MUSHROOM RISOTTO WITH FUNNEL CHANTERELLES

Happiness is to have souvenirs from Finland. My parents visited Kosovo couple of weeks ago and brought, of course, a bag full of souvenirs to their daughter. Among many things, the bag included rye flour, rye and unleavened barley bread, cardamom for buns and spices to make Christmas cookies.

In addition to breads and spices, I also received two bags of my favorite mushrooms, the funnel chanterelles. With their absolutely delicious taste it is very easy to make a tasty pasta sauce or use them for a mushroom pie. Or like I did now, make a risotto!

Before you do anything with the risotto, check the most important thing: is there enough white wine. Risotto is a food that should not be made or eaten without white wine. And, of course, you have to put some of the white wine also to the risotto during the cooking process.

Ingredients. As you can see I used spring onion.
It gives a nice color to the risotto!

 MUSHROOM RISOTTO WITH FUNNEL CHANTARELLES

• 3 tbls olive oil
• 2 tbls butter
• 3 dl risotto rice
• 2 female handfuls of dried funnel chantarelles
• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 dl vegetable stock
• 1 dl cream
• 3 dl white wine (half for you, half for the risotto)
• 1 dl grated parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

First, pour yourself a glass of white wine and enjoy.

Prepare the vegetable stock by, for example, putting a vegetable bouillon cube into boiling water.

Sauté the rice and minced onions with oil and one tbls of butter. Add one dl of vegetable stock. Stir until half of the liquid is gone. Add another dl of vegetable stock and one dl of white wine. Let the rice cook with mild heat. Stir all the time.

Add the rest of the vegetable stock and white wine. Crush the dried mushrooms in your hands and add to the risotto. Continue to poach the risotto with mild heat.

When all the liquid is absorbed, add cream and continue to poach again. Stir the grated parmesan, spices and 1 tbls of butter into the risotto and let it rest for a while. Your risotto is done!

If you have a possibility to find fresh thyme, add that to your risotto! It makes a good combination with mushrooms.

NB! In case you use fresh mushrooms, sauté them with the onions first. Then add the rice and continues as indicated at the instructions above.   

Ready to eat!

Q: WHERE TO SHOP INGREDIENTS FOR A FINNISH MEAL? A: IN SKOPJE

A shared friend of all the members of the Academic Karelian Pie Association visited Skopje, Macedonia, recently. Upon her arrival she shared the good news with us: There's a shopping center in Skopje where one can find all sorts of exciting ingredients for Finnish and international cooking. There's rye flour, malt, sea weed, ready-made Asian sauces and tahini on the shelves. Happiness is a supermarket with a good variety of products and friends who share the information having found such a place.

Dear reader in Prishtina or nearby. In case you happen to find yourself in a situation of being in need of Finnish or Asian (including Near Eastern) delicacies, go to Skopje. (And take us with you!) The address is Vero Market (Skopje Gradski Trgovinski Centr, at the basement). There's also an organic shop at the second floor, that sells organic rye flour (500g/0,80eur).

So, it seems one can buy almost anything in Kosovo what a Finn may need. However, a Finn needs to be prepared to take some time for searching for that special product or ingredient. Nothing comes easy and all takes a bit more work - you simply need to keep on asking around, triangulate the information received and not stop before the same reply keeps on reappearing from more than one source. You need to spend time small talking, discussing, searching for clues and information and all info that is worth of anything will come to you by word of mouth, whether it's about the location of a newly opened restaurant, shopping or travelling. A Finn who's grown up in a society that values silent efficiency needs to assimilate.

So - we owe big time to our friend sharing the details on her shopping spree in Skopje. She's certainly distinguished herself and will be later granted a special medal of honour of the Academic Karelian Pie Association.

MARINATED BELL PEPPERS

One of the biggest compliments I've received when down in Kosovo is the statement made by colleagues that "I'm getting more Balkan". Now it's time to get more Balkan in the kitchen.

The recipe is really simple, but what makes this dish all the more special for me is the fact that I got the recipe from a local friend. The taste.. is amazing. You can get this dish or something similar in most kebaptores and restaurants down here, too, but when your friend's mother has been the one marinating the bell peppers, the taste is something special. 

Step 1. Buy bell peppers. Green, red, yellow. Roast the bell peppers in oven, in ca. 200degrees C around 20 minutes - until they're getting soft and a bit brown here and there.

Step 2. Peel the bell peppers. Take some garlic, place the cloves and the peppers in a deep dish, and add some good quality olive oil. Be liberal with the oil. You can also add some pepper and salt.

Step 3. Put the peppers in the fridge. Wait and let them marinate a couple of days.


Step 4. Enjoy the marinated bell peppers with some cheese, bread, home made Kosovar wine or rakija. Remember that the best things are always very simple.

"DIDN'T GO AS I PLANNED"-APPLE TART

There is a saying in Finland “didn’t go as in Strömsö” which might not open up to you if you have never seen the TV-show Strömsö. Anyway, as you might guess, the meaning behind of this saying lies in failing. You see an interesting recipe, you try it, and you fail. Nice, isn’t it?

We had a great plan to make some tart, drink sparkling wine and enjoy the Saturday evening. The wine disappeared quite quickly; however, our apple tart was just confusing.  The failure in this baking-event was that we tried to make nice cupcake size apple tarts but the tart came out looking like small mushroom pie.

The visual output of any food, as well as the smell of them, is a major part of the experience. Therefore, if you see something that you associate immediately with mushrooms, it is quite confusing when the product itself tastes like apple tart.     

The taste of the tart was quite nice still and anything in a size of a cupcake is always cute. So if you want to try it yourself, and improve the visual output, here’s the recipe.

Cupcake apple tart (12 piece)

• 100 g butter
• 1 dl sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 dl wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

For the filling:

• 1 big apple
• cinnamon
• 250 g sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1-2 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

Warm the butter till room temperature. Froth the butter and sugar. Add egg. 

Add the flour and baking powder and mix. Divide the dough 12 cupcake tins.

For the filling: Dice the apples for small pieces and marinade them in cinnamon. (However, the dices seems to be the main point of confusing the tart with mushrooms, so maybe you want to try something else) Put the apples on top of the dough.

Mix the sour cream (you can also use cream cheese), egg and sugars together and pour it on top of the apples.

Bake in 200 Celcius for 30 minutes.