Vegetarian Dishes | Finding Feasts

Pine mushroom Okonomiyaki

Pine mushroom Okonomiyaki came about after a lovely forage with our first tour for the year. It’s always fun coming up with new recipes to use these glorious mushrooms in.

This is a Japanese pancake and can have any ingredients you want… this is up there with some of the best ever fridge clearer meals you will make.

The best way to serve Saffron Milk Cap Mushrooms is by keeping the flavours simple and clean. A quick sauté to get some caramelisation on them bumps the flavour up enormously.

Happy foraging! Blondie

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Tippaleipä – Finnish Funnel Cakes

Finding Feasts | Finnish Funnel Cake — Click image for Tippaleipä – Finnish Funnel Cakes recipe

Tippaleipä – Finnish Funnel Cakes… Every year I have been meaning to get these up on the website and every year I miss the 1st of May by a day. But not this year! Here it is, finally.

The 1st of May is a huge event in Finland; it marks the beginning of spring (amongst other things) with large festivities in the towns and cities. Lots of drinking and lots of food is consumed from May Day Eve (it’s as big as Christmas for the Finns). It’s a time for friends, family, students, workmates to get together and party.

These deep fried fritters are consumed by the truckload and are perfect street food. One hand holds a fritter, the other hand holds a glass of Sima – a Finnish fermented lemon drink. With their slightly crispy outside, they are soft and warm inside with a dusting of icing that looks like snow sitting on an odd shaped snowflake.

But who needs a party?… These take but moments to whip up and only moments to devour.

Happy Vappu! Blondie 🙂

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Leek & Potato Soup w/ Onion Puree

Leek & Potato Soup w/ Onion Puree and Caramelised Onion Oil is heaven sent when you’ve got a cold.

As my boy is home sick from school with a cold today, I did the motherly thing and made some soup. Nothing is better than a piping hot bowl of soup to make you feel all warm and toasty on the inside.

This is my basic recipe for one of the food world’s most enduring partnerships … leek and potatoes. It’s also a fantastic canvas for experimenting with added flavours, which is why the onion puree has been introduced, which in turn produced an amazing by-product of the Caramelised Onion Oil that just had to be included in it.

Having come across a puree recipe from Chef Steps a little while ago, I was eager to incorporate it into a dish, and this was perfect. The Onion Puree is super simple to make, just bung some onions into a hot oven with some oil and salt and roast for 2 hours. The end result is incredibly sweet onions melting inside their skins. This gets pureed and voila, a tasty element to add to soups, risottos, aioli etc. But, what go me so excited was the left over oily, caramelised, sweet and salty juices left in the baking dish – Oh my! You really have to make this for yourself.

Happy sopping – Blondie 🙂

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Taco & Fajita Seasoning – Big Batch

Taco and Fajita Seasoning – Big Batch is a one for all recipe, perfect for someone who can’t decide between taco’s or fajita’s for dinner.

If you are whipping up a batch of taco’s you really don’t need to alter this recipe at all, but if you want to make fajita’s with grilled meat you can then add a big squeeze of lime juice at the end.

Although there is a difference in the two recipes, when you are at home and just really want to have the punch of flavour of Mexican food this is a must to have on hand.

Happy Mexican feasting – Blondie 🙂

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Amazing Coconut Roughs

Amazing Coconut Roughs… These are truly amazing little treats to have on hand for when you need a little energy boost… and fantastic for primary schools as they are free from most things that some kids are intolerant to – There is always one kid that can’t have gluten or eggs or sugar etc, in a class and it’s a shame that they always miss out on treats.

I will definitely be making them into little egg moulds for Easter this year!

Guilt free eating – Blondie 🙂

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Traditional Finnish Gingerbread Biscuits – Piparkakut

Traditional Finnish Gingerbread Biscuits – Piparkakut … If I were to choose one thing that is significantly Christmas to me, and for most Finns I would assume it would have to be the mounds of gingerbread biscuits that come out at this time of year.

My Nana has always been the one to stock the family with these delicious, spice laden, thin crispy biscuits. She would have tins of them, and knowing how much my sister and I loved them, would keep a continual stock of them throughout the year that we would have with coffee along with other lovely sweets.

I recently acquired a Finnish cookbook published in 1966, Kotiruoka by Uusi Laitos (translates to Home Cooking or something very similar) This is Nana’s and has been well thumbed through. It has nine different recipes for gingerbread cookies… NINE!

The Finnish/Nordic way is to have them neat, no fancy icing decorations and the shapes are simple hearts, stars and a scalloped circle… although I have, in the last several years, started a little tradition with my son and we now decorate large cookies cut from my gorgeous Donna Hay Christmas Bauble Cookie Cutters. The large size means the cookies can be intricately decorated and look stunning (my son channels Jackson Pollock when decorating these)

This amount makes about 50 cookies depending on the size of your cutters, but believe me they will disappear, and very quickly! Going with the FinSki’s theme for edible gift ideas, package them up in little bags or old biscuit tins and give them as gift.

Hyvaa joulua! Blondie

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Simple Small Batch Aioli

Simple Small Batch Aioli – Mayonnaise is one of those amazing condiments that is used in countries all around the world to add flavour or smoothness to their dishes. Aioli is basically garlic mayonnaise (although the true way of making this is to pound the oil and garlic in a mortar and pestle – no egg is added) but you can use any number of different ingredients to make your own flavoured mayonnaise.

The reason I like this small batch recipe is because I will never get through a cup or more of homemade aioli within a week. This is just the right amount to use on some sandwiches or on toast with poached eggs on the weekend.

If you are feeling adventurous you can add some fresh herbs or throw in some hot smoked paprika or any other spice to complement your meal, maybe add a mustard. Use lemon instead of vinegar, or use a different vinegar, maybe a fruit vinegar… the combinations are endless.

Let your creativity out! – Blondie 🙂

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