  Add a little more brown sugar if the mixture is not sweet enough for you.  Divide into two small mugs.  Top with a Homemade Marshmallows if desired.  If you can’t find marshmallows, then a dollop of whipped cream or a spoonful of vanilla ice cream make mighty fine stand-ins.

Enjoy.

Zucchini.  Courgette. Kesäkurpitsa.

Whatever it is that you call it, everywhere you look right now, you’ll see zucchini for sale or for free:  giant green zucchini, left too long on the vine and now the size of an adult man’s calf; sweet yellow patty pan squash, reminiscent of a distant UFO; sunny long yellow ones, cheerful green and white striped: both long and round.  Zucchini is yours for the taking, but what do you do with it?  Here in Finland there are an abundance of recipes on how to cook zucchini as part of a savory dish.  My current favorite is the one my father-in-law made us last weekend:  A large zucchini, sliced in half lengthwise, soft center carved out.  The center meat (seeds etc) was then chopped up and added to a mixture of cooked ground beef, onions, and chanterelles, seasoned well with salt, pepper and italian seasoning, and stuffed back into the zucchini shell, topped with grated mozzarella, and baked in the oven for 45 minutes.  He served it with Blackcurrant jam and the whole thing was delicious and satisfying.

But sometimes savory zucchini is something you just don’t want to eat anymore.  Not that it tastes bad, but because, as William Cowper said “Variety is the spice of life – that which gives it all it’s flavor”.  So for variety’s sake and mine, I turned to a childhood favorite – a method of cooking zucchini up into bread.  I actually don’t know why it’s called “Zucchini Bread” any more than I understand the terms “Pumpkin Bread” or “Banana Bread”, because if we are honest with ourselves, they are truly CAKE meekly disguised as bread by cooking them in loaf pans so the shape deceives the diner into believing the myth.  These “breads” are something you serve with a cup of coffee or tea, not with a slice of cheese, tomato and a leaf of fresh lettuce.

Nope.  Zucchini Cake it is, and I love it.

I started a search for recipes – I wanted something that at least approached a healthier version of the bread, and maybe, just maybe, had a little chocolate.  So I tweaked and combined ideas from a few recipes, put it together in about 15 minutes, shoved it in the oven, and went off to do something else for 50 minutes. The results were good.  Very good.  And J announced “I love this!  This might be the best cake thingy you’ve ever made!”  Kiitos.  Thank you.  Danke Schön.  I’ll share it with my friends, then.

So here you go, friends:  Zucchini Cake with a little lemon, a little rosemary, and big chocolate chunks.  Bon Appetit!

Zucchini Loves Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350°F / 175°C.  Lightly oil (use olive or vegetable oil) a 9″ square baking pan and set aside.  Alternatively, you can use two, greased loaf pans.

1. Wash and dry a medium size zucchini.  Grate it, including the peel (kuori) on a box grater until you have 3 cups / 6 dl.  Set aside.

2.  Roughly chop a 100g gram bar of dark baking chocolate and set aside.  You can also use 1 cup / 2dl of semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I think the chocolate chunks actually taste better here.

In a large bowl, combine:
1 1/2 cups / 3 dl flour
1 cup / 2 dl emmer (farro) flour
1/2 cup / 1 dl graham flour (graham maalais vehnäjauho)
1 1/4 cup / 2,5 dl white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh rosemary

In a small bowl combine:
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup / 1,5 dl extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest.

Pour the egg mixture over the flour mixture.  Add the zucchini and the chocolate chunks and mix thoroughly until all the dough is well incorporated.  It will be very thick, but don’t worry about that – the zucchini has a lot of moisture in it and the end product will be perfect.

Pour the batter into your pan, or divide between two loaf pans if using.  Press the dough down into the pan and smooth the top with a spoon.  Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove from pan to a cooling rack to cool completely.

20 servings